A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Life, the Universe and Pandemics

So, it finally has a name. Not Ciara or Dennis. Not something trendy or traditional. It’s called Covid-19. A few years back, it would be sometime between SARS and Swine Flu, I was asked to help a vaccine manufacturer with a data recovery issue. We got talking and I asked them how they would cope in the event of a pandemic. The usual big stuff was well thought through. However, as we discussed the IT support required to keep the business going, things became a little less considered.

So, I found myself being asked to look into what should be done to make IT support more robust. After a bit of digging around, due diligence and consideration, I came up with two things:-

1)   Wherever possible, take people out of the process

2)   Support remote working

The rationale was as follows. A pandemic is no respecter of rank, role or importance to an organisation.  So, the fewer people involved, the lower the exposure to risk for the process.

Remote working was critical because for two reasons. Directly, remote working meant that key workers didn’t run the risk of picking up the virus in public or at work (if they could get to work). However indirectly, key workers may be perfectly healthy, but they may have family members affected. Remote access still allowed access to their skill without having to have them physically onsite.

Well, the good news is the two recommendations are still valid today. The better news is that the tools available today are much easier and cheaper to implement than back then.

The rise of Robotic Process Automation, using tools like Automate or UI Path, means we can reduce the need and reliance on people to make processes work. If you haven’t already started, you should. Look at those critical processes and see how they could be automated. Longer-term, post-pandemic, look to simplify those processes and then automate what’s left. This will provide a better, more robust solution for the future. But for now, RPA is quick, easier and cheaper.

Remote working, on the other hand, has changed out of all recognition. Long gone are the VPN hard tokens and snail-like connectivity speeds which just gave you secure but slow service. Cloud-based collaboration tools like Teams and Slack mean so long as we have an internet connection we can work where and when needed.

However, it is the way we can work that is the real game-changer. Shortly after moving to Office365, I attended a Sales meeting with one of my Sales colleagues. After the meeting, we went to a nearby café to do the debrief and review the actions.

We have all been there. Spot the table next to the power socket. Table secured, coffee ordered, Wi-Fi password in hand, the Sales rep then did the usual hands and knees praying to the socket gods that this one would be working (that’s the usual reason why the table’s empty), fished out the laptop, plugged it in, switched it on, entered the boot password and waited for the device to boot. Then logon to windows, connect to the Wi-Fi, connect to the other Wi-Fi, rummaged around the laptop bag to find the VPN token, logon to VPN, take a mouthful of, by now lukewarm, coffee, click on the app and ready to go.

I had the Office365 app on my phone and was able to share the slides, send the supporting documents, update the spreadsheet, forward the email and complete my other actions whilst enjoying a pleasantly hot cup of coffee. By the time the laptop was booted and ready to go, so was I. 

However, using Teams, I can do all the above and host/attend meetings, share my screen and a whole bunch more.

The world of remote working today is totally different, much better and so much more productive than when I made the original recommendations. The other silver lining from Covid-19 will be as the catalyst that encourages us to work better, not harder, and accelerate the adoption of modern ways of working.

If you need more information, feel free to reach out and I’d be happy to discuss further.