Nearly 6 months into COVID-19’s work from home mandates, the question of maintaining in-home productivity is top of mind. Employers and organizations have had to take on the challenge of equipping their workforce with adequate home office technologies, if any hope of maintaining productivity as to be had. Then enters the question, “how are IT departments going to manage remote workforce migrations?”
In order to maintain proper workflow as experienced in office spaces, home setups required implementing new, or upgrading existing, software and hardware. In April, at the height of the coronavirus outbreak, new PC purchase data showed 30% of sales were desktop PCs. Those used to desktop setups in their office spaces typically do not disassemble their workspaces to bring home, compared to the ease of simply packing up a laptop. So, this 30% desktop purchase figure may point to a realization that the worker’s normal at-home set-up did not measure up to the needs of a productive workspace.
In the digital age, many are used to a disparate, fragmented workspace–checking emails on a cell phone, participating in a video conference call via their tablet, etc. However, there is something to be said about the productivity lost without a fully equipped laptop or desktop workstation. Certainly, the occasional email sent from a smart phone after hours is easy, but is it truly possible to remain effective when tablets and smartphones are the primary tools?
In this current situation, we can assume that PC refresh cycles will shorten, with the ongoing effort to upgrade & maintain remote workforce productivity.
But there is one major player missing from the equation: an IT department or professional to assist in the transition. Today’s application and data migrations are often done manually, meaning even the experts often need help. And complex migrations are now more than just copying files to OneDrive and dragging them over to a new machine. There are many specialized applications and PC settings crucial to a worker’s role that need attention, too. This means the potential for human error and wasted time is heightened. Sadly, with IT resources scarce and expensive, migration becomes even more of a challenge for the individual remote workers.
In short, in-home deployments and migrations need a new approach. Employees need to have access to simple migration steps, but the process should also be as automated as possible–even to the point of zero-touch (meaning the employee kicks the migration off with a click of a button and the rest is automated and controlled by a remote IT department). With over 37 years in the business, Laplink has the ideal remote workforce migration solution. PCmover Enterprise is a unique application that automates the transfer of application data and settings from an old PC to a new one, or even to upgrade an existing PC. We understand that data migration is not one-size fits all. That’s why Laplink makes a solution for whatever your business needs may be.
PCmover is perfect for multiple migration scenarios.
– Direct PC-to-PC transfers
– In-place OS refreshes
– Azure Active Directory and cross-domain profile migrations
– Zero Touch Migrations
– Remote PC Refreshes with Autopilot, Intune, SCCM, and replacing USMT with PCmover
PCmover Enterprise allows you to do PC refreshes quickly and easily, even remotely, and configured to meet your specific requirements. Regardless of when you are planning to replace PCs, or at whatever scale, PCmover saves you time, budget, and reduces the headache or remote workforce migrations.
Check out this 15-minute demo on using PCmover. You can also visit enterprise.laplink.com to request of free, fully functional license of PCmover Enterprise to try it for your specific use case!