If you find yourself unexpectedly working from home, do you suffer from frustration because you can’t get at the information and systems you need?

• If you’re struck down by a cold or flu and have an urgent contract to complete, you don’t want to struggle into the office and spread your germs, but if that’s where all the information is, what choice do you have?
• If the weather delivers snow or floods and you simply can’t physically get to the office, do you sit at home twiddling your thumbs knowing that you’ll need to work extra long hours to catch up when the roads clear?
• If you get an emergency call from a client at the weekend or on a bank holiday does that mean you have to get in the car and drive in or say ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do anything until …’?

Whilst Dropbox or Google docs are a great way to get access to files, when you need access to the company intranet, it’s not always available remotely.  If you need to divert phones or answer them from home, most of the time you have to go and set things up at the office first.

Solving the problem isn’t as difficult as you’d think – all these things are possible.  You can ‘drive’ your office desk from your laptop or home computer, as though you were sitting in your office, with access to everything.

Phones can be diverted so that, if nobody can get into the office, the redirect can be done remotely and you don’t miss any important calls from people who are finding everyone else is out of contact during periods of really bad weather.

Don’t get caught out – get your systems working to allow you to deliver a seamless service.