The “Great American Office” in a Post-Pandemic World

Goodbye Office; Hello Working from Home

Recently, Google made headlines with an office purchase in Manhattan—by some accounts the priciest office space purchase in US history.

The news of Google’s purchase was notable for two reasons:

1. The sheer size and amount of the office space purchase
2. Because during the pandemic Google was among the largest companies to offer work from home to all employees

The purchase signals that the Great American Office may not be dead after all. But until a post-pandemic world emerges, the Great American Office is still an unclear commodity.

Why the “Work Remotely” Directive Was a Logistical Nightmare

For many office workers, the last year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a time of uncertainty. Office reopening plans have come and gone, remote work has changed schedules, and workflows have changed dramatically to adapt to dispersed teams.

Logistically, it has been a nightmare for office managers, supervisors and operational directors who have had to overcome onboarding hurdles, management hurdles, and IT hurdles at the same time, most of whom had no playbook or plans to rely on.

Our Cloud Premier Service team faced many of the same challenges.

Thankfully, we use the same platform that we support, and our goal has always been to allow our customers to work from anywhere. Cloud Premier allowed us to address the most pressing hurdle, technology and access, while adapting plans for all other hurdles.

Created for accounting firms, the Cloud Premier platform allows:

• Customers to access their data and applications from anywhere in the world, provided a stable internet connection exists
• Delivery of hosted applications over minimal bandwidth; it functions over a cell phone hotspot for customers in emergency situations
• Easier access to data that resides in our hosted environment; our customers can work from smartphones, laptops, or desktops anywhere and the same applications are available from any device

There is no need to download and install instances of Office or other business critical applications on a temporary workstation. The experience remains consistent whether working from the office, home, vacation rentals, or even RVs.

It Was 0 to 60 for Right Networks Cloud Premier

The ability to work remotely was somewhat baked into our culture pre-pandemic, as we allowed employees to earn remote workdays through tenure. In March 2020, however, we elected to shut down all offices and move to a completely remote environment literally overnight.

On a Friday morning, we opened our service queue with every agent working from home. Dining rooms, home offices, living rooms and bedrooms became the new workspace, and most of our customers were unaware anything had changed.

Because of our use of the Cloud Premier platform, we were able to overcome technological hurdles that could have crippled a company that relies on technology to support technology.

Furthermore, as we’ve evolved in this new paradigm, quality of life has not been negatively impacted for our department, and in many cases it has improved:

• Parents were able to supervise home schooling easier,
• Families were able to remain together through quarantines while still working, and
• Budgets impacted by the pandemic were eased somewhat without travel or commute costs needing to be accounted for

We’ve watched our team spread from two regional offices to over a dozen states and several countries as employees have moved. And through it all, the experience for customers and work needs of each employee have remained consistently met.

Managed IT Outsourcing Creates Continuity, Certainty—and So Much More

The Cloud Premier platform does the same for our customers.

Tens of thousands of users daily have been able to enjoy the same access and overcome similar problems throughout this entire pandemic. Entire offices and accounting firms were able to serve their clients during some of the most unsettled and turbulent times their companies had ever faced.

The workplace changed, but the work needs did not. The office simply … shifted.

There were, and will continue to be, many hurdles to overcome for businesses as we address a pandemic, and eventually post-pandemic, world. But technology does not have to be one of them. Cloud Premier solved the problems for our own Service Department, helped solve the problems for our customers, and can do the same for you.

Discover what Cloud Premier could do for you and your team, today.

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