But after a year of attending business meetings in pajamas and zero-minute commutes, many employees are eager to keep their current work-from-home arrangements, at least some of the time, even after the pandemic is under control. At the same time, businesses are realizing they can save money by reducing their office footprints or eliminate them altogether while tapping into a much broader talent pool.

As businesses transition to a new normal that includes remote work as a regular part of everyday life, they face a host of extra security challenges. More employees working remotely means more opportunity for cybercriminals to breach weaker defenses across a distributed network of personal devices, corporate laptops, unsecured Wi-Fi networks, and exponentially more remote connections to their servers and applications.

MSPs have a unique role to play in this new IT ecosystem. On one hand, they have customers struggling to navigate a remote work world, unsure of how to manage this diaspora of employees and endpoints. At the same time, MSPs are on high alert for security breaches into the systems they manage, desperate to avoid damaging attacks, data theft, and outages.

Here are the three top things MSPs should focus on to secure their clientele’s remote workforce:

Read the complete blog post at Channel Futures.

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This is precisely why businesses today are considering a cautious “hybrid work” approach when it comes to returning to the workplace. Introducing a hybrid work culture is an attempt at revamping the traditional work culture to achieve both employee satisfaction and an optimal work environment by leveraging the right technology and resources.

In this blog, we aim to shed light on what hybrid work truly is, its pros and cons, and why it is worth considering.

What Does ‘Hybrid Work’ Mean?

As the name suggests, a hybrid work model is a combination of two aspects — the structure and sociability of working from an office, and the independence and flexibility of working from home. There’s no set structure to a hybrid work environment. Businesses can frame it as per their needs and the expectations of their employees. In principle, hybrid work is aimed at granting more freedom to employees to fit work around other aspects of their lives rather than having them plan out their lives over the week during office hours.

What is the difference between remote work and hybrid work?

Remote work allows employees to work outside the traditional office environment, which is exactly what transpired in 2020. When working remotely, employees can usually execute their work responsibilities by accessing the office network from a remote location (mostly, their homes).

On the other hand, the hybrid work model designates certain days for in-office work and other days for remote work that requires individual focus. It is based on the idea that an employee’s physical presence in the office isn’t always necessary for work to be carried out.

Considerations Before Moving to a Hybrid Workplace

Many businesses have had to consider adopting a hybrid work model due to increasing employee expectations as well as certain compelling benefits that this model brings. For instance, 55% of U.S. workers want a mix of home and office-based work, while in the UK, employers expect the percentage of regular home workers to reach 37% post-pandemic as compared to 18% in the pre-pandemic phase.

Although hybrid work can enhance flexibility and employee happiness or satisfaction, it could also prove to be a fairly costly affair. To ensure a smooth transition, businesses will have to provide employees with all the equipment and resources (including furniture) they need while also keeping office space and equipment intact. Besides adding to operational costs, hybrid work adds more complexities to key business functions such as IT management.

Is Hybrid Work the “New Normal” for Businesses?

In a post-pandemic world, certain businesses may allow their entire workforce to work remotely while others may require all their employees to return to the office. However, a significant number will settle for something between the two. Over 80% of executives intend to let employees work remotely at least some of the time as compared to 47% who say they will allow employees to work remotely full time.

On one hand, remote work is here to stay, while on the other hand, it will not be the only preferred work model. A McKinsey report stated that 61% of the workforce in the U.S. can work no more than a few hours a week remotely or not at all. Similarly, a Stanford report estimated working from home to remain at an optimal level of about two days a week after the pandemic. All things considered, the hybrid work model will serve as the “new normal” for most businesses.

However, we must not forget that hybrid work may not be the best bet for every business. Considering the complexities and costs involved, some businesses will err on the side of caution when it comes to implementing a hybrid work environment.

Which companies should let employees work from home?

Businesses operating in sectors such as finance, management, professional services and technology could benefit more from a hybrid work model than ones in real estate, healthcare, utilities, retail trade, manufacturing, construction and hospitality.

Benefits of the Hybrid Work Model

Having established what a hybrid work model is, it’s time to skim through some of the major benefits it could bring to your business. Remember, putting together a comprehensive implementation strategy is key to drawing all potential benefits.

Increased Productivity

Does remote working improve productivity?

Recent studies have shown a rise in productivity among employees working remotely. According to a survey by Owl Labs, 75% of remote workers were equally or more productive during the pandemic phase. A study by Stanford of 16,000 workers over nine months found that working from home increased productivity by 13% on average. Conversely, 18% of remote workers found it hard to unplug from work and 40% have experienced mental exhaustion from video calls. So, while productivity has gone up with remote work, employee stress levels have also risen in some cases.

