Remote office: how it works

More and more often you can hear that one or another company is moving to a remote (virtual) office or implementing it for some employees that work remotely. However, not everyone knows what is hidden under the term "virtual office", how it works in real life, and what benefits it can bring to a business. In this article, we will use some examples to tell you about the service of renting a virtual server for remote work of an office, and about how to it.

Structure and organization of the remote office

Since the remote office is one of the options for using cloud services, this system works in the cloud. A classic model of the virtual office consists of a terminal server in the cloud with all the important software, user accounts, and other data required for work, as well as connecting clients (terminals, thin clients, workstations, etc.). All the software on the server is for common use. This means that each employee who has an appropriate level of access can use the program they need. In general, any software system can be deployed on the remote office server, most often, it is accounting software (financial accounting, bank-client, etc.), CRM, task and project management systems, electronic document management, and other systems.

Examples of using the remote office for different groups of employees

Depending on the direction and specifics of a company's work, ways of using the virtual office may differ, but we will describe the most popular ones that will suit most organizations.

• Accounting. Not every modern office, especially if a company is small, requires the presence of an accountant at their workplace from 9 to 18 every day. Often, this specialist appears in the office only a few times a month – to prepare reports and charge salaries to employees. So why do not allow the accountant to solve these tasks remotely? To do this, it is enough to deploy on the server software for working with reports (for example, 1C), as well as a program for electronic document management (M.E.Doc or similar). After granting access, the accountant can solve all the necessary tasks without visiting the office.
• Designers and other "free artists". This is another category of specialists who often work remotely. With the help of the virtual office, their work can also be optimized. Of course, there is no point deploy "heavy" graphics programs on the server – this is an irrational waste of resources. Although it is a good idea to organize task distribution, assign technical requirements, discuss finished works, and make some amendments in their work. To do this, you only need to set up project and task management applications in the virtual office.
• Remote divisions and representatives in regions. The main task is to organize the work of all employees with a single information system. Now such tasks have long gone beyond the usual bundle of CRM + email. Shared access to corporate documents, archives, and internal knowledge base is a small addition to tasks that can vary depending on a company's work profile. So, the organization of a shared workspace for all employees with centralized management is the virtual office.

These are just a few examples of using the virtual office. Each company can have its implementation scenarios, given huge opportunities that such the workflow model organization provides. From our article, you can learn how to organize remote work. And if you are ready to transfer your company's work to the virtual servers, contact us, and we will organize everything.

Main advantages of the virtual office

Considering the examples of using the remote office, there are several main advantages that a company receives when implementing this service:

• convenient organization of work of remote specialists –accountants, designers, developers. They can get all the benefits of working from the office (work on documents, a task management system, access to databases and necessary software) without leaving their home workplaces;
• expanding opportunities for full-time specialists, even if a specialist is on a business trip, thanks to the remote office, they can always connect to work at the right time, monitor a situation, or perform an urgent task;
• saving money and time – video conferences instead of real meetings and negotiations, discussing the results of work and distributing tasks remotely; saving on equipment – a basic configuration of a workstation or a thin client is enough to access the terminal server because an entire data array is processed on the server;
• security and confidentiality of data and software – all important information can be stored on the remote server (it can be even a data center located in another country), and clear distribution of access levels between employees. This will ensure greater protection of your data from loss, theft, and other unforeseen situations.

The virtual office is used by those teams and companies that work for the result. Every interested employee will find much more benefits in the process of work, once you start. You can read impressions of companies that have already switched to this model of work in reviews. And if you need more information, feel free to ask for a personal consultation, we are always in touch and ready to help.