Remote work technologies. TAdviser 2022 review

On January 18, 2022, Prime Minister RFMikhail Mishustin called on employers to transfer as many employees as possible to remote work. The government even developed a special plan of additional measures in connection with the spread of a new strain of coronavirus - omicron. Even earlier, in October last year, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued Decree No. 61-UM, according to which by February 25, 2022, organizations and entrepreneurs in Moscow must transfer at least 30% of employees to remote work. Many companies responded to this call, returned remote control to their practice. Statistics on the increase in the number of infections confirm the correctness of such a decision. Thus, at the beginning of 2022, the pandemic is also relevant, as it was two years ago, when it began.

The pandemic came unexpectedly, but on time. Today, it is difficult to imagine how it would be possible to implement the effective work of employees in new conditions, if not for the Internet, mobile communications, clouds and a whole set of special technologies for remote access and organization of collaboration. If we imagine that something similar happened, for example, in the early 90s of the last century, some problems would be solved using a landline telephone, fax and courier. However, this could hardly be called a full-fledged replacement for work in the office. It was in this sense that the pandemic came on time: the level of development of information technology made possible full-fledged, effective work not only from home, but also from any other place, including when on the way. At the same time, the range of tasks to be solved for a number of industries and industries is almost as wide as in the office.

Remote Labor Market: Qualitative Assessment

It is difficult to assess the total number of distance workers in the Russian economy, since there are virtually no official statistics, but it is quite possible to qualitatively assess the overall picture by sectors of the economy: the remote labor market is growing. Our experts unanimously name the IT industry, finance and retail among the leaders.

Ivan Pavlov, Telfin project manager, believes that the leaders in the number of remote employees are such sectors of the economy as trade, communications, finance and insurance, culture and art, science and education.

The new format of work is available for those who are engaged in intellectual activity, - he states. - First of all, these are representatives of the IT sector, the Internet and. Specialists in telecommunications the field, and marketing advertizing PR, as well as art, entertainment and work remotely. By mass media, 56% and to data HeadHunter 55% of full-time employees from these segments replied that they work remotely in one format or another. Employees of finance departments, sales managers and HR specialists are increasingly switching to partial remote work (2-3 times a week)

Nikolay Prodivoda, Head of VDI at DataLine, notes that the most actively introducing solutions for remote work of the company from the segment of trade in consumer goods (FMCG), cars, representatives of the financial sector and media.

However, it is difficult to single out unambiguous leaders, the expert adds. - The process takes place in almost all sectors of the economy, except industry, where without the presence of employees in the workplace, activity is impossible

Various studies also say that the remote labor market is growing. Thus, a recent online survey by Raiffeisen Bank of two thousand Russians who have been looking for work since the beginning of the pandemic showed that about half of them (45%) considered options for remote work in another city. It is characteristic that the main motive for switching to a remote work format was the desire to increase their income. According to a study conducted by analysts of SberServices and Yukassa services, the number of self-employed in Russia in the period from January to October 2021 increased 2.4 times. Since most of the self-employed provide services remotely, this also indicates a high growth rate of the remote labor market.

Remote Labor Market: Quantitative Estimates

According to the Federal state Statistics Service (), Rosstat according to the results of the third quarter of 2021, the potential labor of the Russian Federation is 75 million 555 thousand people, of which 3 million 353 thousand -, unemployed that is, 72.2 million people work. At the end of 2020, the number of people working under work contracts at home Internet using is estimated at 53 thousand people. - the assessment, to put it mildly, is not the most correct.

There is another source of official information - the Ministry of Labor. In September 2021, the head of the ministry Anton Kotyakov at the Eastern Economic Forum said that the number of remote workers in Russia is about 3 million. And then he confirmed this number at a plenary meeting of the State Duma in December. However, no additional information on what such an assessment is based on could be found on the agency's website.

