Smart Working, How to ensure Business Continuity with the Cloud
Not only Italy, but the whole world is now dealing with Covid-19. It has become a must for most companies to initiate Smart Working, at least those that are able! This means, staying connected from home via computers, mobile, and video conferencing, to ensure our colleagues and clients are receiving services.
Let’s see how the Cloud helps companies to ensure business continuity and productivity. Atlantic Technologies, a Cloud provider and digital technology company, will use its own casestudy to show and teach you how to overcome the disruptions today.
Cloud Transformation, The path to innovation for Smart Working
Most of our customers were ready! Our foresight and their agreement in embracing the Digital Transformation process and the adoption of Cloud for managing all aspects of the business including customer relationships, has been the basis for retaining stability and continuity.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for many Italian or worldwide companies.
Before Covid-19 forced us home, the Politecnico University of Milan, “Smart Working” Observatory, records that only 58% of large companies in Italy had started Smart working. Since the decree from Italian authorities on February 23, 2020 to “limit travel, avoid crowds, and work from home” (for an indefinite period of time), Italian companies will now be forced to embrace the Cloud for the benefit of the company and employees.
How the Cloud benefits business processes and promotes agile working
The success of the Cloud has been revolutionary and a paradigm shift on how companies operate: reachability and accessibility of information is guaranteed to everyone and no longer only to the device. This has clearly been an improvement for collaboration and communication – both inside and outside the company – thus reaching higher levels of efficiency and productivity.
Cloud Software, be it Management, CRM, ERP, or Analytics, allows you to access information on the network (cloud), without the need to install and save files and applications on a fixed device. Even “delicate” activities, such as those relating to payments or HR, can be managed by the Cloud, using a secure connection or VPN. There are other advantages to Cloud Computing, discover them here.
From any company location and branch office around the world to employees in the field, everyone can access information easily, confidentially, and collaboratively based on the specific needs. Some examples are Internal back office (ERP), communication among employees, projects and customers (CRM), Asset management (EAM), Marketing for content creation and market analysis, Service operators for customer service and requests, and HR can carry out their work using HCM cloud platforms.
The development of a virtual and digital workspace, needs adequate tools and a strategy. Most importantly there needs to be a focus on the person and his training. This is how the productivity of the individual, the community, and business is assured of progress and the spread of corporate culture and a sense of belonging.
Support and Distance learning are key elements
Among our many services, we have been supporting our customers in adopting solutions and innovative projects for business efficiency and connectivity for over 25 years. Activities that, despite the current situation, have not stopped. Indeed, in some cases we have intensified and enriched our solutions for certain companies.
This is what happened with one of our customers who had been involved in training courses for Change Management. The company’s Product Manager expressed the need to train the employees in the company’s branch offices around the world on safety issues, products and services. Unable to travel because of Covid-19 and not having a pre-defined remote training program in place, he didn’t know how to organize himself for the challenge. Atlantic Technologies’ experience in this field allowed us to support him in the creation of a “Virtual Classroom” to carry out his project.
Like Smart Working, remote learning and eLearning are other tools for the future. This can increase employee satisfaction and optimize company expenses. In addition, there are obvious costs related to training and many hidden costs related to the movement of resources and the time they require.
#AtlanticPeople and Smart Working
For many years, the Atlantic Technologies team has used video conferencing, chatting, document sharing and Salesforce Cloud modules for managing customer relationships. Our employees have benefited from job flexibility since the company’s foundation. We’ve also been big promoters for the overall comfort of our employees, thus having a modern and Smart Work environment, encouraging meetings, having a stocked refrigerator full of healthy snacks and fruit, breakfast foods, and enjoying late afternoons with appetizers.
When Smart Working became the only way to ensure business continuity, our Digital Workplace proved to be well fitted. Thanks to technological and strategic developments, Atlantic Technologies has been able to continue its work at full capacity during Covid-19. Most importantly, we have passed our knowledge onto our customers, helping them to achieve success too. Not only have we been able to close new contracts and continue serving our customers, we’ve also been successful in re-creating internal spaces and moments of interaction between employees through several savvy network connections.
Because of all of this, one of our more creative Employee Engagement initiatives, that has brought us closer than ever, is a contest called Smart Working Contest #AtlanticPeople:
“Husbands, wives, companions, children who run around the house, sisters & mothers who realize they are caught in the picture frame and run away, “Smart Working” in Atlantic brings us even closer, brings out who we are, humanity, and the real #AtlanticPeople.“
HR and Marketing Team | Atlantic Technologies
With the message above, we invited our colleagues to participate in a contest by sharing their photos in one or more of the categories. The photos that receive the most likes from the employees will win.
#SmartRelatives
#SmartPets
#SmartCooking
A look into the future
In this unfortunate and experimental phase that has been forced upon us by the Covid-19 outbreak, some companies have been able to adopt a smart way of working. Others, however, are unprepared because they simply don’t have the right digital tools in place. Many differentiate these modes by referring to a place and time – both are flexible for smart working. The real difference, in our opinion, concerns the approach. A truly smart organization must abandon the idea of working in stages and must embrace a task and objective approach.
The challenge of the future is therefore to acquire tools and strategies that make companies really smart.
“Acting on the flexibility, empowerment and autonomy of people means transforming workers from employee oriented (assessed on the amount of hours they work) to responsible professionals focused and assessed on the basis of the results obtained.”
Fiorella Crespi, Direttore | Osservatorio Smart Working
The focus needs to be on the person! The Observatory notes that Smart Workers are on average more satisfied and more involved than colleagues who work in the traditional way. Thanks to agile working, the person achieves a better balance between their work and private life, and one becomes more productive and goal-oriented.
Do you want to make your company really smart and ready for the challenges of the future?
