WfH - Strategy, Technical requirements & Social responsibilities.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire world has seen a major shift in working style and norms, Tasks, which were considered impossible before, are happening now.

Work from Home (teleworking) is one of them. It’s like doing work by connecting to an office from Home (remote location), using telecommunications.

Working from home has been becoming “A new normal” now, Despite some issues and distractions, there are multiple benefits associated with it for everyone, Employer, employees, and society as well.

distractions

Survey Conducted during an online Session - 2020

Employer Benefits of Teleworking

Improved employee productivity – more productive than office working staff.
Reduced costs and expenses – Savings in real estate cost
Easier recruitment and retention – Being able to offer flexibility
Reduced nonappearance

Employees Benefits

Productivity – Over 70% of teleworkers claim they are significantly more productive.
Commute time savings – Less time commuting.
Cost savings – Saving money on lunch, clothing, commuting.
Better health – Less exposure to ‘sick' buildings, traffic accidents, stress.
Home and family – Able to spend more time with the family.

Community Benefits

Helps build a supportable economy – Telework is a critical component to building a truly sustainable local economy.
Environment Friendly– Less traffic, less smog, and lower demands for urban office space mean existing green spaces and heritage buildings can be preserved.
Help reduce contemporary problems, such as traffic, infrastructure needs, urban drift.
Reduces costs and expenses.

Requirements for Teleworking

Broadband Internet connections,
a Virtual Private Network (VPN),
VoIP or Video Conferencing (optional)

Connection

Teleworker Solution

Broadband Connection

Internet connection is one most important & essential requirements for conducting work from home. Without a stable internet connection, remote working is entirely not possible/hard to conduct.

DSL

DSL provides high-speed connections over installed copper wire systems (usually by landline telephone companies). There are two basic types of DSL technologies

asymmetric (ADSL)
symmetric (SDSL).

ADSL uses a frequency range from approximately 20 kHz to 1 MHz, providing higher downstream bandwidth to the user than upload bandwidth.

SDSL provides the same capacity in both directions.

WiMAX

It stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. A single WiMAX tower can provide large coverage to an area. IEEE 802.16 standard

The key benefit of a WiMAX is its small receiver size and shape to a PCMCIA card, or built into a laptop or other wireless device.

Nowadays WiMAX is obsolete and replaced by 3G/4G

Mobile (3G/4G) Solution

The next generation of mobile internet connectivity, offering faster speeds and more reliable connections

Cellular/mobile implementations of wireless Internet are on the rise nowadays.

3G/4G Wireless: Third generation and fourth generation wireless.

Long-Term Evolution (LTE): A newer and faster technology considered to be part of the 4G technology.

Coverage is often an issue, bandwidth relatively limited.

FTTH

With the increased demand for internet speed, Wireless technologies like mobile communication, WiMAX, CDMA are unable to provide higher data rates.

The need for Optical Fiber is a must, as it can carry Gbps (Gigabit per seconds) and ideal for providing full-duplex communication (sending & receiving at the same time)

Wi-Fi

With the availability of the best & reliable internet, but you will not get better connectivity if your WiFi is not up to the mark. Nowadays mostly laptops and devices are working on wireless connectivity, the placement of access point needs to be done as per usage pattern & requirement and avoiding obstructions.

Wifi

Wifi ranges

VPN Connection

A Virtual Private Network is an encrypted connection between private networks over a public network. It helps you connect to the office network and access the internal work portal over the internet.

There are two types of VPN:

Site-to-site VPNs

Used for connecting different branches/location over a public network

Remote-access VPNs

Used by teleworker for connecting to the office network

VoIP or Video Conferencing (optional)

This is an optional one but very common nowadays to communicate well. Mostly companies already have their own or vendor based VC setup like Skype, MS Teams, Zoom, and many others

Recently Huawei has introduced an IdeaHub for Virtual meeting

HUAWEI CLOUD Meeting works with HUAWEI IdeaHub to suit any meeting environment. Participants can join the same meeting from different regions, companies, and terminals.