While it makes perfect sense for IT employees to work from remote locations via video conferencing and collaboration tools seamlessly - especially in the case of tech giants like Google or Microsoft -- workers from the non-IT companies and small and medium enterprises (SMBs) are the worst-hit in India as most of them have little or no clue about how these messaging and collaboration tools work amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Small companies -- from corporate to education verticals -- are scrambling to get their act together as new coronavirus threat has reached their premises, prompting them to send employees home who have age-old laptops, poor network and connectivity with no UPS backups and little knowledge about how to handle group chat and collaboration software like Zoom, Google Hangouts Meet, Microsoft Teams and Flock etc.
Instead of halting operations, however, businesses can choose to shift towards remote working methods with teaching non-IT staff on how to use the latest digital software to connect and work, say industry experts.
The training will take some time and may hamper productivity in the short run but is a win-win situation for the non-tech companies in the long run, in case any such global emergency arises in the future.
According to a latest report by Gartner, 54 per cent of HR leaders have cited that poor technology and/or infrastructure for remote working is the biggest barrier to effective remote working.
Sandy Shen, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner, says that with COVID-19 disrupting the business landscape, CIOs should relook at the digital fulfillment of market demand.
"The value of digital channels, products and operations is immediately obvious to companies everywhere right now. This is a wake-up call for organisations that have placed too much focus on daily operational needs at the expense of investing in digital business and long-term resilience," warned Shen.
Businesses that can shift technology capacity and investments to digital platforms will mitigate the impact of the outbreak and keep their companies running smoothly now, and over the long term.
"Videoconferencing, messaging, collaboration tools and document sharing are just a few examples of technologies that facilitate remote work. Additional bandwidth and network capacity may also be needed, given the increasing number of users and volume of communications," informed Shen.
The IT industry's apex body Nasscom has asked the government to relax norms for a month to allow work-from-home for technology and back-office employees as a measure to deal with the spread of Covid-19 in India.
Networking giant Cisco said that it has seen "significant growth" in the usage of its web conferencing and video-conferencing service Webex in India.
According to Muneer Ahmad, Business Head, ViewSonic India, due to COVID-19 pandemic, the corporate and educational sector is severely getting affected in the country.
"ViewSonic IFP has a cloud-based software which help teachers and corporates to connect through video conferencing to multiple people at the same time and can split the screen into six screens. It can also connect with various tools like Skype, Cisco WebEx, Zoom, Google Hangouts and GoToMeeting," Ahmad told IANS.
Co-working sector has also taken a hit and the industry is looking at several measures to tackle it -- from ensuring supply of juices rich in Vitamin C to supply of disinfectants and giving work from home facilities.
"The scheduled visits of the clients at our co-working offices have been postponed. Few of our clients have cancelled their outstation meetings and have now started audio/video conferencing for virtual meetings," said Nakul Mathur, MD, Avanta India.
According to reports, India has approximately 1,000 co-working locations (as of September 2019) and is the second-largest market for the co-working industry after China.
As India's first licensed B2B Virtual Network Operator, CloudConnect Communications offers a collaborative platform that allows companies to overcome the COVID-19 threat while maintaining seamless business continuity and optimum employee productivity.
"We offer a secure, robust, reliable, scalable and trackable mobile-first unified communication infrastructure that aids remote teleworking so that businesses can continue operating even under any unforeseen circumstances," said Gokul Tandon, Executive Chairman, CloudConnect Communications.
Comments
VHP are the most jobless people on earth. If they want to do social service..there are a hundreds of things they can do..and it's a very sad reality that these VHP people who are \so called hindus\" haven't read a page of their Scripture..it is their Hindu scripture that tells them to eat beef and other non veg. This clearly shows their level of knowledge. This is all a drama!because I have met so many hindus (I don't lie because I fear Allah) who eat beef..And even Christians who are no where in this beef issue. And i even know of these SAME NATAK HINDUS WHO PUT A NEW BORN MALE CALF INTO GOBAR GAS TANK BECAUSE THEY THINK MALE CALF ARE OF NO USE."
