Blog

By Rawan Baher – Office Administrator

Introduction

After the pandemic most companies’ have embraced hybrid or remote work for some time now, and this new model does not seem to be going away any time soon. Nevertheless, it is necessary to be prepared for this model and prepare a safe workplace that not only satisfies your employees needs but also protects them against external cyber threats.

How can Microsoft ensure remote work’s safety and effectiveness?

Here are nine ways to enable your employees to work remotely with the use of Microsoft tools

• VPN (Virtual Private Network)

Data protection is one of the main challenges for companies and by operating remotely it will expose sensitive data to the risk of leakage. The VPN is designed to secure an internal network or system when it is accessed by outsiders. This means it preserves and secures the link when you are accessing your work system from a different location.

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

MFA is necessary to access all of Microsoft's corporate resources. If a user connects to our domain remotely using their Microsoft work credentials on a computer we control, MFA is essentially transparent. We deliver three authentication methods: virtual and physical smart cards backed up by certificates, Windows Hello for Business (with PIN or biometric sign-in), and Azure Multi-factor Authentication.

• Productivity applications

Microsoft 365 plus Window 10 help users to access services and share files across the internet, tablet, and desktop with Office apps, by default storing their content in the cloud. Desktop Outlook, Microsoft Teams and OneDrive are deployed on all our corporate computers, allowing people to access their addresses, calendars and files in Windows File Explorer, Mac Finder and mobile Office Applications. You can do co-authoring in real-time and commenting in cloud papers, which has proven to be incredibly useful to a distributed workforce.

• User identity and access

Identity management is one of the basic things that should be implemented. We have a hybrid environment that allows us both to maintain and extend existing structures while using a cloud-based control panel to allow people to work safely and productively. Every user who needs to access the corporate network, whether they are an employee, partner or supplier, will receive a primary account synchronized with Azure Active Direct.

• Teams for Meetings and collaboration

We at IBSCY use Microsoft Teams daily for chats, meeting calls and collaboration. Now that we find ourselves operating remotely, because we are used to a digital environment, we have been able to stay productive. Every meeting is now conducted on MS Teams which offers various features such as blurring the background, recording the meeting so we can review it later and many more. While mobilising our employees to work from home, we dependent on Microsoft 365 programs to enable collaboration through self-service of Office 365 Groups or Teams while maintaining enough security, enforcement and manageability.

• Managing devices

As the number of employees working remotely increases, it is necessary that employees for support the bring-your-own-device scenarios. Microsoft provides self-service enrolment so that users can enter Azure AD quickly and easily and register to access company resources in MEM (Microsoft Endpoint Manager). If registered, MEM then implements suitable policies, such as ensuring that a computer is encrypted with a strong password and has certificates for it. Likewise, you can also check Panda Adaptive Defence 360.

• Monitoring software

With the increased load and use from so many people who work remotely, service monitoring has proven crucial to ensuring that everything works as planned. We track application and network performance carefully and have integrated product telemetry monitoring into every system. Hence, we can test reports for indicators of customer satisfaction and changes in service behaviour.

Conclusion

If you like to find out about the different collaboration tools that exist and how they can help you work and communicate more effectively we suggest that you also read this interesting article from Toptal on the most famous apps out there!

Working from home doesn't mean being isolated. Reassure workers that they can be social, keep in contact with their colleagues and yet help maintain the business intact.

Rawan Baher is a member of the office administration and management team. She is responsible for all the   daily tasks of   the company including   invoicing, collections, recurring fees organization, strategic reporting and payments monitoring. She is also responsible for the office management and for any tasks related with the office of IBSCY LTD in Limassol. This article was written by her based on her personal experience after IBSCY services training.