SME Times News Bureau | 25 Mar, 2020
With the 21-day lockdown period beginning from Wednesday, there is no
choice for most companies in India other than adopting work from home mode, if
they do not want to halt their operations altogether.
While it is not possible for every organisation to carry out their activities
in full swing while working remotely simply because of the nature of their
businesses, those companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs), who can afford remote working are trying to adopt the new culture,
leading to an increase in demand for video conferencing and other collaboration
tools in India.
Some of the collaboration tools that have gained increased traction due to
remote working include Microsoft Teams and Zoom, among others.
Microsoft Teams is a software solution that enables SMBs to perform many
essential business tasks remotely. With Teams, one can virtually chat,
collaborate, and meet with employees, customers, suppliers, and partners. The
Microsoft Office apps are built right into Teams, so you can use and share the
files you create in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook without leaving the
tool.
"Teams is a part of Office 365. If your organization is licensed for
Office 365, you already have it and you can log in here. Even if you don't have
Office 365, we want to help ensure that everyone has access to Teams during
these challenging times," Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft
365, wrote in a blog post.
Reliance Jio recently announced that it is combining its digital capabilities
with Microsoft Teams to enable individuals, students, educational and
healthcare institutions to continue their professional lives while still practicing
social distancing.
Zoom also has several offerings for educators, learners, as well as those
working from home.
Networking giant Cisco said that it has seen "significant growth" in
the usage of its web conferencing and video-conferencing service Webex in
India.
With a suite of offerings such as Knowledge Management System (KMS), Learning
Management System (LMS) and Rapid Content Authoring Platform Articulate 360,
Stratbeans, a leading learning management solutions provider is also helping
companies adopt the work from home culture.
These tools not only equip businesses to share information in real-time but
also facilitate collaboration among employees in a contactless manner.
With Articulate 360, subject matter experts get easy-to-use tools for recording
computer screen and audio, and also interacting in a cloud-based collaboration
area, where all work items such as videos, ppt, pdf can be stored and reviewed
in a controlled workflow.
A recent report by Gartner suggests that 54 percent of the companies in India
do not have the required technology and resources for employees to work at
home, especially non-IT firms.
Even those companies that have started work from home, however, should take
their security very seriously as bad actors are waiting to take advantage of
the fears due to the coronavirus pandemic and increase their attacks by sending
fake emails containing dangerous links.
According to researchers from cybersecurity firm Sophos, unscrupulous marketers
and cyber-criminals have seized upon concerns over the emergence of the
COVID-19 global pandemic as bait for spam, phishing attacks and malware. In
recent weeks, the use of "coronavirus" and "COVID-19" in
domain names, potentially unwanted email messages, and phishing and malware
delivery schemes has skyrocketed.
Cyber safety solutions provider NortonLifeLock said that in order to stay safe
workers should follow certain practices like staying on top of company
communications and know what is in your company's tech toolbox.
That might mean you do your work on company-supplied laptops and mobile
devices. They likely include firewall and antivirus protection, along with
security features like VPN and 2-factor authentication.
People should also control the impulse to improvise in certain circumstances,
NortonLifeLock said.
Employees often work in teams, and that can mean using collaboration tools like
instant-messaging platforms and video-meeting rooms.
"If a tool is not working right, you might be tempted to download a
substitute. Don't do it. You could inadvertently introduce a software program
with a security flaw - and that means someone unauthorized may be able to
access company data, or any personal data you have on that device,"
NortonLifeLock recommended.