It was the moment that millions of teachers, pupils, and parents have been waiting for, the return to school on the 8th March 2021 and the end of remote learning. Hopefully followed by the return of employees back to the workplace on 29 March – albeit, we anticipate flexible more agile ways of working are here to stay.

Over the last year, we have helped numerous schools and businesses set up remote working facilities which has enabled us to gain an insight into how vital technology is to those who need it to learn and work and we are grateful that these opportunities have helped our business to during such unprecedented times.

So, before sharing these lessons, we would just like to say an enormous thank you to all the employees and staff members working within schools and businesses for their ongoing support and enthusiasm in providing remote working for their pupils and staff. It has been amazing to work with such dedicated people who always want to give their best to their students.

We also want to say thank you to our very own technicians who have made remote working possible for so many. They have worked throughout all of the ‘lockdowns’ to provide ongoing IT support for a vast range of IT issues. They have adapted to supporting staff members who are no longer physically present and incorporated newer technologies and software such as Google Classroom in order to keep everyone more connected despite, at times, not being able to be on-site to give in-person help – which, after all, is one of the main benefits of working with Link ICT and our overarching customer proposition.

Here are the lessons that we have learned and would like to share from our experience with remote learning:

  • Lesson One – It’s all About the IT Strategy
  • Lesson Two – Agile Working
  • Lesson Three – Connectivity
  • Lesson Four – Procurement
  • Lesson Five – Safety and Safeguarding
  • Lesson Six – We all Work Differently
  • Lesson Seven – Working Collaboratively Together
  • Lesson Eight – Accept Sometimes Tech Doesn’t Work
  • Lesson One – It’s all About the IT Strategy

Very early on it was clear that the different organisations had a clear IT strategy that encompassed a disaster recovery plan that enabled people to work from anywhere as it was the quickest way to adapt to the work from home directive. So our first lesson is all about encouraging you to take a step back and really think about your IT and telecoms infrastructure. What other investments are needed to support your business, how it operates now and in the future and how will you go about financing their implementation.

  • Lesson Two – Agile Working

At the beginning of the pandemic everyone was jubilantly declaring that they loved working from home and hoped to continue doing so when lockdown was lifted. A year later, we are now declaring that we can’t wait for the opportunity get out! The lesson here is that future generations will want to be more agile and IT and Telecoms will be at the forefront of enabling organisations meet this demand.

  • Lesson Three – Connectivity

One of the most common frustrations was caused by connectivity issues caused by poor internet connections which caused frozen screens and buffering. By ensuring that users are connected to the organisation through a secure gateway, they will be able to access the school or company broadband connection, which is a dedicated line that should be fast and efficient and also benefit from any firewall and content screening protections that would normally be applied.

  • Lesson Four – Procurement

Similarly, the need for desktop monitor, under desk IT tower unit, keyboards and desk phones are probably going to be replaced by more portable devices and wifi connectivity. This may create a bulk procurement opportunity so always ensure that you partner with an IT provider that has distributor agreements with respected and reliable hardware and software providers and can broker you the best deals.

  • Lesson Five – Safety and Safeguarding

It was clear that some organisations really struggled at the beginning. There were some massive concerns about people using personal equipment to access sensitive information that ordinarily would have been protected by in-house security protections against cyber crime and other security risks that then infringed GDPR and safe guarding policies. Lesson five is to ensure that your users have a means to access the tools they need to work through secure gateways to your IT infrastructure. Thus removing the need to use their home internet connections and risking security breaches.

  • Lesson Six – We all Work Differently

We all learn differently. Some by seeing, others by doing, others by listening. Remote learning and collaboration proved not to be as straightforward or easy for some as it first seemed.  It can require a lot of set up work in the background. It adds more elements of focus and adaptation for all involved causing fatigue. Remote learning demands more from all involved too, like teachers needing to adapt their techniques to use electronic resources, to parents and carers being available to help their children navigate their way around IT systems.

At first it was difficult sometimes for users to do simple tasks such as logging into remote systems. We all learned to be patient and our technical team learned to adapt their own coaching style to provide outstanding support whilst talking users through each step.

  • Lesson Seven – Working Collaboratively Together

Our technicians realised that there were common issues that our customers faced when using their technology, from learning how to navigate through Windows, to using the internet and device settings effectively to understand the cause of their IT problems. We found ourselves communicating more with our customers as we helped them gain more knowledge and how to resolve issues that may reoccur in the future. It created a culture of understanding and collaboration.

  • Lesson Eight – Sometimes Technology Does Not Always Work

As much as we appreciate the benefits of how technology helped us all to adapt to being at home more, like all best laid plans, there can be gremlins in the system! This led to a greater appreciation of the IT team and the skills they provide. The value of an IT retainer and support technician becomes ever more valued – well, we hope so anyway!

Overall, the helpful ‘can-do attitude and approach that is embedded in every member of the team is underpinned by our simple ethos to ensure your organisation benefits from having access to expert technicians to problem solve and to use ICT to its full advantage.

We found that when people fully understand their IT and telecoms solutions it creates user confidence and enables organisations to operate more safely and efficient.

If you would like engage with us, we promise to deliver our service in a way that is tailored to your individual needs. Please get in touch if we can help.