10 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM SUPPORTING REMOTE WORKERS
Cobalt has been managing and supporting remote workers for 10 years and we have compiled a list below of the guidelines to help remote workers based on actual tickets generated with our Support Team during this period. Many of these may seem obvious to an experienced teleworker, but for the worker forced to now work from home for the first time, they will be a welcome guide.
- BROADBAND
- KNOW YOUR PASSWORDS
- KNOW THE APPLICATIONS YOU USE
- LAPTOP CHARGER
- DESK LOCATION
- OFFLINE FILES
- WORK TRUMPS TV & GAMING
- PRINTERS
- WINDOWS UPDATES
- ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN
Use your home fixed line broadband (WiFi) before using mobile tethering. Your WiFi is generally more stable than the 4G or 3G mobile network. In addition, the latter is likely to be saturated due to the current heavy home use
Make sure you know your Home WiFi password as well as all system and application passwords. You may end up using a different laptop or PC where all your passwords are not automatically saved
Make sure you have the right applications and collaboration tools set up to allow you work from home, especially if you have just been handed a new laptop by the IT Department
Make sure you bring home your laptop charger and not just your laptop, especially if you normally connect to a docking station in the office!
Where possible, set your desk up relatively close to your WiFi router to ensure you are receiving the best signal
Sync the files you really need offline and be prepared to work on your desktop if Internet connectivity is unavailable
If all the family are at home during the day, try to limit use of Netflix and online gaming over WiFi by other family members, as this will impact on the quality of your connection for applications such as Teams, Zoom and Webex. This is especially important if you need to conduct a lot of video calls
Connect your home printer so that you can print any necessary documents that you may need to review and mark up. Make sure that you select the home printer when printing as it will not be set as the Default Printer. Your home printer may also need to be directly connected to your laptop via a cable if it is not WiFi enabled
Carry out the requested Windows updates, even if these may take a little time (You can always postpone these updates for a few hours when you receive the notification)
And finally……….
Have a Plan B and maybe even a Plan C, especially around Internet connectivity. Be familiar with connecting to your WiFi network, but also tethering from your mobile phone or using a 4G dongle. The mobile phone networks suffered outages last week and the broadband networks may also come under pressure at times over the next few weeks
In the event of a problem, before contacting your IT support helpdesk:-
- Try to restart your PC/laptop (whether it is for slow Internet connectivity, a printer that does not work or any other issue)
- Make sure you are entering the correct password
- If this does not work, go to the Office 365 site (https://www.office.com) to check if the solution to the problem can be found there (especially for access to Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, Skye or Teams)
Cobalt Technology has an established Multilingual Support desk covering 25 European Countries which can collaborate with your IT team to supplement your resources and extend your reach and capacity to support ALL Remote Workers
How Can Cobalt Help?
- Bespoke Service
- Capacity on demand to cope with inevitable spikes in end user support requirements
- No call too small – Printer setup, WiFi access
- No call too big – VPN access, Multifactor Authentication
- Support for Office365, Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Power BI
- Support for remote call/video apps including MS Skype, Teams, Zoom, BlueJeans,Webex, etc
- The right resources in the right place at the right time
- Pay as you go consumption billing model
- Pay per user per month or per call or whatever works for you
- We have a highly available team with flexible hours of cover that is Tried and Tested.
The Cobalt team are no strangers to working remotely themselves to provide uninterrupted support services regardless of snow, building closures etc
- Great references and testimonials