Businesses across the globe are putting new policies and approaches in place to continue operating and to keep people safe amidst the Covid19 pandemic. This article provides a few pointers on how businesses can use digital technology to deal with Covid19.

Homeworking:

Chances are that most businesses will require more people to work from home. This presents four immediate challenges:

1. Do employees and partners have access to the relevant hardware? This includes, laptops, and smart phones. If not, you will need to look to supply the appropriate hardware to effected employees.
2. Do employees have access to the right applications and information from their hardware? Can they access software and information over the cloud, through applications like Google or Microsoft 365 or do they have to be on a physical network?
3. Do your employees have good enough broadband connectivity? Remember that there could be other people working from home as well as a few kids gaming online due to a school closure. Are you able to upgrade broadband for them or cover the cost of upgrading?
4. Having more people working remotely presents security challenges – this article on Cybersecurity for small businesses will provide some pointers.

Continuing conversations and collaboration:

Conversations are an important by-product of collocation, they lead to ideas, coordination and effective team spirit. Email is not the place to try to facilitate conversations. A few easy to implement ideas include:

• Utilise technology and apps that people already have and are familiar with such as WhatsApp. Set up team groups so that they can share ideas, insights, ask questions and have a quick face-to-face video call.
• Use collaboration tools such as Slack or Trello to communicate, coordinate and collaborate on projects.
• Use video conferencing and the web to facilitate training and events. Several technology companies such as Google and Microsoft are making advanced features available to businesses for free as part of their wider response to the Covid19 pandemic.
• When introducing these new applications people must be clear on which applications are to be used and for which purpose, the types of information that can and cannot be shared and stored.

Continuing to deliver your products and services:

• Consider which physical touchpoints could be replaced with digital touchpoints? How can you use video conferencing, chatbots, automation to service customers? 
• Remember that using digital technology to communicate with customers doesn’t have to come at the cost of a personal experience.
• Are there any innovations, could you use Augmented Reality to better demonstrate your products or deliver training and events?

Monitor measure and control:

One of the major issues that leaders have with remote working is the loss of visibility and control. Just seeing that people are sat at their desks provides some tangible comfort. Introducing or making better use of existing Enterprise Resource Planning or Customer Relationship Management software can help to provide better visibility of what’s going on across the business and how well its resources are performing across the customer journey. 

Our Digital Technology Experts are here to help

Businesses in the Humber LEP area can access valuable expertise from our team of Digital Technology Experts. To speak to one of the team call 01482 686 700 or email digitalcatalyst@winningmoves.com or click here for more information. 

This Blog was by Winning Moves LTD

Stay safe!!