Reduced Overhead Costs

Do companies save money with remote employees?

A report by Global Workplace Analytics found that almost six out of 10 employers identify cost savings as a major benefit of employees working remotely. Businesses with a remote workforce can cut costs related to rent and utilities, cleaning services, food and taxes. For example, Dow Chemical saved over 30% in non-real estate costs after transitioning to a remote workforce.

Standardized Communication

How do remote teams communicate best?

By leveraging virtual communication tools, such as team messaging and video conferencing, businesses have managed to close the communication gap between remote employees. According to a report by Owl Labs, over 30% of businesses have introduced new tools for virtual meetings and remote workers are using video meetings 50% more than they were before the pandemic.

Valued Work/Life Balance

Are remote workers happy?

Owing to the improved work/life balance remote work has facilitated, nearly 60% of Americans think COVID-19 has changed the way they work for the better, according to a WalletHub study. Studies have shown how professionals have preferred the freedom to work while being closer to family while also avoiding time-consuming commutes to the office.

Improved Retention and Recruitment

Do remote work options help with employee retention?

Remote work has profoundly transformed employee retention. Over 50% of office workers would leave their current job if they could get one with more flexibility. Moreover, U.S. businesses that allow remote working will have a 25% lower employee turnover rate according to the State of Remote Work 2020 Report.

Disadvantages of the Hybrid Work Model

Along with its evident benefits, the hybrid work model also presents several challenges to businesses of all sizes, especially with respect to managing employees, ensuring a healthy work culture and keeping the network safe from lurking security threats. Let’s take a look at some of the prominent ones.

Limited Visibility

Does quality of work suffer with remote employees?

Remote employees may be logging longer hours and increasing productivity, but the ability of businesses to oversee and ensure quality work has diminished. In a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), over one-third of employers admitted that they are facing difficulties with upholding company culture and worker productivity due to remote work.

Managerial Challenges

How do you manage a hybrid team?

From a managerial standpoint, a hybrid team is a lot harder to manage when it comes to setting expectations, keeping team morale up, establishing equity, ensuring the right amount of flexibility, watching out for signs of burnout and more.

Collaboration Barriers

What if I can’t get in touch with a remote employee?

The inability to connect and collaborate with a remote colleague in time is a challenge most businesses have had to grapple with. It’s no wonder that 20% of employees find lack of collaboration and communication to be among the biggest struggles of working remotely.

Reduced Social Engagement

How do you build team morale remotely?

As per the Owl Labs report, nearly 30% of U.S. employees miss being around their colleagues in the office and loneliness emerged as the second biggest challenge to remote work. Building team morale in such a scenario is bound to be more challenging than usual.

Heightened Security Needs

How do you maintain security when employees work remotely?

The unprecedented surge in remote work has helped cybercrime flourish over the past year. An 80% increase in cybercrime in 2020 has made building robust cybersecurity resilience even more critical. Ignoring it could be devastating for businesses as cybersecurity threats in 2021 aren’t going to be any easier to deal with.

Ensuring an Efficient and Secure Hybrid-Work Environment

To manage a successful hybrid-work environment, look for a unified endpoint management (UEM) solution, such as Kaseya VSA, that is comprehensive (manages all devices and environments), efficient (powerful IT automation capabilities), scalable and affordable. Kaseya VSA can help you ensure high productivity (with the ability to maintain endpoint and network uptime) and optimal security (with the ability to manage patching, antivirus/anti-malware and backup) required to meet the challenges of a hybrid work environment.

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An IT skills gap is defined as when the demand for an IT skill or job role exceeds the supply of qualified professionals. Despite the growing addiction to technology, actual IT skills are scarce. And most of companies do not even have a formal strategy in place to overcome this.

With IT playing an essential part in business survival, the need for well-qualified and skilled IT professionals has risen exponentially over the past few years, but the churn has yet to match the demand.

IT skills typically have a two-year life span, which means what professionals know today will be outdated after two years. This constant evolution makes bridging the gap between employee skills and company needs critical for any firm.

The cybersecurity skills shortage

In 2016, hackers extorted businesses and institutions for more than $209 million, in 2017 the number rose to $5 billion and by 2019 it is expected to exceed $11.5 billion. These numbers indicate one thing — the need for cybersecurity professionals. Yet, a report from (ISC)2 reveals a worldwide workforce skills gap for a staggering 3 million cybersecurity professionals.

With the rise of the various strains of malware and cybercriminals becoming increasingly organized and aggressive, enterprises require talented professionals which is in short supply.

This lack of talent not only puts companies at the risk of security breaches but also delays innovation and slows down the continued growth toward digital transformation and cloud adoption.

