Working from home (WFH) is becoming more and more common thanks to advances in technology. Employees nowadays have the ability to work from home as part of their contract, on days they are sick, taking care of family, or in unforeseen circumstances when the office becomes inaccessible.
Whilst the opportunity to work from home is great, it is important that you and employees have the right tools and software in place to ensure that company objectives are still met, and business continues as normal. This is especially true when unforeseen circumstances mean you or members of your team need to be out of the office for an extended period.
Divert 01/02 numbers to landlines and mobiles
For any business, it’s important to be able to manage business calls for both sales purposes and to maintain a good level of customer service. There might be circumstances when you need calls answered around the clock or are expecting an important client phone call but need to be out of the office. What if you’re regularly out of your office or unforeseen circumstances mean you, and your staff, must work remotely? To avoid missing any phone calls, being able to divert your business number/s to another landline or mobile phone is crucial.
Telecoms World have over 2 million business phone numbers to choose from, and when teamed with a Call Routing solution, you can have complete peace of mind that every business call will be answered. Our cutting-edge service allows designated users to login online and manage where and when calls are answered throughout the week. Call routing is entirely responsive, and cloud-based, meaning that the plan can be edited and saved whilst on the move from any internet-abled device including a mobile smartphone or tablet.
Present your business numbers when you make calls from a mobile phone
That’s inbound calls sorted, but what about making outbound calls? It’s unlikely you’ll want to make calls from your mobile and freely hand out your number to customers. Business Number Presentation is a feature in order to show an alternative number when outbound calls are made from a mobile or tablet device. Business numbers starting with 01/02 and 08/03 can be presented as the calling number from our innovative “Dial Out App” available on iOS and Android.
The App allows you to take your business anywhere, with no need to be in the office, and keeps your business running. If you or your employees need to work from home, as a regular occurrence or because of a last-minute situation, it’s easy to continue placing calls to clients or customers and appear to be working from the office.
Create a virtual office from your PC or Laptop
We’ve talked about incoming and outbound calls, but what about office programmes that you’d normally use in the office? Microsoft 365 has an abundance of tools needed to effectively work from anywhere, anytime, on any internet-abled device. It has all of the same MS Office apps you've used for years, plus all the benefits of being hosted in the cloud. This means that Microsoft 365 applications are always up-to-date and can be accessed on any device by multiple users.
With some plans, you can install Office apps on up to five PCs or Macs and five tablets (iPad, Windows, or Android) per user, as well as transfer the software if you switch devices. View and edit files on Windows Phones, iPhone® and Android phones with Office 365 mobile apps. There’s also MS Teams which is a great tool to keep in touch with colleagues who are in the office or also working remotely. It’s a messenger service which encompasses individual or group chat, file share, voice and video calling. This easy, shared “virtual office” application, allows teams to stay in touch and collaborate from anywhere, just as if they were in the office.
Top security for your applications and devices when accessing them remotely
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is essential in creating online privacy and anonymity when logging into business applications from a remote location. A VPN creates a private network from a public internet connection and masks your IP address; your online actions are virtually untraceable with secure and encrypted connections. Providing even greater privacy than a secured Wi-Fi hotspot.
Using an unsecured Wi-Fi network to surf the internet make transactions means you could be exposing your private information and browsing habits to hackers. That’s why a VPN, is a must for businesses with home and remote workers.
A fast, stable connection to help you work efficiently at all times
And how about a suitable internet connection to support all of the above? Choosing the right internet connection and speed for your business depends largely on several factors. Your data network is arguably the most critical IT element of your business. It links everything: office users to applications in the data centre, mobile workers to email, and cloud applications via the internet. In addition to speed and cost, reliability, consistency and security are also key considerations.
There are various reasons why you may need to set yourself up to work from home and having the best internet connection is as vital at home as well as at the office. Your network truly is the foundation of your business, so choosing the right connection is vital and Telecoms World offer a range of broadband options to suit your business.
Alternatively, our Office in a Box is the perfect solution to power a mobile or home office, or support a business waiting for an installation. The best part is you can use Office in a Box anywhere across the UK, which allows you to operate up to four IP phones together with super-fast wireless broadband over our 4G business mobile network. The system is quick and simple to set up, all you need is a power supply and your office is operational with speeds of up to 50mbps.
Unit 2/3 Kingfisher House
New Mill Road
Orpington
Kent BR5 3QG
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