By Stuart Dickinson, COO at eacs
Although the global spread of coronavirusย (COVID-19)ย is itselfย grabbing the headlines, the impact it is having on UK businesses,ย both big and small,ย is still unclear.ย ย
In light of the recent contagion across Europe, organisations are starting to respond by implementing remote working strategies, but how well will businesses cope if most staff are self-isolating or avoiding travelling to the workplace? According to eacs, leaders in the delivery of IT services to the mid-market, it is small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are least likely to have invested in the right policies and processes, underpinned by the correct level of support and technology, that risk significant compromise in productivity and security.
Remote working is being stressed as a way to reduce the risk of daily commuters falling ill with coronavirus and is already being adopted as a solution by businesses across the UK. The advantages of remote working and cloud infrastructure have been widely covered, but the rapid spread of COVID-19 means these are now being mentioned as key tools to ensure employee safety and business-as-usual operations.
Most SMEโs have robust Disaster Recovery plans that typically focus on the infrastructure and data protection but have not necessarily considered Business Continuity Plans (BCP). These SMEโs do not usually offer remote working and could be the most at risk and must rethink their approach to BCP to keep disruption to a minimum.
It is increasingly likely that over the next few weeks and monthsย weย willย see more and more companies of all sizes sendย their workforce home.ย Essentially,ย weย could beย forced into the worldโs largest work-from-home experimentย andย forย many SMEsย this will be very difficultย to implement,ย as they are less likely toย have invested in the infrastructure andย business continuity processesย to support access from outside the office.ย ย
For them,ย merelyย askingย their workforceย to take a laptopย or tablet home and treating it as business as usualย will not beย sufficient, asย productivityย will almostย undoubtedlyย fall.ย At the top ofย peopleโsย minds is the productivity impact of staff who are โout of sightโย or the availability of equipmentย but whatย should be ofย most concern, willย be the heightened riskย of aย costly cyber-attack.
A period of globalย disruptionย isย alwaysย aย particularlyย enticingย time forย cybercriminals, whoย often try toย take advantage of crises to disrupt operationsย and hack businesses. Most of the time, their best wayย into a networkย is throughย a companyโsย users, and for a business that might not haveย invested in theย security toolsย needed toย supportย remote access, they will be at the top of a cybercriminalsโ list.
The question is then: What should these smaller businesses be doing to ensure they stay productive and secure?
It is important for smaller businesses to now get their plans in place to make sure that they are prepared for a sudden increase in staff self-isolating or avoiding travelling to the workplace. Crucially,ย is testing it before it happens, donโt leave it until the last minute.
If in-house IT and technical teams are not able to initiate these plans quickly and effectively, businesses must look for outside support whichย specialise in SMEs. Getting an answer that is appropriate to the size of the problem is key to ensuringย that productivity amongst employees or the security of the business isnโt compromised.