The enterprise application integration (EAI) skills concerns

Enterprises these days use multiple point solutions for varied processes across the IT landscape. These applications often require integration to make the processes efficient. Using multiple integration technologies makes it harder and more expensive to hire the necessary skills. It also increases a company’s dependence on the handful of employees who know how to use each tool.

Legacy skills gap reaching crisis point for many businesses

Legacy technology has always been IT’s biggest challenge. Legacy systems run on outdated platforms and need experts who in many cases are on the brink of retirement. Reliance on legacy technology has the potential to exacerbate an IT landscape already short on skills. With the constant change in technology, it’s becoming increasingly hard to replace professionals who are adept at working with these technologies, as many are now reaching the end of their careers.

Also, employees entering the IT profession currently want to work with cutting edge technology and don’t want to learn about systems that are outdated. Without having an in-depth knowledge of these legacy systems or having access to those who implemented the systems, organizations can never be sure that every functionality and process is covered with the new system which can cause risk to the business.

Lack of specialization in current technology

One of the critical reason for the shortage of required skills in the IT sector is the lack of specialization in particular fields. Employees who specialize in a skill are able to focus better and make work easier. But, specialization can be a double-edged sword. For someone who is specialized only in one field might not be flexible enough to work on something else when needed.

Join our webinar to discover key ways to address the skill gap

The skills gap is a vicious circle – people can’t obtain quality jobs, and companies are struggling to find qualified talent. To close this gap, organizations need to form a solid action plan and execute it.

Join our webinar 5 Ways to Close the Skills Gap which is being co-presented by Tim Herbert, vice president, Research & Market Intelligence at CompTIA, and Rachael Walker, director of product marketing at Kaseya, to learn how you can effectively bridge the skills gap in your enterprise.

The post Bridging the IT Skills Gap: The Struggle is Real appeared first on Kaseya.

On the other hand, an SOW is an ideal way to scope out a project, especially a complex project, as opposed to an MSA, that details a long-standing services arrangement.  (You can read a recent blog of mine on how to craft contracts, SLAs and MSAs.)

Many times a client will specifically require an SOW, so you should be prepared to craft one that suits both parties.

If you already have a contract or MSA with a client, your SOW can encompass some of the same issues and reinforce those bonds.

SOW General Overview

An SOW, being most often project-based, focuses on defining what the deliverables are and when they should arrive.

Just as important, the SOW defines all the milestones that are behind the deliverables and who does what. This requires timetables, a way to review progress, and a means of tying payment to project progress. In addition, all resources critical to the project are defined in the SOW, as well as which parties bear which costs.

There also needs to be agreement on how the project is managed and governed, by what  methods, and what defines success or failure. Sometimes these measurements will include KPIs; other times there are other ways to define whether the project is progressing properly and these measurements depend on the scope or style of the project.  Some, for instance, may be more infrastructure or network related, while others deal entirely with new services. Obviously these would be measured very differently. For instance, measuring an infrastructure project may require making sure the hardware is installed, configured, has good network performance and security. A service would be judged on whether is properly customized for the client, that end users can exploit the service such as with cloud backup, and that there is confidence the service can meet SLAs.

It may be a good idea to establish a change management procedure to deal with changes in the scope of the project, unforeseen difficulties out of either party’s control, or other circumstances. This way,  you have a mechanism to deal with requested changes accommodating both parties.

However, an SOW can’t always cover every aspect of the project. For complex endeavors, there may be a number of related documents and addendum’s to handle details, such as specifications in the case of a software project or contract addendum’s related to service guarantees.

How an SOW Leads to Other Work

Just like a simple contract, MSA or SLA, a SOW is used to measure a service provider’s performance. If you perform well, that SOW is a key sales tool to acquire new business. Not only have you proven you can do the project, you also understand the client and are fully prepared to do more. And you can demonstrate this in a detailed manner by showing how you handled all aspects of the project and prove your top-notch performance.

Legal Aspects

As with a contract or MSA, any SOW should be carefully reviewed by legal counsel.  At the same time, the language includes both technical and legal aspects. Since the SOW is a document used by many folks, including   managers and other business pros, it should be written using clear, non-jargon language as much as possible.  It’s important that the document be comprehensible to all readers, not just lawyers and technical experts. To achieve this, have a literate member of your team or a third party read it for clarity and make the appropriate edits.

Here are some of the legal aspects the SOW should cover.

Intellectual Property

In many cases an MSP will create unique intellectual property for clients, inventions that have market value. This could include techniques, scripts, code and complete software tools. In the section, the client should agree that even though there are rights to usage, you as the creator own these inventions.

Confidential Information

Your business practices, prices and discounts can be just as valuable as your intellectual property.

Your clients should not share this information with your potential customers and especially competitors.

