Hub - Agile Working

23rd March 2020

Four Agile Working Challenges CTS is Solving for Our Clients

Firms throughout the country are implementing their business continuity plans (BCP) as employees shift to remote working over the coming days.

As cloud and managed services specialists, solely dedicated to the legal sector, we are fully committed to ensuring that law firms can maintain a high standard of service and business functionality as they navigate this unfamiliar territory.

Firms are going through a difficult period that requires immediate, decisive action. CTS are dedicated to helping with any challenges firms may face in transitioning to home working and the associated issues around IT support, security, business continuity and team collaboration.
Here are four immediate challenges we are solving for our clients today:

1. High Demand on Internal IT Teams

As staff transition to working from home, which will be strongly enforced by the UK government over the next few working days, this will result in an increased demand on in-house IT departments. For firms with a limited IT Team, the concern is that they may not be equipped to handle everything required to enable remote working, meaning both staff and users will need assistance to get up and running. Additionally, the current unpredictability the globe is facing may result in the absence of IT team members who are relied upon to keep business functions ticking over.

To counteract these worries, CTS can provide technological support to users in the event that an internal IT team is unable to. We can also provide additional support for IT teams who will be dealing with an increased volume of end user support requests, regarding challenges such as device compatibility and connectivity issues.

“I like the way the service is run. CTS is a trusted adviser and natural extension of the IT department. The team is very good at reporting to us and really feels like part of the Memery Crystal team .”

2. Heightened Security Risk

As the entire country shifts to a temporary remote working model, cyber security risks are increased as staff utilise a mixture of their own personal devices and business-issued devices. Phishing, data breaches, ransomware and supply chain compromise are just a few of the significant cyber threats every firm faces, and due to the large amounts of sensitive and confidential data firms hold, robust cyber security is a vital.

CTS’ Managed Security service gives our clients peace of mind as it ensures that home working user devices are secure and that any breaches are quickly identified and addressed to limit the negative impact to the wider firm. With world-leading threat intelligence and analytical technology, threats that do manage to penetrate your firm’s systems are detected in minutes rather than months – enabling you to respond quickly.

3. Unreliable Business Continuity

With global concerns growing about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, and the unknown variables, law firms are being forced to evaluate their preparedness for the impact this pandemic might have on their business operation. Leaders are facing rapid-response challenges and are initiating their business continuity plans (BCP), which must be capable of restoring and resuming critical and essential processes remotely.

CTS have worked closely with their clients to significantly improve their BCP by providing fast recovery of files, servers or applications in line with their desired Recovery Time Objective, as well as meeting their Recovery Point Objective by taking frequent backups to avoid data loss. Our proactive monitoring and alerting of issues before they have an operational impact provides a seamless failover experience to end users in the event of a disaster, with minimal disruption to your firm.

“You need to be back in business not in weeks or days, but within hours and minutes – and with CTS providing our business continuity and disaster recovery, that’s what we have at MW Solicitors.”

4. Poor Communication Across Teams

When remote working, conference and video calls become the new, virtual face-to-face meeting. For firms concerned about how they can communicate with their team members, having the right communication tools in place for your firm assists in productive and efficient collaboration between departments, mimicking the office workplace practices.

As a Microsoft Partner, CTS is assisting clients with the quick implementation of Microsoft Teams, with a plan to roll out O365 at a later date, providing a consistent connection between all employees throughout the firm.

We recommend that all of our clients live test their business continuity plan, if they have not done so already. We’ve put together this blog, which provides practical advice for firms to ensure their plan works in practice.

If your firm is in need of some extra support and guidance during this unprecedented time, contact us today.

 

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