Perhaps one of the factors determining difficulties with official remote statistics is the growing number of Russian freelancers who remotely interact with their corporate employers without any employment contract at all. Meanwhile, according to PWC, the Russian freelance market from 2014 to 2020 grew almost fivefold - from 3 to 14 million people. It turns out that every fifth employee in Russia is a freelancer (19.4% of 72.2 million people). In monetary terms, the volume of the Russian freelance market is also growing: in 2018, PWC estimates it at $33 billion, and in 2020 - $41 billion. Analysts state in their study that in terms of revenue and growth rates, Russia is one of the ten economies with the world's largest freelance market. PWC predicts that by 2025 the market will grow to $100 billion, and the growth rate will be 20%. And since among the key areas of demand for freelance services are design, programming, content, translations, it can be stated that most of the freelancers interact with employers remotely and make up a significant part of the market for remote work technologies.

Thus, it is difficult to even estimate the total number of remote workers, but we will try. Large IT companies regularly conduct research among their clients, publish their results. One of these studies was carried out by Jet Infosystems in the market for remote work of large enterprises. Its results were published in early 2021. Few respondents participated in the survey - 102 in total, and all of them belong to a certain segment - large corporate business. At the same time, this study covers the main areas of the economy: the real sector, trade, finance, transport, power. One of the results of the survey was the share of remote workers in the company, as a percentage of the total number of employees (see chart below).

Therefore, there are certain reasons to try to project the results of this study on the data of Rosstat on the number of employees in these economic areas and perform assessment calculations. At the same time, we will conditionally refer only manufacturing enterprises to the real sector.

Employed population by type of economic activity

Industry	Number of employees, thousand people.
|10 174
Trade wholesale, retail, etc.	12,829
Transport	7 661
|2 748
|1 962
|35 374

	Rosstat, September 2021
' '

The total number of employees in these segments of the economy is 35,374 thousand people. - we will take as a basis for calculations, while we will use the lower limit of the range from the study (10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90%).

As a result, based on Rosstat data and the results of a study by Jet Infosystems, we received an estimated number of officially employed remote employees - about 22.5 million people, that is, almost a third of the country's working population (72.2 million people).

Of course, it is not entirely correct to project to the whole country the results of a special study of an IT company made on a relatively small client base and in one client segment - a large corporate business. But even if the model is not entirely correct and the error is large, it is obvious that in Russia, as in the world, there is a very impressive human base for the use of remote work technologies, and this base is steadily growing.

As for the prospects, here, as always, there are pessimists, optimists and realists. Optimists believe that the number of companies in which employees from different continents will work together will grow. Pessimists - that after the end of the pandemic, everyone will return to the office. Realists are betting on a combined approach: some employees will remain remotely, some will return to the office, and some will successfully combine work in the office and from home.

Interviews with experts

Features of remote (remote) operation control

It can be assumed that the lack of reliable official statistics on the remote labor market is partly due to outdated legislation. Not so long ago, the regulations of the Russian Federation did not provide, for example, the possibility of providing documents for concluding an employment contract in electronic form, transferring to a remote location in emergency circumstances without the consent of an employee, the possibility of a combined mode of remote work and a number of other opportunities.

Amendments taking into account the new reality were made by the Federal Law of 08.12.2020 No. 407-FZ "On Amendments to the Labor Code in terms of regulating remote (remote) work." One of the important short stories of the Law - the definitions of "remote" and "remote" have become synonymous.

Now the format of remote work is regulated by law and allows organizations to officially transfer employees to a remote format and accept employees to the staff in the same format, - analyzes the law Mikhail Papura, Deputy General Director of CorpSoft24. - For example, this can be done during a worsening epidemiological situation and also officially and legally withdraw employees back to the office. We received a legislative understanding of who are the "remote operators" and what points to pay attention to when concluding an employment contract for remote work and other local regulations within the company. The big plus is that there is a hybrid work option. During the pandemic, the transition to telecommuting was a salvation for many workers. The management of companies can save money on office rental and other related expenses, but the nuances of personnel control appear. Obviously, there are still many "blind places," and there is room for legal regulation of remote work to develop

Alexey Lagutin, head of the project implementation of Mango Office, notes the positive impact of the law on the market, as "its creators tried to please everyone." The legislators took into account the wishes of employers who defended that it was necessary to remove the clause on the mandatory use of an enhanced electronic digital signature (EDS) to sign an employment contract on remote work. The point of view of trade unions was taken into account that local acts on the procedure for interaction between the employer and the remote worker should be drawn up taking into account the opinion of trade union organizations, and the Ministry of Labor, which considered it necessary to add combined employment. The authors of the law also made sure that employees do not lose their salaries after switching to remote mode, if the work has not changed. The expert also assesses the law positively because the number of documents has decreased, remote work has become easier to regulate.

