Are we prepared to work from home?
“Our walls are the horizon. In a way, we are all Odysseus, members of a species that lost their way but discovered their greatest challenge: returning home,” said the writer Juan Villoro on March 20th, 2020, when due to COVID-19, a big part of the workforce across the world found itself stuck in their homes. And like the hero Odysseus, we have returned home.
The question is: Are we ready to work from home?
From an operational point of view, moving resources that are usually in the office to our homes in order to carry out daily tasks can be quite a challenge. Let’s look at three of these challenges:
- Connection to corporate systems. If the company doesn’t have their systems in the cloud, accessing them daily can pose problems in terms of logistics and safety. Local networks are fortresses that hold the central systems, so it’s important to keep them safe from a cyberattack. Allowing them to be accessed by a safe remote connection is costly and requires investments that can be difficult for small and medium businesses.
- Limited Internet. Companies generally have internet with high capacity and availability that is symmetrical (that is, that information goes in and out at the same rate). However, internet at home doesn’t share these characteristics: they don’t have a high capacity, nor are they stable or symmetric, since they are designed to download information, music, videos, etc., but not to upload information.
- Safe Connection. Companies can deploy a lot of resources to protect information within the corporate network. But when we are outside this network, few companies are able to build a tunnel that allows their employees to work remotely with the same efficiency, speed and availability that they have at their work.
Conciliac is a solution that’s ready to work from home without any of these problems. Conciliac is capable of crossing, consolidating, validating and reconciling any type of data, automating processes using its RPA (Robotic Process Automation) technology. Let’s see how it faces the challenges of remote work:
- It doesn’t require a connection to corporate systems. Conciliac is a solution that can be installed on any analysts’ laptop, so it can travel with them when they have to be at home. This is not to say that its capabilities are less than those of other corporate systems: Conciliac’s components are highly efficient and take advantage of the computing power of the equipment in which it is installed, ensuring high productivity and significant savings in time and costs.
- It is not subject to Internet Restrictions. As an on-premise system, one that is installed on a local computer, it doesn’t need the Internet to operate. This optimizes resources at home, since almost any Internet connection will be enough to download the files that Conciliac needs to process. One of Conciliac’s strengths is its flexibility to process virtually any type of data source.
- Guaranteed Security. With Conciliac, it’s not necessary to establish secure connections to operate , nor are there third-party tools or other means that could expose the organization’s most sensitive information. Operations are done directly on the laptop, which isolates the risk of unauthorized access to confidential information. And if this were not enough, Conciliac internally encrypts the information it processes, so that your information will be secure.
If I am already using Conciliac, is there anything else I can do to work more effectively from home? Of course: here, I’ll share four tips from Inc.com:
- Let others know your work schedule. Inform your team and your colleagues, as well as your family, about your work schedule, and stick to it. This will let them know when you’re available and will avoid interruptions.
- Don’t stay in your pijamas. Take a shower and get dressed as if to go to work. This will allow you to have the right mental attitude to work from home and will separate personal time from work time.
- Establish an area to work inside your house. Choose an area where you can work, preferably with a comfortable chair and a table or desk. A consistent workspace will help you be more productive and efficient.
- Take breaks. While at the office you tend to take spontaneous breaks and have refreshing conversations, it’s possible for this not to occur naturally at home. Breaks of 5-7 minutes every half hour, or a longer break of 20 minutes every 1-2 hours is recommended.
Author: Conciliac Team.
Reference:
Juan Villoro: “Volver a Casa”, etcétera
https://www.etcetera.com.mx/opinion/volver-a-casa-por-juan-villoro/
“5 Do’s and Don’ts of Working Remotely”, Marzo 2020, Inc.com
https://www.inc.com/video/remote-work-dos-donts.html