Shelter-in-Place…Now What?

At Wellforce, we pride ourselves on being a proactive technology company. As an organization, we are constantly seeking to remain ahead of the curve, spotting, and embracing trends to deploy to our customers. However, even the most proactive companies were not capable of seeing the full scope of the crisis that would arise when COVID-19 reached us. 

Businesses have shuttered and budgets have tightened.  Workers are being furloughed by the millions as the country grapples with an unprecedented event that affects us all. Should we expect “business as usual” as restrictions ease and life slowly adjust to some semblance of normal? Is there a “new normal” that we should be preparing for?  Is it prudent to now expect waves of disruption for the foreseeable future, and how do we navigate that?  

As we have seen in these Phase I openings, hesitancy and caution are in abundance, and this has kept organizations in much the same place that they have operated in over the last two months.  Adjustments have been made to reflect the reality of how a business will be conducted in the future, but what exactly does the future entail? 

Uncertainty can lead to procrastination, and procrastination is the easiest mode of operation to become mired in. As a proactive organization, we recognize this but also that you need to continue moving forward. What will tomorrow look like and are we ready? Business momentum and growth have been paused, so we cannot answer that now, but it should not stop you from adapting and evolving to meet the challenges and actively engage in creating your recovery plan. 

Proactive Considerations to Adapt to the “New Normal” 

• Analyze what role technology plays in your day-to-day operations 
  • If your staff loses internet access remotely, are you able to still operate? If you are in the office, do you have a backup service in place?  If working from home, are there redundancy plans to mitigate the effect in the event of a staff member going down? The ability to shift responsibilities “on-the-fly” to maintain operations is important. 
  • Are there any systems that are mission-critical and must stay up? What is the plan to ensure that they do? If these are managed and/or hosted on-premises, this presents a completely different set of challenges, so it may be time to discuss hosted our outsourced services. 
  • Do you have appropriate disaster mitigation and recovery strategy? Are your systems and data easily recoverable? These can be daunting to brainstorm, and while they are critical to your operations, a third party or outside partner can make it less so, and can often identify potential problems and solutions that you may not even think of. 

• Areas you can address to improve efficiency and productivity 
  • Do you under-utilize existing investments and resources that can be fully adopted to see better returns? For example, Office 365 is not just e-mail and Office applications, but a full suite of productivity and communication tools to help you work from anywhere. Many other applications may prove useful to your team that can lower costs and improves productivity while improving operations. 
  • Streamline decision making to maximize ROI.  Delaying decisions because of uncertainty or lack of knowledge can be frustrating to stakeholders, as well as deleterious to the bottom line. Engaging an outsourced partner can remove confusion and uncertainty by providing clarity to decisions. 

• Identify cost-saving measures that allow you to thrive 
  • Organizations of all sizes are finding that reduced travel expenses, less reliance on physical offices, and the creation of sound remote working policies and strategies can be beneficial to their bottom line. Now may also be the time to visit outsourcing your IT with a Managed Services Provider.  Outsourcing all or part of your IT often results in significant savings that can be used elsewhere and provide stability amidst the uncertainty we are all in. Read our blog Why Choose Managed Services for IT? for more information.  You can also use our handy IT Cost Savings ROI Calculator to see how much money you can save.  

Any of these can certainly be difficult, as they require a wholesale shift in traditional organizational thinking, but taken together, may allow companies to survive and thrive. Wellforce provides expert consulting, planning, and support to help businesses adapt and grow in these challenging times. We are here to help and remember, we are all in this together.  Stay safe out there!