Natalya Likhodievskaya, HR Director of Softline, confirms that recently the regulatory regulation of remote work in Russia has become more fully reflecting the necessary changes associated with the pandemic, in particular, in terms of registration of employees for work, the features of a remote working day.

Remote Technology Solutions

The choice of specific technology for the transition to remote work of employees depends on the type of business, security requirements, the company's IT budget, the availability of qualified IT personnel and a number of other factors. There are many options, in general, the following technological solutions are used to switch to remote work:

• electronic document management system: each EDMS presented on the market provides for the possibility of remote access of an employee to the system, as a rule, with the ability to use all EDMS functionality;
• cloud file storage (Yandex.Disk, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) and office applications for working with them: provide the ability to store files in various formats, edit them, including collaboration on a document, sharing access, etc.;
• solutions for organization of corporate communications (VKS-systems, messengers), including specialized software and hardware complexes from vendors;
• Remote employee performance monitoring systems
• means for providing information security work at a remote location;
• technologies for organizing access of remote employees to the corporate IT infrastructure: VPN, VDI, RDS;

Alexey Lagutin, Mango Office, states that modern information and communication technologies allow at a high level to maintain the involvement of even remote personnel in business processes, provide complete control of real performance.

After two years since the beginning of the pandemic, we can safely state the fact: employees in remote and hybrid formats have increased creativity and involvement, but there is also a problem associated with burnout. Advanced employers help employees distinguish between work and personal life by organizing a convenient team interaction when business calls, messages and video conferencing are inside one common application. This does not allow working communications to spread uncontrollably through other communication channels, for example, through personal messengers - adds Alexey Lagutin.

Nikolay Prodivoda, DataLine, believes that, first of all, any business when choosing a solution for switching to remote work is guided by cost.

For example, if the company has organized mobile corporate workplaces, then most often it will be more profitable to provide these devices to employees to work from home with a VPN connection, the expert says. - If employees only have personal equipment for "remote," then RDS will come to the rescue in conjunction with VPN as a cheaper option, or VDI with a higher cost and wide possibilities, and so on. There are many scenarios, and they are all individual, so I would not highlight niches or industries. Since even a small startup can use any of these options

Alexey Pechenin, Director for Development of Communication Services at VK Digital Technologies, notes the importance of an integrated approach with the ability to solve the widest possible range of problems. He states that when switching to a remote work format, it is important to use such solutions that will allow employees to remotely solve their main tasks, develop professional and personal skills, and develop projects. For the management of the company and personnel, it is important to be able to analyze the emotional state of people, motivate them, help to cope with tasks without burnout, the expert adds.

VPN, RDS и VDI

Let's dwell in a little more on technologies for organizing remote access to the corporate network when remote:

• private virtual network (VPN, Virtual Private Network), when on the basis of VPN protocols (PPTP, SSTP, L2TP/IPSec, Open VPN, etc.) a secure tunnel is created between the remote worker device and the corporate network (VPN server); The worker's device IP address is replaced with the IP address assigned by the VPN server.
• Remote Desktop Services (RDS) - provides a centralized server or server cluster for hosting computing resources, a client program on the user's device all remote users have the same desktop, solutions - Microsoft RDS, Citrix XenApp, VMWare Server, etc.;
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) - a virtual machine is created for each user and the personal desktop is emulated.

Key differences between RDS and VDI technologies in user isolation, ease of deployment, and cost of solution. The terminal server is simpler and cheaper to deploy, but when it hangs as a result of an unsuccessful launch of the application by one of the users, it will freeze for all other users. VDI technology allows an employee to work in isolation, but this requires large server capacity and high performance DSS (iOPS).

