Page 37 - BusinessWest August 3, 2020

From a Distance
Managers Need to Manage the Technology, People, and Culture
CBy Sean Hogan
OVID-19 has changed the way we all do
business. The remote workforce, which
was embraced by a few, is now the new norm and embraced by almost all businesses. The question lingers, though: will this revert when there is a vaccine and we go back to the normal, non-pandemic lifestyle?
To do this effectively, managers need to man- age the technology, the people, and the culture. Let’s take them in order.
Managing Technology
Our company, Hogan Technology, has sold and configured videoconfer-
Zoom and Microsoft Teams. These tools can be used to enhance your company communications and productivity, but we need to know how to use these tools.
Hogan has had remote employees for more than seven years; the challenge has been includ- ing those employees in the day-to-day interac- tion at the office. Pre-COVID, we rarely had video meetings; now, we meet several times a day via video to collaborate and share data.
Meanwhile, many of my clients have been quickly thrust into the remote workforce with little or no experience with online collaboration. They have quickly learned how to host and man- age online collaboration. Hogan has adopted a platform for the security and simplicity of the service. We host several Hogan Teams meetings per week. We have fixed meetings and ad hoc meetings. Our fixed meetings are administered by our staff; we create the team, invite the neces- sary personnel, and share all pertinent data to the Teams site for ease of retrieval. Teams has
a smartphone app, desktop app, and browser login.
We have noticed that our video meetings are more focused than our traditional conference
Manage
Continued on page 40
“Many of my clients have been quickly thrust into the remote workforce with little or no experience with online collaboration. They have quickly learned how to host and
encing and collaboration sys- tems for 25 years. We would set up conference rooms with audio and video so clients could establish videoconfer- ences with employees and customers.
In the past, we saw most of this technology gather dust; at first, a client would embrace video collaboration, but it would quickly be disregarded. The older video and collabo- ration technology platforms were clumsy and difficult to
manage online collaboration.”
Many believe that remote workforce is here to stay, and these numbers seem to be growing with each week and month (see story on page 22). But to do that, we need to understand how to man- age our remote workforce and embrace technol- ogy to support our staff.
navigate. Staff would quickly give up trying to learn how to use the tech.
Today’s collaboration tools are extremely easy to use, especially for the younger generation that grew up on smartphones. COVID-19 has pro- moted the skyrocking popularity of services like
Smart Business Banking
Smarter banking is better banking.
You want your business to be smart, efficient, and effective. Smart Business Banking is a flexible, scalable suite of business banking services designed to help keep your cash flowing and your assets growing. To learn more,
call 413.568.1911. westfieldbank.com
Member FDIC
What better banking’s all aboutsm.
Best Practice #77
Go Hack Yourself
Simulated Cyber Attacks are a Great Way to Protect Your Network
Wonder What Else You Don’t Know? Call Us.
(413) 585-9950 www.teamhogan.com
BusinessWest
TECHNOLOGY
AUGUST 3, 2020 37