Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow (or How to Keep Working When Everyone Else Has Closed)

It seems that after the last two years of heavy snowfall in winter, the country is bracing itself for another big freeze this year. The BBC has decided to look at the issue in it's programme “Will it Snow?'

Although businesses who rely on being out on the road may struggle to carry on with business as usual if we have the same problems as last year – cold temperatures, heavy snowfall and lack of grit – there are many things that knowledge-based businesses can do to carry with business as usual. And indeed, there may even be lessons learnt here to encourage and enable more working from home, hopefully reducing everyone's commuting times.

Let's take the tools of the average office one by one and see how they can be adapted to allow you to work from home:

1. Email – despite many people effectively being early adopters of the cloud approach with their personal email addresses by using webmail such as hotmail or gmail, in the business world, the majority use Outlook, although its market share is reducing. Although companies can invest in an exchange server in order to allow users to view their emails from anywhere, every company I've worked for has not been in a position to justify such an expenditure. We use Gmail for our emails here at Liquid Bronze, and with the Google powered search function, and oodles of storage, it works really well for us.

2. Google Apps for sharing information. I know I've already mentioned Google Apps, but it is great for sharing documents and calendars as well as the web-based email. You can choose to share some calendars and keep others private, and do the same with text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms or drawings. This means collaborative work is far easier and negates the need for a server to hold these kinds of information.

3. Dropbox. So, you still want to use MS Office, or another computer-based application? No problem – by putting the files into dropbox you can share documents very easily. Dropbox is a cloud application that has a folder based on the internet and then syncs this folder with one on your computer. If a number of people share that same folder, then as soon as someone edits a document, it updates on your computer. The only problem occurs when people try to edit the same document at the same time – it creates two copies of the same document. However, it is great for allowing people in different parts of the country share all manner of information.

4. Use VOIP-based phone network. Although VOIP systems are generally only a little cheaper than regular telephony systems, they allow you to have multiple lines down the same connection. This means you can quickly and easily set up a number of different lines coming into your office. They are also designed to be easy to divert, and diverting the line can normally be done remotely via a web browser. This means when you can't get into the office, you can easily divert all phone calls to your home number and your customers don't even need to know!

5. Record your internet browsing through different tools. My favourite social bookmarking tool is Diigo, although there are lots of others out there. These tools allow you to bookmark websites and then choose to share or not share these with other people. One big advantage in this context is that your bookmarks are stored in the cloud, which means no matter what computer you are on or browser you are using, you will be able to see what sites you have bookmarked in the past. Another tool is firefox sync. This syncs up your complete browsing experience, such as saved passwords, open tabs, browsing history and bookmarks on your work and home computer. This means that you can immediately see exactly where you left off at work when you look on Firefox at home. Obviously, the biggest restriction with this is your choice of browser.

6. Malinko – “ah-ha”, I hear you cry, “of course!” Taking the same approach as the other tools listed above, Malinko will allow you to see your information on your work computer, home computer or laptop. The system is backed up multiple times a day and once overnight, so there is no danger of you loosing your information, and even if you have got some kind of obscure setup at home, such as using Arora on Linux (yes, I know Ubuntu isn't the only Linux...) it will still work. So, you will still be able to access all your customer's details via our CRM & Job Scheduling software.

7. Okay, so nobody else is at work due to the snow – a great day to catch up with the accounts. But unless you have got cloud accountancy, you have got no chance of doing that. Luckily, there are a number of different options for this as well. Our favourite is Liquid Accounts, and it works well with Malinko too, so you can make sure your business is working as efficiently as possible. Other options can be seen by Googling the phrase cloud accountancy software. This means you can continue to get on with your working day, even while everyone else is out playing in the snow!