Most companies use several access technologies for different groups of employees in parallel. In general, VDI is most often used by financial institutions. This technology is used by 80% of the large banks we surveyed. Banks, insurance and investment companies operate within the strictest information security requirements and, in addition, have a mature IT infrastructure. Companies in the real sector are more likely to use remote access to physical PCs "(70%) and terminal servers (54%). Retail prefers VPN (70%) and terminal access (60%) - says Dmitry Galkin, head of VDI Jet Infosystems.

Mikhail Papura, CorpSoft24, notes that according to the company's statistics CorpSoft24 there are no obvious favorites among access technologies, as there is no clear separation of technologies by market niches.

Different customers actively use different technologies in approximately the same proportion, including several at once. VDI is used slightly less often due to the fact that this technology and rental services are more expensive than other technologies, says Mikhail Papura.

Cloud-Based Remote Solutions

Most of our experts note the great popularity of cloud solutions for organizing remote work, noting that in this regard the Russian market follows a global trend.

Nikolai Prodivoda, DataLine, notes that by the end of 2020 the VDI market was estimated at 500 million rubles. and the volume of calls for a similar service of the company amounted to 12% of the total, and in 2022 the expert expects a twofold increase in the market.

There is an increase in the client base of cloud operators leasing virtual capacity, and an increase in the number of companies leasing a finished product for group work, "agrees with colleague Mikhail Papura, CorpSoft24. - Application system developers are actively promoting the cloud placement of their systems according to the SaaS model, and integrator companies offer their customers a set of technologies and schemes for quick transfer to the cloud of local application ICs in operation at the client

I agree with my colleagues Sergey Azarov, head of IaaS Services at Softline Cloud, who believes that the cloud direction is in maximum demand among organizations. The transfer to a remote version of work leads the company to the need to transform its IT infrastructure, quickly withdraw employees immediately to a remote format, ensure disaster tolerance, security, the expert notes, and as a result, interest in clouds, ready-made services that can be obtained in a short time are increasing.

A slightly different situation is seen with cloud services to Dmitry Galkin, Jet Infosystems. The expert admits that over the past two years, the VDI as a Service (DaaS) segment has received growth momentum, as it has ensured the fastest possible allocation of resources for rent. At the same time, he states that the demand for DaaS remains small, a large customer prefers VDI on his site. Cloud services are associated with minimal terms of qualified IT systems implementation and near-zero capital costs, the expert says. However, in the case of VDI as a Service, the use of the service from the cloud is interesting only up to three years, and after five years, the cloud financial model shows an overpayment of 1.5-2 times compared to local implementation, he says. Therefore, large businesses often use VDI from the cloud only as a temporary solution, more often this service is of interest to small companies with several dozen employees.

There are a number of aspects that in the medium term make the cost of VDI as a Service too large, - explains Dmitry Galkin. - For example, the provider should allocate part of the IT infrastructure for managing virtual desktops and integrate it into the customer's domain. Or provide antivirus protection, backup and monitoring of cloud VDI. This is usually an additional functionality with separate tariffs. As a result, the real price for a workplace may be several times higher than the advertising one. The first post-pandemic cases of switching from VDI as a Service to VDI on-premium already exist

Alexey Lagutin, Mango Office, notes that until 2020, mostly technical divisions of companies were interested in clouds. But the market for unified communications from the cloud (UCaaS) is developing rapidly, and in recent years there have been many hybrid markets at the junction of IT, telecom, marketing, the expert states.

Therefore, today we see great interest in our tools from the departments of marketing, sales, client service, "says Alexey Lagutin. - At the end of 2021, the number of users of the cloud communication platform Mango Office amounted to 1 million people, and the number of clients from the medium and large business sector increased by 42%. For us, this is an indicator of the great interest of companies in the transition to cloud tools

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The procedure for switching to remote work, problems

So, for remote work, you need to provide access to corporate resources from anywhere via the Internet. The way the transition is organized depends, among other things, on the characteristics of the company's IT landscape.

