Looking forward:

Sanjiv Prabhakaran, CEO of Bytes, Inc. and Michael Scharf, President of ScaleYourBiz.net

While we remain concerned about the next few weeks, the health of our families and the success of our businesses, we want to look at the longer-term and understand what we can learn from this.

  First: Harden your IT infrastructure

Your first task is to look at your connectivity. Do you have sufficient bandwidth to handle the increasing requests coming from your remote workers as well as your clients and vendors. Once you have the bandwidth, secure your external connections with VPN (Virtual Private Network) links.

Secure your information. A client recently told us that they had segmented their systems into three separate networks. One for their website, one for email and one for client data. As you might imagine, each one is more secure than the next. Security software is critical. Install sufficient software protection (anti-virus, anti-malware, etc.)

Once your network is secure, time to look at your team. Review access levels for each user. Make sure that your team only has access to what they need to do the job. Next, training is in order. Train your team on good systems hygiene as well as what’s required for your employee’s equipment.

Next: Look Again at the Equipment You Buy

 Going forward, think twice about the type of equipment you buy. At this point, we will never be buying a desktop computer again. We don’t think anyone should either. With an external monitor and keyboard, there’s really no difference, until you need to work remotely. There isn’t much of a cost difference either. Also, it’s time to move from the desk phone to mobile devices.

Another consideration is what your employees will need at home. Obviously, they will need a computer to do their work, but what will the kids need to keep up with school and enjoy online entertainment. For these second machines, look at cheaper laptops, tablets and Chromebooks. Can you use your buying power to enable your employees to get a better deal on equipment?

Test your setup at home. Make sure everything works and that you a projecting a good image. Put the camera at eye level, get a good microphone so that you sound like you are serious.

  Finally, Collaboration Software

This may be the hardest piece of all. When the water cooler is no longer a meeting place, how do you replace it with software. We are going to divide this into two parts, groupware, and meeting replacements.

Groupware: A detailed discussion is beyond this article as well as beyond my expertise. Just to let you know, MS Teams and Slack are the two heavyweights in this area. Choose what works for you and begin integrating it into your workflow.

Communications: Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, BlueJeans and more are out there. Join as many as you need via their free accounts. It’s mostly a function of what your vendors and customers want to use.

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Michael Scharf is an executive strategy and finance consultant, advisor and board member for companies large and small. Michael’s career has been focused on helping companies across a wide spectrum of industries. His teams have been responsible for almost $10 billion in financings, mergers and acquisitions. He is a recognized business leader and advisor, succeeding with early-stage entrepreneurial partnerships as well as Fortune 500 Companies.

Michael has advised the boards of Visa USA, the US Small Business Administration, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the UCI Institution for Innovation. [JS1] 

Sanjiv Prabhakaran is a senior executive and entrepreneur with over 30 years of software development, management and technical architecture experience in mobile and web applications. He founded Bytes, Inc. 18 years ago to help bring custom software technology into small and midsize businesses.

Prabhakaran’s company Bytes, Inc. has been focusing on creating software technology for eLearning, healthcare, workflow management, fleet management, wireless mobile data applications, enterprise web applications for business management, corporate real estate, and financial markets. Prior to Bytes, Prabhakaran held executive roles at various software companies in San Francisco and San Diego areas.

 Prabhakaran’s philanthropic interests extend to helping underprivileged children with proper education and job training and assisting physically challenged individuals with job opportunities within Bytes and other companies. He serves on the board of few non-profit organizations.