Slowly, slowly it seems that things are starting to head back to a level or normal… whatever normal is now. With that, you’ve probably got in the back of your mind what the office is going to look like when you finally get back to it. Obviously, not what it’s going to look like in terms of desks, chairs, pictures on the wall – that will likely be much the same.

But when it comes to who will be working in the office, how frequently and what impact is that going to have on your IT infrastructure – that is something that you’re going to want to start thinking about now.

Don’t worry if you find any gaps for your business in what we discuss below. Our friendly team is always on hand to discuss your needs and point you in the right direction.

What to do before going back to the office

Firstly, presuming that you are going back to the office – or expecting staff to be there at least a portion of their time – there are a few things that you will need to do ahead of time.

• Update and evaluate the IT needs of your business. It’s been a long time – pretty much a year – since most of us have been working predominantly outside of the home. A lot will have changed both in business needs and workstreams, but also in employees’ lives. Make sure you are discussing needs with the wider teams so they can be considered and met in a timely fashion.
• Now would be a good time to check in with your service providers. Make sure that they are in a position to help you transition back to office work. Undoubtedly, when making a shift like this that will affect business operations there may be some hiccups – so it’s certainly worthwhile making them aware of your planned change so they can assist you more quickly.
• Are there any new gaps that need to be covered? As stated above, a lot will have changed in a year and you may now have new workstreams that have only been operating outside of the office. It’s worth considering what impact shifting those back to an office base will have.

Finally, it’s worth considering how you are going to continue to adapt to flexible working (which we expect will become more and more the norm) and indeed if there is a need for office space at all for your business. It’s likely you will have already implemented these over the last year, but if not – now is a good time to think about how cloud solutions could be implemented.

So if you need to figure out your roadmap back to the office, or indeed a roadmap away from the office – we can help plan what that means for you from an IT perspective. We’ll ensure that a plan is put in place that focuses on your needs and minimizes any disruption to your business.

Learn more about our IT consultancy service here.