According to Ivan Pavlov, Telfin, the main condition for a quick and painless transition to remote work is the creation of a safe, controlled and convenient workplace. To do this, you need to select the equipment necessary for work (phone, laptop camera microphone), as well as resolve the issue with remote administration. To create a single information space, you additionally need to organize access to corporate business applications (,, etc.), ERP CRM CMS set up chats for company employees, a service for. videoconferences Thanks to modern functional telecommunication services, you can remotely process customer requests within the first hour of work outside the office. To do this, it is enough to transfer to mobile and/or home numbers of employees, turn on alerts about missed calls, connect personal gadgets to a single office one. AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE EXCHANGE

Our company was no exception - some employees work remotely, so we actively use all these settings in our work, "says Ivan Pavlov. - Soft-backgrounds are installed on the devices of our employees, which allow you to always stay in touch. We keep statistics on telephone calls, record of conversations with customers, history of cooperation in CRM. As a result, the efficiency of managers outside the office increases significantly, and communications become more transparent

The role of telecom operators and IP telephony providers in the transition to remote work consists not only in providing internal and external communications, as the expert concludes, but also in organizing a full-fledged virtual workplace, and with the ability to remotely control the work of employees outside the office.

As an example of building a technological chain when implementing a remote location, Mikhail Papura, CorpSoft24, put in order the steps when the stack of information systems is built on the basis of Microsoft products:
1) purchasing a server, configuring Microsoft Remote Desktop Services on it;
2) setting computers up remote access sessions for employees;
3) expansion of the Internet channel for the office (if necessary);
4) setting up the forwarding of telephone calls to employees' mobile phones or using the so-called softphones, based on special software.

Dmitry Galkin, Jet Infosystems, talks about the following scenarios for organizing remote work of employees, when corporate data should not leave the enterprise security perimeter: remote access to physical PCs in the office, use of terminal servers or VDI. The expert lists the difficulties associated with each option:

• using remote access to physical PCs requires the presence of technical personnel in the office - restarting computers, performing other technical work;
• the terminal server or VDI assumes additional capacity, requiring the allocation of own servers and DSS or the lease of resources in the cloud.

Another important aspect is network connectivity. The low throughput of communication channels among the main problems when transferring to a remote location was called by 26% of respondents to the study we conducted. And it is also necessary to solve logistics problems, since technical support will be required for employees who have gone home - adds Dmitry Galkin.

At the same time, our experts state that purely technical problems when switching to remote work are already allowed in most cases. At least in IT companies, where most of the employees have switched to a remote or hybrid format, involving alternating work from home and in the office. And companies began to approach the choice of remote work technologies much more consciously than at the beginning of the pandemic.

At the start of the pandemic, the demand for solutions for remote work was spontaneous, - recalls Nikolai Prodivoda, DataLine. - Many companies have tested solutions in forced mode, trying to understand whether this or that format of organizing "remote" is suitable for them. However, not all of these tests ended up with implemented projects. Now the excitement has decreased, and over these two years the business has learned a lot about how these technologies work, what tasks they solve. Therefore, today companies approach the implementation of solutions for organizing remote work much more consciously - this is a big step in the development of the market. Many managers and Chief information officer already know exactly what format of work their business needs, and choose solutions based on this. This situation is perfectly illustrated by the statistics of requests. Spontaneous demand in March 2020 increased the number of requests for VDI three times in 10 days. Gradually, the statistics have leveled off and are still at + 100% of the period before the start of the pandemic

Anton Malov, Proton Group, states that difficulties with the transition to remote work at the beginning of the pandemic did not arise for the company itself, but for its partners and customers. These problems were associated with the need to provide employees with equipment and organization of secure access to corporate information systems. There were no organizational difficulties after solving these technical issues.

Alexey Lagutin from Mango Office says that it is technically difficult to combine branches and distributed offices in one information space. Another problem noted by the expert is ensuring secure access to infrastructure, especially for financial institutions that face high demands in the field of personal data protection. The transition to remote work of companies with a large internal communication system is also difficult.