Is it mr true Indian ?,cmon give me a break. First learn English then advice me..from.which wahabist madrasa you learnt English .first learn the difference between \ leaving \" and \" living \" .then advice .sorry I am not a voter in US .if mr trump wins the election .I will be more happy because he knows how to handle Islamic terrorism wel . I am okay with racial profiling and I never met intolerance in this alien land ."
@Ahmed
When trump kicks u out from usa. What u will do. U r leaving in USA. But ur english is very poor.
@Ahmed fake.
ur usa funding and created terrorists. Shame on u.
Just type hilary clinton and taliban on utube. U will get the answer.
I never tried to divide. I tried to unite.
Pork carries lots of diseases an
Mr True Indian .don't talk like nonsense. I doubt you are an Indian.when we live in multi religious society we must respect others faith. If not becoz bastards like you .society gets divided.I clearly say its becoz of people like you sangh parivar is getting into violence mode .are you aware of cheddis power these days ? Come here and see.no no ...I don't think you will get not even tourist visa with your attitude for USA.whether you accept it or not ..100% sure Mr Modi will bring uniform civil code and we will be in real mess thereafter .so always advice respect other faiths .let's keep religion within home and private and outside let's live like Indians.Hindus take out hides from dead animals .do you know that ?...beef meat means buffalo meat also ....there is no restriction for them to eat it .PFI blocked?,I don't think so. They are having free time becoz of congress govt .moment table turns real problem will crop up. We must never underestimate cheddi log .even though I don't endorse them .its the fact .now they are more powerful than before .we might glorify PFI kfd and CFI .but we must know and predict our future positions.certainly we will have more problems if we allign with wahabist mentality groups in coming days.
Bopanna
But we dont eat. Have u seen a single muslim who ate pork. But i have seen many cheddies who eat beef and pork.
Pork is the only animal on earth which eats his own shit.
Pork eaters are also called as shit eaters. Ru pork's shit eater.
What about serving pork to Muhammad and all of you ,?
chaddis are with a intention to spoil youngsters life.
i/o of doing public welfare.
If one visit beef serving hotel it's real fun to see chaddis enjoying beef
Y don't u guys BAN export of beef which has increased
hahahaha look at one of he guy's comment(mainly we have to destroy bunder), for your kind info couple of years ago BEEF MANDI was under he hands of few hindutva activists, why didnt u destroy then ?
these people give big dialogues about go maathe and all and when they boose they make sure that they have a plate of beef fry.
HYPOCRITES.
Go and tell Modi to stop exporting cow meat.....before start killing innocent human kind....you don't have value and respect towards human kind....heartless creatures....killers of Mahatma Gandhi....
Yes you are right ....................Great result ...finally forced to change the tactics .....after Great resistance from Popular front of India and its allies such as Komu souarda vedike and like minded people and all other 95% Indian Citizens ...these fanatics agreed to change the tactics ...Jai Ho ........
WE CAN DO IT.......5 % Fascists V/S All other Sound Minded . Days are near when these Fanatics are dragged into the prison or to rehabilitation centres .
Vishwa hindu Pakistan
These coward people dont have guts to ban beef in goa.
Kick these vhp to pakistan. Police is not able to catch thogadia. How can they catch dawood.
Sachin Tendulkar’s Ferrari car. Udhav Tackrey’s Mercedes car. Baba Ramdev’s many luxurious car's interior are made from gau mata.
replace their car seat with steel chair.
And many luxurious brands in india like channel louis vuitton burberry gucci etc. most POLTICIANS use it. Are made from gau mata.
First look at ur own family member. Might fallen in love jihad.
How u people will survive without beef with alcohol.
Cheddis are known for their deception
Even after they were caught red handed by their own act of love jihad and cow Stealing, they are giving this shameful statements.. In future we will see this cheddis will be trapped in their deception again..
They think people are still fools accepting what they want .. But I wonder why dont some fools still dont understand this game of deception from the deceivers who learnt their lessons from the greatest deceiver on earth, the zionist... who will dump Indians as well as dump the cheddis with their evil acts...
u cannot stop anything in india, india will be the safest place for all like us.
banning caw slaughtering its just a dream.
for coming 100 or 1000 years, u cannot stop cow slaughtering, its our right we will eat till our death.
yes mainly we have to destroy bunder in this case
Hope at least your new strategy will stop beef export!!!
wow good news. Jai hindu rastra.
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