Opace on the Coronavirus Pandemic & How It Could Be an Opportunity to Improve the Way We Work Through Virtual Business Services & Remote Working

The Coronavirus pandemic is one of the greatest threats to mankind in living memory. Governments around the world are implementing wartime strategies and policies to manage and protect populations from contracting the virus. One of the key policy areas is social distancing, travel bans, as well as closure of non-essential business areas and activities.

We recently spoke with David Bryan, Managing Director of Digital Marketing agency, Opace. The topic was how the coronavirus threat can be used as an opportunity for organisations to improve and transform the ways they work through virtual business services and remote working as they are told to (albeit temporarily) adopt new ways of living.

So, what are the reasons why businesses should enable remote working? A list of some of the main benefits are summarised below. These are phrased with employees in mind but would be beneficial in most cases to private residents too:

Higher employee engagement – employees are likely to collaborate and engage more, particularly if collaboration tools are implemented

Improved digital mindset – remote workers will over time develop an improved mindset towards digital technologies. They will be more open to innovation and smart working techniques

Improved employee happiness and retention – home/remote working provides an improved work/life balance, much less time travelling and typically lower costs for employees. This improves general employee happiness/satisfaction which in turn leads to improved retention

Increased productivity – employees, in general, will be more productive. For a start, they will spend less time travelling (to and from work), but remote working tools will improve productivity in a number of ways

Less business disruption – if certain events occur (e.g. a pandemic, public transport closure or other events) it's business as usual. The remote worker can still work from home and little changes for business. For example, schools are using Google Classrooms remotely to teach school children forced to stay at home during the pandemic

Lower operating costs – remote working reduces organisational costs. Less office space is needed to accommodate homeworkers, particularly if hotdesking is used. Other costs associated with housing employees are also avoided, e.g. lower consumables, beverages, etc.

The above are just a few of the benefits that home/remote working will bring. What action do businesses need to take? We spoke to David about how organisations can enable remote working and provide virtual services to clients. David said, "Businesses can enable home/remote working fairly quickly and at relatively low cost. The starting point is that remote workers need internet access, this could be either what they already use or supplied by the business.

Remote working devices are needed, such as a PC or laptop including a Webcam for video conferencing and smartphones. Remote workers own computer equipment can be used, but organisations still have to ensure the security of all connections, typically through a VPN (virtual private network).

In addition, for full productivity at home, a remote working project also needs to provide access to business applications and systems so employers can continue with their day job. These may include Office applications, accounting systems, customer service tools also collaboration software (e.g. Slack, InVision, Google Drive and GitHub to name but a few).

There are virtually no benefits of the coronavirus pandemic, but in the area of remote working and virtual services, I think businesses are becoming increasingly mature in their thinking. Let's use this threat as an opportunity to improve business efficiency both during and after the pandemic.

Here at Opace, we've always had a very strong focus on working smartly and efficiently. This includes the delivery of remote training and consultancy using Skype. One of our key services is an executive SEO Consultant service which is provided remotely to businesses. We even provide virtual marketing departments to customers, where we essentially manage all of their marketing operations remotely".

For further information on how Opace may be able to support your business during these times, you can visit the website www.opace.co.uk or email them at info@opace.co.uk to discuss their remote services and solutions.

About Opace

Opace is a Digital Marketing and eCommerce company also specialising in remote consultancy and virtual marketing services. Based in Birmingham, West Midlands the business is centrally located for its national operations.

Opace was founded in 2008 by David Bryan who is still the Managing Director today. As well as providing remote services and consultancy to clients, Opace also working in numerous fields of Digital Marketing providing web development solutions based on Magento, Umbraco and WordPress. Other areas of operation are
mobile website development, search engine optimisation (SEO), social media management, content provision, web marketing and pay per click services.

Opace contact details

Company website: https://www.opace.co.uk
Registered Office: Longbridge Technology Park, Birmingham, West Midlands, B31 2TS
Telephone: UK +44 (0)121-222-5757
Contact: David Bryan, Managing Director
Organisation: Opace Ltd

Image Credit: Bongkarn Thanyakij