How Microsoft Is Helping Remote Workers

Over the past few weeks, more and more employees are working from home. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, state governments and businesses have been demanding that their employees work from home. We are right there with them! This lessens the chances of getting sick as well as flattening the curve. While many businesses had to rethink resources that would help their employees perform their job, others had Microsoft help their remote employees.

If you are a business leader, chances are you had to reassess what resources could be used to help your employees transition to remote working. Along with reassessing, you might have asked yourself one of the following, if not all:

1. “What will my employees need to access while remote in order to complete their job?”
2. “How can they access these resources?”
3. “If my employees were to work off-site right now, do I have the solutions in place to do so?”
4. “Can I assure my clients that worker productivity will not decline?”

Enabling a team to work remotely can be a challenge, and this challenge can be different for every organization. Working from home can open doors to unwanted visitors. It is important to use tools that will help minimize the chances of your organization being breached. Microsoft has IT solutions that will deliver the proper mobile capabilities for small to mid-sized businesses. These capabilities will enable a remote workforce for many organizations. While many businesses are not aware of the cloud capabilities available to them, Microsoft is taking the next step and ensuring that businesses are informed. Microsoft has security procedures in place because using these solutions in a secure manner is always a concern. Microsoft is also offering virtual education opportunities for individuals to thoroughly understand and fully apply the solutions in order to work from home.

Here are the most popular Microsoft cloud-based tools available for running your business during this time:

Microsoft Cloud-Based tools:

Office 365 Business – Accessing recourses and sharing files has never been easier. This cloud-based service permits users’ access to what they need when they need it.

SharePoint- With SharePoint, employees can collaborate on work files and projects away from their office. This tool ensures consistency and easy collaboration amongst employees.

OneDrive- OneDrive allows businesses to save their files to the cloud and can access them from any device and any location with an internet connection. This tool is a big help when sharing flies while working remotely.

Microsoft Teams- Teams is a communication platform that permits employees to make calls, chat, create groups, conduct meetings, video conferencing, and much more. This tool also has a useful feature that allows users to blur their background, if they believe it may be a distraction, while on a video conference call.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)- MFA is a security system that verifies a user’s identity by requiring multiple credentials. Working from the office is risky enough and having remote workers can open the door to unwanted visitors. Setting up MFA will allow employees, and only employees, to access necessary resources without being worried.