Every business should understand the importance of having an online presence to remain competitive in their chosen field.
This emerging trend, often referred to as virtual business, requires a different strategy to aid success than traditional methods.
Below, we discuss several key measures to ensure that your virtual business can be dominant in the virtual marketplace.
Manage Staff Access
It can be burdensome to provide every employee with individual access to all the work applications that they need. This is where identity and access management comes in.
You can opt for a system which enables you to quickly set up and remove access to applications for selected employees or teams.
This will reduce the strain on your IT help desk for lost passwords and the like, thus making your team work more effectively.
Have an Anti-Malware Installed
Virtual businesses will involve plenty of uploads and downloads via emails, websites and more. Protect your digital assets from hackers and injected malware via cyber-security measures.
Opt for anti-malware software with scheduled scans and automatic file scans for new file downloads for the best results.
At the very least, be sure to have Windows Security options switched on, so that suspicious files and websites will be automatically blocked for your safety.
Schedule Regular Virtual Meetings
The absence of physical workplaces means that there could be a disconnection between your colleagues and you.
Catch up on each other’s work progress by holding a check-in and check-out meeting daily – one video call as work starts, and one just before the workday ends.
Free tools such as Google Hangouts lets you set up video call meetings and send out Google Calendar invites to everyone involved so that you can hold discussions more effectively.
Have a Standard Operating Procedure
Create workflows for all processes in your company, for example finalizing new sales, processing and delivering and orders. With an SOP in place for all staff to practice, you can ensure a smoother working experience.
Be sure to include the timeframe, person-in-charge and tasks for each step of the practical guideline as well. The more specific the steps outlined in the procedures, the more efficient your employees can perform!
Keep Track of Key Performance Indicators
Have a monthly review of your employee’s performance via key performance indicators suited for their jobs. This will help to measure their work efficiency, results, and more so you can be sure that everyone is doing their part while working remotely.
Discuss these KPIs with your employees to ensure that the KPIs set are fair and reasonable for them just as much as they are for you. You may find that your employees are focusing on tasks that you are not aware of during these discussions.
Set Up VPNs
If you are working with sensitive information such as your customers’ details, financial information, strategy documents or other similar items, consider subscribing to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service.
A VPN would encrypt your data and protect your employees’ online activities from being tracked and used by third parties, cybercriminals and other malicious sources.
Be sure to use a VPN when you are transmitting sensitive information online to protect your business.
Back-Up Regularly
File back-ups are crucial if there are files that you need to maintain for work purposes. Depending on how frequent you update these files, you may find that it is best to have a daily or weekly back-up to ensure that you will always have access to the files’ latest version.
Better yet, invest in a cloud storage system where your latest works are always uploaded to the cloud servers and can be accessed remotely from any location.
Usually, cloud storage services have their back-ups scheduled as well, so you can focus on your work and leave this task to the cloud services.
There are lots of factors to consider when working online. Be sure to be up to speed with the latest updates so you can compete with those in the same field of commerce.