What would happen if one of your staff was diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus? The head of accounts? The star sales performer?
The CEO?
This is the existential threat thousands of small business owners are facing right now. Coronavirus is jumping to new countries daily, and a vaccine is still in the early stages of human testing. Having a vaccine in the lab isn’t enough; it’ll take time to manufacture, distribute, and administer the vaccine and stop the spread of the virus.
Many people will die before then.
Even though the number of cases in Australia is tiny when compared to other parts of the world, the BBC reports that stock markets have plunged on coronavirus fears, so the likelihood that your business will be at least indirectly impacted is very high.
If you don’t believe the coronavirus is a threat, then think again – just this morning the Australian government activated its emergency response plan to the impending coronavirus pandemic.
As a business owner the best thing you can do is prevent the threat affecting your staff in the first place. The second best thing you can do is minimise it’s impact.
Prevent coronavirus
The World Health Organisation (WHO) lists maintaining social distance in it’s top list of things to do to prevent the spread of coronavirus. How do people who work together maintain social distance? They’re in the same office, using the same telephones, having lunch together, and touching the same door handles.
Worse… the building elevator is used by a thousand people a day, and tens of thousands are on the same trains and buses as your key personnel.
All of these risk factors are significantly multiplied when we consider that more senior staff are often the oldest. Consequently they’re the ones at highest risk, and who’s sickness or death would have the most devastating impact on your business.
The solution: cloud everywhere
The solution is to move your business to the cloud as much as possible, and allow your staff to work from home until this passes. No more public transport, infected elevators, and close contact with other staff. You already have your emails and web site hosted in the cloud, and many businesses have moved accounts to the cloud, in the form of Xero, so it’s time to make the final jump.
Two big areas remain… file sharing and telephones, and we can move both, quickly and efficiently. Best of all, moving these services to the cloud can usually be done completely remotely.
Dropbox and 3CX
Dropbox is the business standard for cloud file sharing. It doesn’t require an MS Office license, and can be rapidly deployed across a range of devices. With Dropbox for Business, your staff can access the same files from home as in the office, with the same or higher level of security, increased scrutiny, and much more conveniently.
3CX is the premier business telephony VoIP system. 3CX can be implemented on physical handsets or as an app running on your staff’s iPhone or Android devices. Your business retains the same phone numbers and gains business-grade telephony features, such as greetings to direct calls, queues to ensure calls are answered by the right staff, hours of operation, voicemails, and call recording for quality control and training.
Act today
The next disaster – whether it’s a global pandemic, severe flooding, or catastrophic bushfires – could come at any time. Your business needs your staff to keep working, and your staff need your business to stay open.
Contact us today on 1300 469 622 or info@ihelpit.com.au to find out how we can rapidly migrate your business to the cloud, and sidestep the current and future disasters.