In ordinary life, invisible communications occur between employees that allow you to synchronize with each other: you can ask a colleague for coffee, discuss something on the way to the meeting room. At a remote location, the team is devoid of spontaneous communication. We need a strong and convenient system of communication, contact search and data exchange, which, moreover, will be quite simple and understandable even for new employees, explains Alexey Lagutin.

Secure Remote Work

Information security of remote work is generally provided by a complex of specialized software: SIEM-system (information control, threat search), DLP system (control of data exchange, prevention of their theft), software for document protection (prevention of document theft), antiviruses (resistance to malware).

Nikolai Spirikhin, solution sales manager, information security Softline states that due to the remote mode of operation cloud services and popularization, many vectors are created to penetrate the attacker into the network infrastructure of companies, which requires detailed consideration and the formation of an acceptable security architecture. The expert believes that the fundamental approach should be based on the Zero Trust model. It implies that each subject located in the corporate network infrastructure can be a potential attacker. This approach will provide control, monitoring and increase confidence that the connected employee is indeed legitimate and does not pose a potential threat, Nikolai Spirikhin notes.

However, it is worth remembering that many specialists can use personal devices that contain completely different software, including viral ones. Therefore, it is necessary to use standard perimeter security tools: next-generation firewalls (NGFW), UTM devices, sandboxes, IPS/IDS and other systems. This is necessary for streaming analysis of incoming/outgoing connections, transferred files, blocking detected threats and automated response to information security events.

The implementation of the Zero Trust is ensured by a set of measures and specialized means of information protection, which are based on periodic and continuous verification, and both internal entities and entities gaining access to internal segments, corporate data and processed information - the expert adds.

Nikolay Prodivoda, DataLine, also speaks about using the zero trust approach to the device from which a person connects when using VDI. Multifactor authentication is used to enter VDI, antivirus is installed, intrusion prevention systems are used. In addition, the device is protected from programs that register keystrokes (keyloggers) and screen capture. Thanks to this, employees can use their own devices and work safely with company data, the expert states.

If remote work is implemented through a VPN on an enterprise device, then security is provided in accordance with company policies. When connecting via VPN from personal equipment, an employee often has limited access to the business infrastructure, thus the company protects the most valuable data - adds Nikolai Prodivoda.

Monitor employee performance

If the need to provide information security is beyond doubt, then the effectiveness of remote work is a reason for discussion. Some employers believe that efficiency is falling slightly, the second - on the contrary, increases, the third - does not change, almost all experts agree with the importance of using special tools.

According to statistics, every third company controls the activities of personnel with the help of special software, in particular, it restricts access to a certain nature to third-party sites, states Ivan Pavlov, Telfin. In the case of a remote workplace, the situation is somewhat different, the expert believes: managers control the intermediate steps of employees. Thanks to IP telephony services, statistics are maintained on incoming and outgoing, received and missed calls, the client's wait time on the line and the duration of all telephone conversations are recorded.

One of Telfin's clients, when switching to a remote format of work in the state, had a vacancy as a quality control manager, "says Ivan Pavlov. - With the help of IP telephony services, he assesses the level of telephone service and information security in the company. The specialist works remotely from a personal device using a soft background, listens to and analyzes recordings of conversations with clients. Increasingly voice , bots that work on the basis are being connected to control the activities of company employees. artificial intelligence Virtual Assistants not only collect feedback, survey and survey customers, but also automatically analyze this data for compliance with corporate telephone service standards

Quality control of the company's employees can be partially delegated to clients, the expert adds. With the help of a special service, subscribers independently evaluate conversations with specialists, and the manager can measure the customer satisfaction index in real time, evaluate the work, both of a specific employee and the client department as a whole.

Anton Malov, director of Proton Group, is quite brief in his opinion on the control of remote employees. He believes that if the processes are built competently, then it does not matter where the employee works - in the office or at home. Properly built and constantly improved business processes make it possible to sharply increase the competitiveness of the enterprise with any format of work - full-time or remote, the expert states.

