But for the fully VoIP enabled it was so much easier to integrate the final stage of true location-independent working, and get their teams up and running fast — without having to ship out devices or install new lines, because of native apps which would run on anything they already had at home.
Security wise, were corners cut by some organizations during the crisis? Undoubtedly, particularly at first — it was probably seen as more important to get people online and hooked into the office systems, especially those who others looked to for leadership and reassurance, via any means possible. Setting up their VPNs and firewall was of course important, but we know that in some cases this happened afterwards. In addition, the crisis itself spawned a depressing multitude of opportunistic scams, from bogus exposure alerts to fake test results, with bad actors keen to take advantage too of the naturally lowered guard people feel about work-related security issues in a domestic environment.
But once the gaps in the enterprise security blanket were plugged, users were left with an expectation of being able to connect and work from any location, and any device. Honestly, some IT directors are unsung heroes of this crisis, simply for enabling that and keeping things going — but they have forever changed the relationship of users to their workplace technologyFor organizations, the issue is one of managing and mitigating risk, because risk cannot be eliminated altogether. It’s about planning and thinking through scenarios and possibilities, and documenting this exercise in a comprehensive risk assessment.
The world has learned the hard way that unforeseen events can disrupt the way we work overnight, and while there was a sense of ‘winging it’ with workarounds being acceptable When the pandemic first hit, expectations have now changed for good.
More info: telecom sector
