COVID-19: How to Keep Working When Offices Close

Gary Barton – Analyst, Business Network and IT Services

Summary Bullets:

• Collaboration technologies offer a viable way to support home working during Covid-19 – and potential long-term cost saving and carbon reduction benefits.

• Enterprises should already be trialing collaboration and VPN platforms in anticipation of potential quarantine situations.

As airports come to a standstill and pictures of near-empty train stations dominate news feeds, it is clear that COVID-19 is already impacting the way many people are working. Even before the possibility of mandatory quarantining is considered, many employees are either being asked to work from home, choosing to do so, or are being forced to do so by circumstance (e.g., school closures). So how should businesses respond?

COVID 19: Keep Calm and Corona On – A Global Perspective

Jonathan Cordwell – Principal Analyst, UK Health & Social Care Technology

Summary Bullets:               

• Companies that have yet to jump on the remote working bandwagon may have their hand forced due to the self-isolation and social separation measures put in place by their respective national governments.
• We will undoubtedly see an uptick in the adoption of telehealth technologies, including remote monitoring.

 

On the 11th March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 (Coronavirus) a pandemic. As of writing, there have been over 130,000 cases reported across 123 countries, areas or territories and almost 5,000 deaths from the virus, which emanated from Wuhan in China. We have witnessed a wide variety of responses to the threat including mass self-isolation in Italy, travel bans, fiscal stimulus packages, health insurance policy allowances, business and school closures, and the cancellation of large events such as Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and HIMSS20 in Orlando, at which U.S. President Trump was scheduled to address the situation.