However, most of our experts believe that the task of tracking efficiency and control using specialized tools is relevant. These solutions have specific functionality: viewing images from employee monitors (online monitoring), controlling keystrokes on the keyboard ("keylogger"), video recording, productivity reports, and a number of others.

Natalia Likhodievskaya, Softline, notes that there is no total control in the company, but managers are more vigilant about employees who partially or completely do not fulfill KPIs.

Mikhail Papura, CorpSoft24, states that the task of monitoring a remote employee is usually solved with the help of a task manager, a production calendar, a subsystem for monitoring the presence of an employee at the workplace, pictures of the workplace from a webcam, as well as a dialogue with an employee when messages are displayed to which he is obliged to respond within a certain period of time. As for the redundancy of control, the expert agrees that it may be harmful.

Employees consider such control unfair and oppose the "supervisory system." The employee's useful control can only include an objective analysis of the effectiveness of his work, when the results achieved are compared in terms of volume, quality and spent resources - temporary, labor, financial - the expert explains.

Alexey Lagutin says that it is difficult and not always effective to monitor the working hours of remote employees, so it is necessary to move on to monitoring the results. To do this, all roles in the company must be carefully described, and KPIs are related to the employee's actions. At the same time, it is important that the manager clearly informs the employee what results are waiting for, and provides him with resources, without which these results cannot be achieved. As for technical controls, according to Alexei Lagutin, voice analytics helps to "unobtrusively, diplomatically" manage the quality of employees' work - a service that records and analyzes the content of all calls, automatically generating reports for the manager on the quality of work in the context of employee or department indicators.

The business analytics service is also in demand among our clients, which is able to give detailed statistics on calls: how many of them were received, how many were missed, what is the average duration of the conversation. All this is designed to help eliminate the "blind spots" of sales and service. The system provides detailed statistics on calls in the form of visual reports - the expert complements the picture.

As for the reasonableness of the approach to the tasks and harm of excessive control, Ivan Pavlov, Telfin, noted that it is important for each department to control its key indicators:

• in the sales department: number of transactions and conversion to sales, number of potential customers, average check;
• in the IT department: timeliness of tasks and their compliance with the terms of reference.

And it is also very important to share the degree of control of experienced specialists and young employees of the company, says Ivan Pavlov.

Novice specialists often need a curator and mentor who helps at each stage of work, answers questions from the employee himself, participates in solving complex client tasks, the expert explains. - For example, Telfin subscribers often use the possibility of connecting to a telephone conversation and breathing for such control, that is, the employee hears the curator, and the client does not even realize that a third party is involved in the conversation

If a specialist already has experience working with clients and partners, the manager must also keep his finger on the pulse and control the work only according to the result, states Ivan Pavlov: the manager sets the task, and the employee performs it in accordance with the plan.

In this case, Telfin experts recommend effectively keeping a history of communications and cooperation with customers in CRM, monitoring telephone calls in the form of visual tables and graphs for a certain period of time - it complements.

Successful cases

According to the results of two pandemic years, it can be unequivocally stated: there are a lot of successful cases on the market, moreover, to one degree or another, they are almost all successful. It can be assumed that there are two main factors of total success. The first: the presence of a wide range of information technologies in the market for organizing remote work. The second: a tough need, before which the owners of the business were put, the management of the companies: you will not be able to transfer employees to remote work and organize their effective work - there will be no business. Our experts shared their thoughts on this matter, everyone spoke in the context of their professional specialization.

Ivan Pavlov, Telfin, noted that his company's team has been working in a hybrid format since 2019: 2-3 days in the office, and the rest of the days remotely. Key meetings, department brainstorms and short meetings with clients and partners are held in person. Such a compromise (or, as such a format is often called now - hybrid) approach to organizing working hours allows employees not to lose contact with each other and maintain corporate spirit, while remaining mobile and complying with the recommendations of the Ministry of Labor.

