How APN-as-a-Service Ensures Risk Mitigation And Business Continuity Through Remote Working

Did you know that the average employee is willing to accept 28% less pay so that they can work from home?

However, despite the possible cost savings to companies, it’s common for management to be concerned that people will work less if employees are to work anywhere but the office. They also worry that communication and collaboration will suffer from remote working.

In Buffer’s State of Remote Report for 2019, while collaboration was indeed a concern by remote workers themselves, the opposite was found true about management’s concern that team members would work less when working from home: staff actually find it a challenge to unplug from work when the day is officially over:

In this article, we’ll provide research-based solutions for collaboration and communication, as well as the foundation of remote working, which is a secure internet connection, from which collaboration and communication are founded on.

For safe online communication, we’ll focus on APN-as-a-Service, as well as how it ties into remote working in disaster management planning.

Benefits of remote working

With all the benefits of remote working for both employer and employee, studies have shown that remote working in the US, and indeed globally, is becoming a reality for more and more companies:

Source: Merchant Savvy

While organisations may incorrectly assume that remote working has more distractions, the opposite is actually true – 75% of people prefer working from home because there are fewer distractions than in the typical open office environment.

Benefits to corporations of selected staff working from home include:

• Higher productivity due to a quieter environment and no colleagues popping in or out to chat. Business News Daily reports that remote workers are productive for an additional 10 minutes every day, over and above their office bound colleagues.
• You may be able to decrese costs, in the form of decreasing salaries and logistics costs (space, office furniture, groceries like toilet paper and coffee). In fact, 34% of your employees may agree to a pay drop if they could work remotely.
• Happier employees, because they save time commuting, and most enjoy the flexibility of working in home offices. Smallbizgenius reveals that those who work remotely, even just one day a month, are 24% more likely to be happy and productive, and of course, this positively impacts performance.

Source: Flexjobs

• Improved employee retention because flexibility is a major trump card, i.e. a very desired thing for most people.
• Millennial talent attraction. This younger generation is more desiring of remote working than any other generation. Actually, 82% of Millennials say they are more loyal to a company who offers a remote work program. 
• Risk mitigation and business continuity in the case of a global pandemic.

The benefits are clear. However, research indicates that companies do need to be selective about what staff are allowed to work from home full time. 

It would seem that it’s wiser to keep newly hired team members in the office where they can learn from peers in a face-to-face environment and allow experienced employees the flexibility and benefits of working from home or even Working From Anywhere (WFA).

What is APN-as-a-Service?

APN-as-a-Service is based primarily on APN (Access Point Name), which allows remote working for employees to securely access the internet anywhere, at any time.

APN-as-a-Service allows a gateway between a GSM, GPRS, 3G, or 4G mobile network and another computer network, i.e. the internet. 

A mobile device (phones, notebooks, tablets, and laptops) that makes a data connection must be configured with an “APN” access code so that the operator can direct the APN user’s device to the allowed network.

Authentication is aligned with the corporation’s governance requirements.

APN-as-a-Service ensures fast and specifically secure data connectivity to a private company intranet, the internet, or both the intranet and internet.

Organisations may purchase a corporate APN, either from a carrier, or use the APN-as-a-Service platform from Adapt IT Telecoms.

Solutions for remote working challenges

Collaboration and communication are two of the primary concerns management have with regards to remote working. 

But there are easy solutions around both:

There are a plethora of collaboration and communication tools available on the cloud, so that updated information is in real-time. No matter where employees are working from, they can easily communicate with colleagues and supervisors, and keep organised at the same time.

In addition, while both employees and management are concerned about the lack of face-to-face interaction, both Zoom and Skype are merely two software options that offer video calling for online meetings. For larger meetings or workshops, webinar software is ideal.

Harvard Business Review provides more information about effective collaboration between remote teams.

Disaster management planning & remote working

Source: Risk Management Monitor

It is critical that companies conduct disaster management planning so that in the event of a disaster, such as a global pandemic, the corporation ensures business continuity to prevent unproductivity and flat-out disappearance of their workforce should a crisis strike.

If disaster strikes, and there has been no planning, the company is sure to experience chaos and suffer loss.

Companies have to research and know all their options upfront for risk mitigation. One of those options is simply allowing employees to work from home on mobile devices and a mobile network.

Business continuity with APN-as-a-Service

APN-as-a-service ensures business continuity when implementing remote working. 

With Adapt IT｜Telecoms APN-as-a-Service, the platform makes setting up the process quick and easy.

APN-as-a-Service management on the platform allows for visibility, control, and predictability of data spend.

Corporations are only required to provision the APN on existing SIM cards and then change their default APN on the device.

Data consumption is managed on the platform and updated every 60 seconds to provide companies with a real-time view of consumed data.

SIMs are locked when data allocations are reached in order to control out-of-bundle spending. 

Adapt IT ｜Telecoms provide APN-as-a-Service to clients without them needing the expertise to either provision or run their own APN infrastructure.

The solution does not require any interaction from the company to the mobile operator. Instead,  Adapt IT｜Telecoms liaises directlly with the mobile operator to provide clients with additional peace of mind.

The process that is used at Adapt IT | Telecoms to get corporations up and running includes the following steps:

• The company provides us with connectivity requirements for Vodacom and MTN.
• We request SIMs from a 3rd party who handles Rica & Fica, activation and APN provisioning.
• Once the lines are active, we provision the SIMs on our platform, allocate data and set up alerts and business rules.
• The SIMs are then deployed to the customer/company where they can allocate and manage all the data across both networks on our platform.
• The entire process takes approximately 72 working hours from order to deployment

Quick case study of how Adapt IT Telecoms APN-as-a-Service has been used

A leading retail solutions company that services brands and retailers across 60 countries had a base of more than 10 000 contract SIM cards deployed across multiple mobile operators and had great difficulty managing contracts, data allocation, data bundles, out of bundle charges.

They also had no real-time visibility of cost or forecasting ability.

APN-as-a-Service from Adapt IT ｜Telecoms enabled the company with visibility and immediate control of mobile data spend across the business.

As a result of implementing APN-as-a-Service from Adapt IT ｜Telecoms, the retail solutions company gained valuable insights in terms of data requirements, allocations, and usage patterns across all business areas. 

The platform provided control eliminated abuse, and offered cost predictability and containment which resulted in a 25-30% cost saving almost immediately.

Conclusion

APN-As-A-Service ensures risk mitigation and business continuity for remote companies or when staff work from anywhere.