The remote revolution

As Ireland enters the most critical phase of the Covid-19 response, the country’s workforce has been impacted as never before. TechBeat wants to document that experience
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(Image: Stockfresh)

9 April 2020

Free productivity and collaboration tools, a tsunami of advice, a smattering of wellbeing and a host of security advice, all tempered with a few etiquette tips to keep you on the straight and narrow – these have all been features of the new work from home experience.

The current public health measures have meant that more people than ever before are working from home or remotely. But what will that mean for organisations when we all return to some semblance of normality?

That is the question that many technology and service providers, as well as academics and marketers, are grappling with.

 

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The surge to gather primary data on this new reality is almost as widespread as the phenomenon itself.

What is undeniable is that many tasks and roles which were previously thought to have been exclusively office bound are nothing of the sort. With the proper access, data control and identity management, there is almost nothing that cannot be made available to workers through modern applications and infrastructure.

However, there are still those who are doing things better than others, allowing new best practices to emerge.

There have also been moments of deep comedy.

Just one or two of note are the example of the person in the Zoom meeting who perhaps didn’t realise that their camera was still broadcasting as they made an emergency trip to the bathroom; or the example of the person who inadvertently turned on a filter to turn themselves into a potato, and were unable to turn it off. They conducted the rest of the meeting in spud guise. But a potential winner of best jape was the digital native who created a backdrop for his video meeting where he walked in on himself having the meeting.

However, just as there are opportunities for comedy, so others see opportunity in an altogether more sinister manner.

Phishing attacks are on the rise, as is CEO fraud and crypto-malware attack. The worst of the worst are still targeting health care facilities for profit, even as they struggle to cope with the health emergency.

Here in Ireland, it is just as important to understand the evolving situation as elsewhere. We must track the experience and the emerging practices to understand how we need to change, to both mitigate the effects of any such disruption in the future, and to facilitate the new business landscape that will undoubtedly emerge from this unprecedented situation.

The world will never be the same again after this emergency, and organisations of all types and sizes will be similarly changed. Understanding the benefits as well as the pitfalls will be key to the national recovery that must take place after Covid-19.

TechBeat, in association with eir Business, has launched a survey to track the new reality for many Irish IT professionals. Already receiving a strong response, it will build a detailed picture of how Irish organisations are coping with remote working, remote business and facilitating a nation as it strives to carry on amid this singular threat and challenge.

Got to techpro.ie/survey to tell your story.

TechCentral Reporters

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