The key solution for remote communication remains the video conferencing service, says Ivan Pavlov. - With its help, the company's specialists organize online meetings with customers and partners as soon as possible. All advertising and training events in Telfin are also held on the basis of this service. VKS helps not only stay always in touch, but also reduces the time for making important decisions, since up to 50 participants can be connected to an online meeting at the same time. In this case, all agreements are automatically recorded, you can conduct a vote or poll, create a common or personal chat with the manager in order to conduct a one-on-one conversation and not distract colleagues

Dmitry Galkin, Jet Infosystems, settled on the practice of using VDI. The most successful cases of transferring employees to remote work were implemented in companies that implemented VDI even before the start of the pandemic, he said. When the transfer to a remote location became an emergency, these companies quickly scaled the system and brought new users into it.

According to this scenario, we helped organize remote work for several large organizations. One major bank consolidated information resources, and VDI became the corporate standard for accessing applications and data securely. With the beginning of the pandemic, the bank transferred more than 10 thousand of its employees to remote work throughout the country. It took about two weeks. Users have access to the necessary applications regardless of their place of stay, corporate data is not stored on their devices and this ensures a high level of security, "said Dmitry Galkin.

In practice, the successful use of VDI technology was stopped by Nikolai Prodivoda, DataLine, who spoke about one client project implemented in the transportlogistic company. The client chose virtual desktops in the cloud by subscription, the optimal configuration of the solution was selected, taking into account corporate security policies. In a single system, both office workers with desktops and field employees with laptops that were on ships were combined with a total of about 80. The VDI infrastructure was deployed and configured in one day.

Mikhail Papura, CorpSoft24, stated that most of the company's employees are developers, consultants and engineers. Even before the pandemic, they rarely spent time in the office, worked mainly on projects with customers, so there were no difficulties with transferring their employees to remote work.

Alexey Pechenin, VK Digital Technologies, spoke about the successful application of the company's technological solutions in the state segment.

Based on our solutions, we have developed an automated workplace for a civil servant (AWS GS), says Alexey Pechenin. - It includes all modern tools necessary to create a single communication space, and provides employees of departments with a point of access to news and all key working resources. In December, GS AWS was introduced in several federal departments, and in 2022 a total of 100 thousand users will be connected to it.

Prospects for the Near Future

The future is a vague category, but it also gives room for imagination. Our experts willingly shared their thoughts on what innovative remote work technologies may appear in the near future, which will happen with the remote work format itself.

Nikolay Spirikhin, Softline, does not expect fundamentally new technologies in the near future. The main vector of development, he believes, will continue to be aimed at ensuring the quality, usability and security of the services provided to increase business comfort and confidence.

Nikolai Prodivoda, DataLine, suggests that in the near future, a solution may become popular that will allow a computer to create a workspace based on a virtual machine, completely isolated from the main system and protected. Then the employee will be able to comfortably work behind his device, and the company will store its data in accordance with information security policies.

Another future trend is remote worker workspaces in the browser. Already, many companies are developing web applications to implement this approach, the expert adds.

Large companies intend to use remote control in the future, and beyond the pandemic, Dmitry Galkin is sure, Jet Infosystems.

We conducted a study among one hundred and two RBC TOP-500 companies. It turned out that 41% of them plan to introduce a flexible schedule for visiting the office, and 44% want to transfer some of the employees to remote work on an ongoing basis. 7% will completely transfer office staff to a remote format. Therefore, IT solutions for remote work will be extremely in demand in the future, "the expert says.

Alexey Lagutin, Mango Office, states as an unconditional fact: there will be no return to the situation when 100% of employees work in the office. The future lies in a flexible working environment, in virtual offices that meet modern requirements and new formats of labor activity, the expert predicts.

Mikhail Papura from CorpSoft24 emphasized one technology of the future for working remotely: continuous biometric identification of a remote employee behind a workplace.

See also

• Remote work technologies. TAdviser 2020 Review
• Remote work in Russia
• Remote work in the world
• Remote work in state bodies and TARM official
• Remote identification of bank customers
• Organizational issues of remote work
• IT products and online services for remote work
• Remote Security - Issues and Recommendations
• Remote Work Equipment
• Integration Services for Remote Work
• Experience moving companies to remote work
• Remote IT Training Services and Courses

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