When COVID-19 arrived in Australia in March 2020, businesses had days — sometimes hours — to transition their teams to remote work. Some made it look easy. Others struggled badly.
We transitioned our own team to remote work during this period, and in the process helped a number of our customers do the same. Here are seven things we learned about what actually makes the difference.
1. Cloud-first is the biggest advantage
Organisations already running cloud services — Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Xero, Salesforce — transitioned significantly faster and more smoothly than those dependent on on-premises infrastructure.
Businesses with servers in their office found that remote staff couldn't access file servers, line-of-business applications, or internal systems without a VPN — and setting up a VPN on short notice, for a workforce that had never used one, is harder than it sounds.
If you're still running on-premises servers, co-location with VPN access — or migrating to cloud services — is the most significant thing you can do to improve your business's resilience.
2. Technology alone isn't enough — you need to adapt your processes
The hardware and software can be in place, but if your business processes assume people are in the same building, remote work will be frustrating and inefficient.
Think about every workflow that involves a physical process: picking slips printed in the warehouse, paperwork signed in the office, files that only exist on local drives. Each of these needs a digital equivalent. We moved to digital signatures via DocuSign, remote support sessions for equipment setup, direct shipping to customer sites, and Microsoft Planner for team task management.
The technology just enables the process change. The change itself takes deliberate effort.
3. Anticipate the practical challenges
The obstacles that actually slow remote work transitions down are rarely the obvious ones. A few that caught businesses off guard:
- Power over Ethernet for VoIP phones. Many business handsets are powered by the network switch (PoE) rather than a power adapter. They don't come with a power supply. At home, without a PoE switch, the phone won't power on. Check this before sending staff home with their handsets.
- Home internet speeds. Not all residential internet is fast enough to support consistent video conferencing, cloud applications, and VoIP simultaneously. Staff on FTTN connections with marginal speeds will struggle.
- ISP VoIP blocking. Some consumer internet providers block or shape VoIP traffic. A handset that works perfectly in the office might have audio issues at home for this reason.
- Data quotas. Some residential NBN plans have data limits. Remote work can burn through a quota quickly.
4. Set up a proper workspace
This sounds like it's about comfort, but it's really about productivity and professionalism.
A second monitor makes a significant difference to almost any knowledge worker's output. A quality chair matters more than most people realise before spending a week at the kitchen table. A separate webcam and microphone produce substantially better video conference quality than a laptop's built-in hardware — which matters when you're in back-to-back Teams calls.
A dedicated workspace — even a corner of a room rather than a dedicated home office — helps separate work from the rest of home life.
5. Trial before you rely on it
If you have the luxury of time, test your remote work setup before it's required. Have a team member work from home for a day. What breaks? What's slower than expected? What did they forget to bring home?
The issues you find during a low-stakes trial are far easier to resolve than the issues you find when remote work is mandatory.
6. Be ready to adapt as you go
No plan survives contact with reality perfectly. During the initial transition, expect things to go wrong and plan for rapid iteration. Something won't work the way you expected. A process that seemed fine in the office doesn't translate to remote. A tool that everyone agreed on turns out not to suit how people actually work.
Build in time for feedback and adjustment, especially in the first two weeks.
7. Don't let the team drift
Remote work works best when there's deliberate effort to maintain team connection. Without it, communication drops to transactional exchanges, people feel isolated, and organisational culture quietly erodes.