IT and Operations managers want to enable field worker productivity, empowering remote employees to be as efficient and as connected as possible. Office 365 will help you overcome the unique technology challenges you face in order to make this happen.
A traditional enterprise IT model requires you to issue hardware to your field technicians with standardized software and some sort of VPN or virtual network set up to access the company network when they’re off site. This model is not very accommodating for field workers for a few reasons:
- They are mobile; they are moving around, using multiple devices. Maybe they have a stationary workstation, but more likely they have a laptop, and they would like to supplement the use of this laptop with a tablet or a phone.
- They may not be on the company’s network. Field workers contracting for a client may work primarily on the client’s network. Furthermore, there may be restrictions on the use of VPN on that client’s network, hindering connection to your company’s systems.
- Workers may work in a remote location where internet connectivity is spotty or only available after coming back into a field office after some period of time.
Office 365 helps you stay connected to your field workers
Office 365 takes a big step forward towards the freedom to use many different devices seamlessly. For starters, each user has their own Office 365 account, which serves to synchronize settings and user data across any device the user happens to access. A typical O365 plan would allow the user to install office client applications on up to five devices, and change which devices they are installed on, giving you and your worker plenty of flexibility in the use of that software.
The mobile Office applications have come along way. Microsoft recently released new versions of Word, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Skype for Business, and Power BI apps for both iPhone and Android devices. Office Web Apps, which are versions of the Office applications that work in an internet browser without the need to install software are built using web standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, not a proprietary Microsoft technology like Silverlight. Users are more free than ever to view and edit their content in a browser on a tablet, without having to worry about having the right software installed.
Say goodbye to the hassle of VPNs and Virtual Networks
For workers who are connected to a client’s network and face restrictions on VPN connections to your network, Office 365 offers a clear solution. Because Office 365 is accessed through the cloud, it doesn’t require the worker to be on your network, users can work from any computer on any network and simply login via the Office 365 Internet endpoint.
We recently worked with a construction company that chose to migrate to Office 365 for this exact reason. They had field personnel working on-site at client locations, and their personnel could not connect to the home network. They had developed their own intranet of sorts in order to share read-only copies of critical operating procedures with fieldworkers, but because the workers couldn’t get on the home network, they couldn’t see the full scope of content available to them, nor could they collaborate with anyone in the home office. Office 365 solved this problem without any kind of customization.
Connectivity issues are not really an issue
Lastly, how does one account for workers with intermittent Internet connectivity? If you have used OneDrive or SharePoint Online, you may have noticed the ‘Sync’ button at the top of every document library and at the top of OneDrive. This is your key to solving that problem. All your fieldworkers have to do is click on that sync button once and Office 365 will automatically keep up-to-date copies of the documents in that library on the workers’ machines. They can edit those documents and even add new documents to the library, and the syncing of changes will take place the next time the worker has internet connectivity.
For more traditional note-taking, OneNote works best and automatically handles offline synchronization to allow users to drop in text, images, checklists, and links to other files. For standardized forms, the field worker can have a synchronized form library that is always in most up-to-date template, and when they’re ready to fill out a form they simply open it, fill it out, and save it to the synchronized library where submitted forms are stored. The next time they have Internet access, the form will be uploaded to SharePoint.
Advanced features of the Office 365 platform for field workers productivity
What happens if you have a lot of field workers that perform mostly technical work, but they’re participating in a business process that you want to automate, or maybe you want to collect data from their work so that you can create dashboards or visualizations? They don’t need the full Office suite, and you don’t want to pay for licenses for them, but you still want to collect data and have that integrated into Office 365.
The way you would do this is with what’s called a cloud hosted add-in, where the add-in is actually running on a remote server. It works just like any web application that your company would build, except that it’s tied into Office 365 or SharePoint. Building it this way, you can manage permissions for your fieldworkers separately from the way other Office 365 permissions are managed.
You might have a screen that they reach through their browser, input some data into a form, and then write this data to SharePoint. Maybe there’s another screen where the field worker can view data or dashboards drawing on SharePoint data in a list, but again you don’t need to pay for licenses for that user because they’re going to access your add-in and the add-in itself will have permissions to go retrieve data from SharePoint and show it to the user.
Keeping your remote workers up-to-date on safety and regulatory procedures
Expanding on the example of the construction company that I mentioned earlier, imagine that you are an Area Manager for this company. You go from site to site and from client to client overseeing each site, so there’s a lot of variability in the devices that you’re using and the network that you’re connected to. In each client location you have a workstation that’s set up and on that client’s network. You also have a Toughbook laptop that you take with you wherever you go, and an iPad that you brought from home.
You start your day at one client, logging on to the workstation, logging in to Office 365, and even though you are on the client’s network and maybe you’ve never logged onto this computer before, you have access to all of your files, settings, email signature, etc. We’ve all heard of situations where firms have gotten in trouble not from a safety or regulatory standpoint for using noncurrent versions of SOPs. Since the corporate operations team is collaborating on Standard Operating Procedures in SharePoint rather than in the file share, you always have access to the most recent major version of the SOP.
You head out to meet your team in the field, bringing your Toughbook with you. Before work starts, you open your Toughbook, which is not connected to the Internet, and access your off-line synced copy of the safety checklist that you must go through with your team. You go to the safety checklist and save a copy of the form showing that you completed it and place that form in the sink library so the next time you have Internet access that will be retained in SharePoint for auditing purposes.
Data visualization using Microsoft Power BI
Later on that day, the project representative for the client calls you into his office because he wants to talk to you about the staffing level and results that your team is delivering. He shares his concern that the on-site team isn’t as productive as some of the other contractors teams he has working for him.. You take out your iPad and open the Power BI app, which has real-time data on the results that your team is getting for this client, which include major milestones, percentage of project completion, budget burndown, full-time and short-term personnel on-site, and KPIs showing productivity per full-time equivalent. This kind of detail is something that your competitors can’t pull up at a moment’s notice, and the data helps you to satisfy this client’s concerns.