Seven ways to implement office-in-a-box successfully

Seven Ways to Implement Office-in-a-Box Successfully
The modern workplace necessitates uninterrupted network connectivity, tools for communication and collaboration, mobility, custom business applications and software and marketing analytics to create better customer experiences. In an era where technology rules all aspects of their work, organisations need to build an office that integrates these elements seamlessly in a single package. That’s what office-in-box is about.

Modern offices continue to evolve, and they understand the significance of mobility, bringyour-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). They want to support their employees for more collaboration and agility.

This is an era where people have started abandoning their desktops and laptops to rely more on smartphones and tablets for work. As more enterprises implement BYOD initiatives to give their workforce on-the-move access to basic messaging, they are also realising the unrealised potentials of digital technology.

The concept that’s evolving now goes beyond mobility and makes it possible to have a fullblown mobile workspace. With office-in-a-box, workers can get a secure access to the entire set of enterprise apps, collaboration solutions and data. This improves work practices for a new level of productivity and fine tunes the employee experience.

While the idea of having an office in a box sounds good, the multiplicity of technologies involved in the concept makes it difficult to execute. To create a useful office-in-a-box, you need to have:

• Reliable Access to the Internet – Connectivity is a basic requirement for all businesses. They cannot let their mobile workforce rely on free, public Wi-Fi zones when enterprise information is getting shared or discussed. It is good to have Internet leased lines for dedicated office locations. For the employees travelling or working from remote locations, secure data cards or dongles with encrypted passwords will work well. The tools used should bring coverage on a wide network with seamless indoor connectivity and uninterrupted signal reception while on themove.
• Secure Servers – Whether your employees are working from or away from the physical office location, they must have secure access to the network. For this, you need a virtual private network (VPN) server with wired/wireless network routers. A Multi-Protocol-Label-Switching (MPLS)-based VPN can be used to deliver strong connectivity across multiple points of strategic presence.
• Collaboration Tools – Official email IDs with company domain name extensions are not enough. The collaborative nature of modern offices calls for a common platform where your employees can interact in real time. Several apps enable such communication through smartphones and desktops. However, an enterprise needs to make sure that the voice- and video-based applications used by its employees are secure and can help to maintain the confidentiality of the data shared across them. It is better to have a standard collaboration tool that’s synced to the cloud instead of asking workers to choose any free app for business matters.
• Cloud Storage Platform – The business data that is rapidly expanding also needs to be stored and accessed securely. The shared drives and internal servers of an organisation may not have sufficient bandwidth to contain it. That’s where cloud storage solutions come handy. Whether it is a large organisation or a start-up, a formal workplace’s cloud needs to be a big and inclusive system that can cover both Internet and Intranet, virtually hosted apps, video- and voice-based systems and storage solutions.
• Custom Business Apps – Your employees need custom applications that are easy to use and work like social media apps used in personal lives. They expect a bespoke app for every business-related task that needs to be done on a computer or mobile device. When the company heads decide to deploy an integrated office-in-a-box, they must invest in the development of custom apps that can also be stored in the cloud and worked upon from any location.
• Security and Back-ups – No matter what kind of office setup you may have, it is good to be always prepared for the unexpected. Subscribe to cloud-based storage systems for backups of the data that you store internally. Ensure that it is secure against malware and has strong firewalls deployed by the cloud service provider.
• Future-ready Solution – The idea of mobility, for now, is mostly about personal mobile devices and applications used by your employees. But people at large are already experiencing the connections that have been created by the IoT. The linked systems, devices and services will transform enterprises as new use cases get discovered for business analytics, smart machinery and automated processes. For a successful office setup, it is important to be prepared for the changes that it will affect it in the near future.

To make the deployment of office-in-a-box simple and direct, Tata Tele Business Services has devised the SmartOffice that brings a package comprising IP-PBX, data router, Wi-Fi modem, firewall and DHCP server. Start-ups and small-medium enterprises can set up their telecom architecture and network as well as manage their custom apps in the cloud with this integrated solution. It is also secure and helps businesses to be more productive while avoiding the instances of downtime. To know more about the product, contact a Tata Tele Business Services associate today.