Migrating To Work From Home

The role of the home office and personal computer has seen massive changes in the last three months. With the novel coronavirus continuing its reign across the world, our lives are now somewhat used to these changed living conditions. In regard to the workforce, there have been the obvious increased needs to work from home while maintaining productivity levels, regardless of the workspace location.

Under the immediacy of work from home orders, the possibility of workers bringing their office setups home was not realistic. And those who were able to bring their workspace laptops home with them were often missing pieces that previously aided in staying productive–such as dual screens, a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, or even access to a printer.

The Technological Struggle of Adapting

To work from home in the pre-COVID era was a more modified remote work environment for many, oftentimes working on a combination of smart phones, tablets, and laptops, rather than a full desktop office set-up. Now that the occasional work from home day has turned into over two-and-a-half months of consistent at-home office time, a smartphone or tablet connection is not adequate.

The problem is, we often do not know what technologies we need at home to achieve our office space-level productivity, or, even how to go about getting that technology at home. And for many, it has been a long time since looking at their at-home computer setup and realizing it is well past time for an upgrade.

Newer generation laptops like 2 in 1’s, 360s, and surface laptops have shorter lifespans than their earlier gen counterparts. There is a good chance that even if you think your personal laptop was a relatively recent purchase (2 to 2.5 years, according to one government agency interviewed by Laplink), you, too, will be finding yourself in the market for an at-home PC solution that is better suited to your working needs. To effectively work from home requires video and/or audio conferencing, which requires not only good connectivity, but also an updated device that supports applications like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, GoToMeeting, and more.

Laplink Helps You Work From Home

Say you get your hands on that new PC, whether it is a desktop or laptop. Then comes the task of migrating needed profiles, data, and applications over from your primary workspace. Unfortunately, complex migrations like that are more than just copying into OneDrive and dragging over. And with IT labor already expensive and scarce and the rarity of in-home IT visits during coronavirus, the possibility of having to play a role in your own PC migration is more than likely.

On the business front–taking into account both time and money spent on IT–employees are better off to follow a list of simple steps for migration. But that means that the software has to be automated, almost to the point of zero-touch migrations. The migration process must be as simple and streamlined as possible so that the need for calling into a help desk or submitting a ticket to IT is significantly lowered. This can be done by providing a well-thought-out list of common problems and proven solutions.

Laplink’s solution is PCmover Enterprise, which allows for:

• • Automated migrations (that reduce overhead, save time, and reduce risk),
  • Faster migrations, and
  • Monetary savings between $300 and $2,000 per PC migrated–considering PC location and remote workspace needs

PCmover Enterprise

Migrations of the past were easy due to simplified PC abilities. Today’s more updated and capable PCs and laptops have more complex needs for migration. PCmover Enterprise offers a flexible solution for whatever the migration need is, folding in various possible scenarios and needs.

PCmover Enterprise can be used for:

• • Cable or wireless migrations between 2 PCs (ex: migrating from Windows 7 to Windows 10)
  • PC Refresh (ex: wiping an old corporate PC for a new employee without losing important applications, data, and settings)
  • Zero Touch Migration (ex: copying an office desktop user profile and associated files, apps, and settings, and importing that profile onto an at-home PC or laptop for easier work from home transition)
  • Remote User with Autopilot, Intune, and Customized PCmover (ex: after signing PC into Azure Active Directory, the IT dept can use autopilot to configure remotely. The PC is sent to the home where the worker is then able to connect their old at-home PC with the new PC and migrate.) ** the most automated use option

PC migrations do not have to be done just in a warehouse, the office, or at home. It can be a combination of the three to promote ease of migrations for workers and companies during this time of remote work.

Learn more about PCmover Enterprise, and try a free, fully-functional copy of PCmover Enterprise at enterprise.laplink.com today!