We live in Wisconsin. Snow days are a part of life. However, they can have business-killing effects. Snow days reduce productivity, forcing us to hunker down and wait … at the mercy of snow plows.
How does this all effect your small business’ IT? Strategy.
Many of the small, service businesses that we work with, don’t have retail locations and, quite honestly, can do a tremendous amount of work without ever sitting across from a client. Attorneys’ offices and independent insurance agencies are prefect examples.
But, the truth is that if you want to keep your business running on days like this, you’ll need to have a plan before the Great Blizzard strikes. Essentially, you need to treat these events as mini-disasters and plot out your business continuity plan.
Here are a few tips to keep business running, and employees productive, even when they can’t come in to the office:
First, decide on a call-chain, a way to communicate with your staff to set your plan in motion, and throughout the day. This is easily done with conference calls, your phone system, if it can be forwarded or is cloud-based, and software such as Skype or Microsoft Teams. You’ll also need to forward office phones to one or more individuals so you can continue receiving outside calls from clients.
Second, is how to access your files. We all need access to company data. This includes your line-of-business applications and your company documents. Absent your shared drives and servers, you really have two choices for accomplishing this. You can remote into a workstation in the office and work as if you were there, or you can leverage the Cloud.
If your business applications are already cloud-based, then working off-site becomes easier. As long as you have access to an Internet connection, you and your team can stay in business.
When it comes to accessing your personal data or your customer files, things that traditionally are stored on your server, things require a little more forethought.
Microsoft Office 365 easily accomplishes this through OneDrive for business, a way for all staff members to securely store their data in the Cloud, without needing a server or remote access. Company-wide documents are stored in SharePoint, a team website (of sorts) designed specifically to allow you and your staff to access documents, no matter where you are, without having to remote in to an office computer. However, both techniques require that you have previously set these things up.
Ultimately, Microsoft Office 365, combined with other cloud-based solutions, can help keep your business running smoothly and efficiently in a ‘mini-disaster’, or even a larger one.
I’ve written a free report about moving your small business to the cloud called “5 Critical Facts Every Business Owner Must Know Before Moving Their Network to The Cloud”. You can download a copy from
We live in Wisconsin. Snow days are a part of life. However, they can have business-killing effects. Snow days reduce productivity, forcing us to hunker down and wait … at the mercy of snow plows.
How does this all effect your small business’ IT? Strategy.
Many of the small, service businesses that we work with, don’t have retail locations and, quite honestly, can do a tremendous amount of work without ever sitting across from a client. Attorneys’ offices and independent insurance agencies are prefect examples.
But, the truth is that if you want to keep your business running on days like this, you’ll need to have a plan before the Great Blizzard strikes. Essentially, you need to treat these events as mini-disasters and plot out your business continuity plan.
Here are a few tips to keep business running, and employees productive, even when they can’t come in to the office:
First, decide on a call-chain, a way to communicate with your staff to set your plan in motion, and throughout the day. This is easily done with conference calls, your phone system, if it can be forwarded or is cloud-based, and software such as Skype or Microsoft Teams. You’ll also need to forward office phones to one or more individuals so you can continue receiving outside calls from clients.
Second, is how to access your files. We all need access to company data. This includes your line-of-business applications and your company documents. Absent your shared drives and servers, you really have two choices for accomplishing this. You can remote into a workstation in the office and work as if you were there, or you can leverage the Cloud.
If your business applications are already cloud-based, then working off-site becomes easier. As long as you have access to an Internet connection, you and your team can stay in business.
When it comes to accessing your personal data or your customer files, things that traditionally are stored on your server, things require a little more forethought.
Microsoft Office 365 easily accomplishes this through OneDrive for business, a way for all staff members to securely store their data in the Cloud, without needing a server or remote access. Company-wide documents are stored in SharePoint, a team website (of sorts) designed specifically to allow you and your staff to access documents, no matter where you are, without having to remote in to an office computer. However, both techniques require that you have previously set these things up.
Ultimately, Microsoft Office 365, combined with other cloud-based solutions, can help keep your business running smoothly and efficiently in a ‘mini-disaster’, or even a larger one.
I’ve written a free report about moving your small business to the cloud called “5 Critical Facts Every Business Owner Must Know Before Moving Their Network to The Cloud”. You can download a copy from www.computer-center.com/intro-to-cloud-computing