The Recycler Issue 331

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FEATURE Are you in the working from home sector? The working from home workforce could double from 5% to 10%. They will all need IT, cloud and server connectivity, printers, consumables and security. Here is our take on what is needed to work from how you might benefit from this growth market. FEATURED A R TIC L E Working from home- or home-based working presents its challenges, but it is a growing reality in today’s workplace and is likely to double as we adjust to working with the COVID-19 coronavirus. First question is what is the difference between working from home and homebased working? Its subtle, but different. Our neighbour, Joe is a heating engineer and he is home-based. He has his tablet and phone and all his work is uploaded to his tablet at 4pm each day and any parts he needs are delivered to him by 8am the next morning. He does his jobs, keeps his tablet updated, job planning software works out his route and even sends automated texts customers telling them when he will arrive. If an urgent job comes up, head office can see where he is and send him the urgent job. He sees his boss at least once a week at one or other of his jobs. Working from home is doing your office job from home. It is not a new concept. In 1979 IBM installed terminals in five employees’ homes, and while a novel concept by 1983 about 2,000 IBM employees were working remotely. The corporation eventually realized that it could save millions by selling its signature buildings and institutionalising distance work; the It is not a new concept. In 1979 IBM installed terminals in five employees’ homes, and while a novel concept by 1983 about 2,000 IBM employees were working remotely. number of remote workers ballooned. In 2009, an IBM report boasted that “40 percent of IBM’s some 386,000 employees in 173 countries have no office at all.” More than 58 million square feet of office space had been unloaded, at a gain of nearly $2 billion. IBM, moreover, wanted to help other corporations reap the same officeless efficiencies through its consulting services. Leading by example was good marketing. * What you need: Internet The internet connection governs anyone’s ability to work from home. A slow internet connection, copper based phone lines, poor 4G mobile all impact on connectivity. Even if you have good connectivity, you may come up against your ISP’s bandwidth throttling. Bandwidth throttling is when your ISP deliberately slows down your internet because you may have reached your monthly data cap, or perhaps you’ve forgotten to pay a bill. However, ISPs may still throttle your bandwidth even with an unlimited contract because as the demand varies, they cannot uphold the speed in your contract. The OECD published a report in June 2019 showing the leading counties for fibre optic connections. 90 Percentage of fibre connections in total fixed broadband, June 2019 ** 80 70 2019 Q2 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Korea Japan Lithuania Sweden Latvia Spain Iceland Finland Norway New Zealand Portugal Luxembourg Estonia Slovenia Denmark Slovak Republic OECD Chile Hungary Mexico Source*: 2017 When working from home doesn’t work – Jerry Useem 32 Issue 331 June 2020 2017 Q2 2015 Q2 Turkey Poland Switzerland France Czech Republic Australia Netherlands United States Canada Colombia Ireland Italy Germany Austria United Kingdom Israel Belgium Greece Source**: https://www.oecd.org/internet/broadband/broadband-statistics-update.htm
You can contact The Recycler via Twitter at @RecyclerMedia If you are lucky enough to have fibre optic then no worries, but assuming your internet is reasonably fast and stable, here is what you need to work from home effectively. Remote Desktop Assuming you left your office computer switched on you might want to access files, images or other assets while working from home or while you are travelling. To do this you will need a good remote desktop app and there are a couple of good ones to consider. Teamviewer This is our favourite it is free for personal use or starts at €10 per person per month for business use. TeamViewer is available for Windows, OS X, iOS, Linux, and Android. It is easy to set up and does not need IT to sort out port forwarding or reinventing the firewall settings. And for the security minded uses it supports twostep authentication. Anydesk This German software enables has a Home Office option ideal for individuals and freelancers to connect to your remote work computer. You have unattended access and remote printing, file transfer and the AnyDesk Whiteboard to draw simple instructions and the chat feature to say even more while collaborating during remote connections. Session Recording allows you to record the interaction for future reference. Prices begins at €8.49 ($9.19) monthly. Server Connections If you need to hook up to your servers then you need to think about these hardy options: Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) offers complete remote administration of your systems, including software updates. ARD costs $80 (€73.83). Microsoft Remote Desktop (RDC) offers slightly more limited remote access, but is free. Issue 331 June 2020 33
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