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When was the last time you were in the office? I’m struggling to remember what mine looks like. If it wasn’t for daily video calls with my team, I might’ve also forgotten what they look like! Remote working has become part of normal life here at Lenovo, and it might be a change that’s here to stay.

That’s certainly what our market research partner Savanta tells us. They’ve been carrying out business sentiment surveys to track the thoughts and responses of companies to the lockdown. Sadly, most of those surveyed believe they’re going to be negatively impacted by COVID-19, and almost all (90%) plan to change how they work and operate going forward.

The most popular change? Permanent remote working. Savanta found that 42% of organisations will transition some of their onsite roles to offsite once the lockdown is lifted, and other recent studies have shown similar results. Back in April, Gartner reported that 74% of CFOs plan to ask 5% or more of their employees to become remote workers.[1]

One thing’s clear, and it’s that remote working has become very popular, very quickly. Is it a cost-cutting exercise? With so many of us already working remotely right now, is it simply an easy change to make? Or is it because so many organisations have seen over the last few months just how beneficial remote working can be?

In my experience, allowing employees to work anywhere, and dispersed teams to access workstations remotely, can help whole workforces to feel more engaged, more productive and it reduces staff turnover for the business. Everyone’s a winner… provided the experience is right.

Remote working isn’t always a walk in the park

But while that’s all good news, scaling up remote working so quickly is inevitably going to cause some pretty big challenges.

To start with, cloud computing can be seriously expensive. It may look cheap when you’re staring through the shop window, with individual servers usually priced at just a few pounds per month. However, the cost of cloud includes more than just server capacity. Much like that sneaky service charge restaurants regularly add to your bill, even though the two of you only popped in for a quick lunch, a cloud contract can have many hidden charges, and the total price can quickly spiral.

For instance, cloud providers will happily pass on costs related to hardware, infrastructure, network maintenance, support staff, virtual RAM, disk space, software licenses and hosting to their customers. So if you’re thinking of migrating to the cloud or a virtual environment, all of these factors, as well as the booking of allocated resource time, need to be considered.

The other challenge is that some people will find it really difficult to work remotely, due to what they do and the tech they work with. Employees who use heavy-duty applications would find it difficult to work from a laptop, like designers, engineers, data scientists, AI developers. The list goes on. How many of your colleagues would struggle? Asking these employees to work remotely with PCs when they need workstations for instance, can have a big impact on performance, productivity and employee experiences. 

When employers try to implement remote working before they have the right tech landscape in place, employee engagement inevitably suffers. In its most recent survey, Savanta found that most businesses are finding it difficult to maintain office culture, and almost half are even expecting a remote working backlash due to the tech available.

Just before the lockdown, Gartner published a report on ‘digital dexterity’, which it says is the “ability and desire to exploit existing and emerging technologies for better business outcomes.”[2] Organisations with digital dexterity keep their employees engaged and productive by focusing on employee-centric deliverables and metrics.

In my opinion, digital dexterity is a must if you plan on joining the way the world is going and expanding working options for your people.

Every industry can go remote with workstations

If the challenges I’ve discussed here are the reason you’ve so far resisted remote working, there is a solution. Remote Workstations software allows workers and teams to access and share powerful resources wherever they are, with the same responsiveness as if they were at their own desk.

Onsite workers can access and work on big complex files anywhere with a mobile device, with no latency or bandwidth issues. And businesses can scale quickly as soon as projects are won, with efficient, agile global satellite offices, and no security or connectivity concerns.

Whole sectors that previously shied away from remote working can now embrace it, and make significant changes to how they operate.  

Choose devices fit for now and the future

If use cases like that sound exciting, and you’ve decided now’s the time to become digitally dextrous and invest in some new hardware, tread carefully and choose wisely. Don’t be one of the 44% of businesses who think that the devices they’re purchasing for employees right now will not be fit for purpose in the future.

I know that the rush to get remote working implemented ASAP can make panic buying devices tempting. But the numbers don’t lie, you need devices to support everything you’re doing, not just remote working.

The top three attributes or features businesses look for in new devices according to Savanta, are portability, collaboration software and memory capacity. And with Cloud spending set to increase sharply in the next two years, security will also be pushed to the top of many CIOs’ wish lists when they’re shopping for new devices.[3]

With Remote Workstations, you don’t have to compromise. You can have all four and so much more.

What have your remote working experiences been recently? I’d love to know about the successes and challenges you’ve had, and to show you why Lenovo Remote Workstations are the perfect choice for businesses looking to scale up remote working and to future-proof their tech landscape.

Feel free to drop me a quick email or a message on LinkedIn. Or you can reach out to my colleague, Liz Helstrom, at lhelstrom@lenovo.com if you’d like to discuss optimising your current remote workflows.

[1] https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-04-03-gartner-cfo-surey-reveals-74-percent-of-organizations-to-shift-some-employees-to-remote-work-permanently2

[2] https://www.gartner.com/en/conferences/na/digital-workplace-us/featured-topics/digital-dexterity

[3] https://www.cio.com/article/3545534/sharp-it-budget-cuts-expected-in-wake-of-covid-19.html