The same is true for the MSP. As a trusted service provider, you are privy to confidential client data and strategies. It is not just in your professional interest, but legal interest as well, to protect this knowledge.

Contract Termination

Termination can harm either side. If you terminate, the client doesn’t get the project or service they may desperately need. For you, you may not get the revenue you counted on and may have trouble recovering sunk costs.

The SOW should determine, for both sides, what is just cause for termination and whether and how either party may be compensated for work promised or delivered at the time of termination. It should establish who owns what property, such as physical hardware, and whether (and by when) this needs to be returned to the true owner.

Some MSP Specifics

The government of the State of Texas works with Managed Service Providers and Cloud Services Providers who help with applications and IT operations. Under a document “How to Write an Effective Statement of Work.” the government offers MSPs advice. One example is particularly germane as it talks about an SOW contract pertaining to core MSP functions.

Here is that example: “Customer desires and vendor provides site monitoring and maintenance that include remote network equipment monitoring and alerting, remote and on-site repair and maintenance, and on-site outage response services in Houston, Dallas and El Paso,” the document reads.

Here is how the responsibilities divide.

• “Customer Roles and Responsibilities
  • Site access at all three locations
  • Purchase and delivery of network equipment
  • Configuration design for all network equipment
• Vendor Roles and Responsibilities
  • Respond to network outages in accordance with SLA’s
  • Respond to customer requests in accordance with SLA’s
  • Provide any network drawing updates as changes occur”

The vendor, or MSP, must:

• “Conduct site inventory and provide updated inventory list and schematics.
• Weekly status reports.”

Texas also requires SLAs as part of the SOW. “Service Levels enable the customer to specify service level expectations for the services being performed.  Service Levels may be tied to response times for service, uptime of a network, mean time to repair (MTTR), or similar measures.

• Vendor will respond to outages within two hours of notification.
• Vendor will provide a status within 4 hours of outage notification.”

Texas also has specifics and what is required for it to accept the work and, if these are not met, the state will withhold payment.

• “Conduct site inventory and provide updated inventory list and schematics.
• Weekly status reports.”

Tying payment to work performed is also critical to Texas, and their document details: “Pricing and Payment Schedules/Milestones may be tied to Deliverables as noted above, but may also be tied to completion of phases of a project as long as vendor demonstrates task completion and tracking toward project goal.

Example:  Project phases that may generate payments:

• Report of current business practices
  • May include personnel interviews, write ups, review of IT platforms, etc.
• Gap analysis report
  • This would include the vendor tasks of identifying the end goal of the customer, analyzing current systems and processes, and drafting the gap report.
• Final assessment report”

CompTIA to the Rescue

For many MSP issues, CompTIA is chockfull of resources.  In the guide Incorporating a Statement of Work, the organization offers guidance on the fundamentals of crafting an SOW and why you may need one.

Solving Disputes

Like with any contract, a SOW helps protect both parties in the event of a dispute, especially one that seems to be moving toward the courtroom.

“If there is a dispute about a contract, one of the first things a court does is try to understand what the parties intended. The Statement of Work is the place to tell them. Every agreement should have some kind of description of what is being sold, what kind of work will be done, or objectives to accomplish; it doesn’t have to be any more elaborate than the circumstances warrant,” CompTIA argues.

Core Assumptions

CompTIA believes much of the SOW can be based on the information in your original quote, but then you add details about how contingencies are dealt with. “You, no doubt, quoted your price based on what you would do for the customer, what the customer or a third party might do and when or how often. Often these assumptions are based on what you have control over and what you do not,” CompTIA explained.

The group cites the example of onsite repair that should take one day. However, that schedule assumes that you recommended the client keep replacement parts in inventory. If that doesn’t happen that one-day repair can turn into many.

The Larger the Scope, the More Plentiful the Issues

For smaller projects or tasks, a simple contract may suffice. But broader, more complex projects introduce more variables. “Installation raises a number of issues when added to the contract. Turnkey? Time and Materials? Milestone payments? Coordinating contractors? Performing help desk functions injects a separate set of problems,” are some of the issues CompTIA raised. “What packages will you have to support? How much training do their users have? How old is their system? The nature of the customer’s business, and the laws that regulate it, also complicate the equation. Health care and financial business often have significant amounts of customer information that is highly sensitive and potentially damaging if compromised.”

Conclusion

MSPs pour their hearts into the services they provide. At the same time, customers are not always perfect. They can be difficult to deal with, and miscommunication can arise because they don’t understand technology as well as you do.

That’s why contracts such as SOWs and MSAs are so import. These offer legal protection for you in the case of a misunderstanding, and give the client a roadmap to what you provide. They can also be living document which change as you add new or higher level services.

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