CEOs share their experiences of remote working and beyond

Epoq IT’s Gary Swanwick contributed to a compelling look by Paycheck Plus at the impact of remote working on businesses – their people, processes, and infrastructure. In the extract below, Gary shares his experiences as a leader of a well-established IT Managed Services Provider.

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Founded back in 2002, Epoq IT is a customer-focused Managed Services Provider that specialises in regulated sectors. What we do is help regulated businesses to stay compliant through a mixture of strategic services and managed services in business continuity, IT security and the traditional service desk.

When the pandemic struck, we were 100% ready to switch our operations to remote working without any degradation of service to our customers. Our immediate focus was on helping clients with their own business continuity plans. Within regulated sectors, there is a lot of emphasis on disaster recovery and business continuity, meaning many customers were already well prepared.

Of course, there has been a massive impact on businesses. We have seen some that have had to completely rethink things. In the pharmaceutical sector, for example, there has been a willingness to embrace digital technologies from video conferencing to virtualisation, to keep pace with new opportunities presented.

What was striking was the sheer pace of change, with decisions that impacted the whole culture of more traditional companies being made in days.

What have leaders from Workforce Management, Payroll Processing, Facilities Management and Health & Nutrition discovered since the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent lockdown? Visit Paycheck Plus to find out more.

Looking forward, what we are seeing in our own business and in others, is a determination to reinforce the positives of rapid digital transition. In our case, we will not be rushing to bring everyone back to the office, and we will certainly look to Microsoft Teams as the default for meetings, saving time and travel costs as a result.

More generally, there is a new realisation that to stay competitive, businesses need to be both agile and resilient. Cloud-based services are core to that and Epoq IT is particularly well placed to support the longer-term shift to digital. There has been a lot of consolidation in the market over the last few years and this is set to continue, and Epoq IT’s future plans also include acquisitions.