Work From Home –  Ensuring Business Continuity

Since the corona-virus (Covid-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, many countries around the world enforced nation-wide lock-downs, allowing only essential workers to continue working. It has no longer been business as usual for most businesses, with some halting operations. Most, however, have had to adapt their corporate culture and Work From Home – something that should have been done long ago. The benefits have been a mandatory fast-tracked Digital Transformation, with companies using tech tools to keep working.

Below is a list of tech tools to manage your business. You don’t have to use them all, phase them in as you need and as your team can manage, remember, this will be a massive change for most people, and change is not comfortable. We are here to guide and advise you in your Digital Transformation process. Not only do we give you the best digital solutions, we also offer training to help you navigate through this period.

All of these require internet. It is best to get uncapped internet packages for staff. We cover some packages for internet in Botswana in this article.

Online Meetings

1. Zoom
2. Skype
3. Google Meet
4. Microsoft Teams

All the above allow video meetings. Zoom is a commonly used Google Meet and Microsoft Teams are part of their business packages if you have already subscribed.
Interesting fact: In December 2019, Zoom had 10million daily active users, 4 months later it has 300million daily active users. Facebook recently answered to Zoom by launching Messenger Rooms, allowing 50 people in on a video call.
Some companies swim, while others sink – digital innovation.

Team Management

1. Asana – task management, project management, team collaboration
2. Trello – team collaboration, project management, simple dashboard, has apps for devices
3. Airtable – Our favourite app. An all rounder that can be used for advanced data management, project management, and can be used as a content manager, CRM, database and more.

Documents Management

1. Google Drive – Cloud storage, document management, team work. Part of the GSuite package which includes mail and works well as the software that glues your company together.
2. Microsoft Teams – similar to Google, benefit is it uses Microsoft products if you use Work and Excel a lot.
3. Dropbox – file storage and mass document storage. Good for alternative backup.

Customer Relationships

1. Mailchimp – Hopefully you have been keeping a list of all people who contact you, and have a subscribe button on your website. Mailchimp allows you to send e-mails to your database, just like the ones you receive in your inbox.
2. Hubspot CRM – A Customer Relationship Manager is software your organisation needs to organise all your contacts, know who is who, and how you have interacted with them. Helps you organise your leads, customers and deals flows.
3. Whatsapp Business – This is a simple starting point. Whatsapp is the most used platform in Africa. Whatsapp Business is an app you can install (different from normal Whatsapp) to use for your business communication which has features beneficial to your business. You can also link to it from your website as we have done. People prefer chatting over Whatsapp than e-mail, even the most senior business executives, so take advantage of it.

Marketing

1. Google Adwords – When people search for certain services, your ads would appear leading them to your website.
2. Facebook Marketing – After Whatsapp, Facebook is the largest platform in Africa. It is where most people spend their time, the new billboard.
3. Canva – if you have a bit of creativity, you can design your own graphics on Canva instead of paying expensive graphic designers.