The world was forced to rapidly switch to remote working, but, as a call centre, how smooth is your current distributed workforce?
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) could help improve your remote working capabilities in a number of ways. If you think the way your call centre is operating remotely could be smoother — or maybe you haven’t realised that it could be — VDI could help.
In this article, we’ll detail the many benefits that VDI brings to remote working for call centres. Let’s jump right in!
1. Gain consistent performance
Utilising a VDI setup offers a seamless and simplified remote process. Each user can log in to their own desktop, which is hosted on a different machine. This allows flexibility to work in the office, at home, or another remote location with complete consistency. Other noteworthy benefits of VDI are:
- The power of the device used has little impact on VDI performance.
- VDI is entirely compatible with mobile devices.
- VDI eliminates worries about employees being cut off from customers due to poor connections.
While remote work does have challenges, employing VDI effectively addresses many common issues in the industry.
2. Keep your systems up to date
Remote work is convenient for organisations, but many are plagued by software licensing issues for remote employees that expire and need to be continuously renewed. Anytime a worker needs to access a system from home with their personal PC, the company will need to license that app, regardless of the location where it’s installed. This creates the following complications:
- Licensing costs — licensing gets very expensive with dozens of employees (or more) working remotely from home.
- Manpower and time — you business will have to invest efforts in license tracking and compliance for each license purchased. This entails a lot of manpower and time, and IT will need to ensure all apps installed on workers’ personal PCs are properly licensed. This takes IT away from other important tasks.
- Updates and patches — IT needs to ensure applications are given the latest updates and patches for usability and security.
Constant system updates and software license upgrades can be hard to carry out when managing remote call centre employees. Utilising VDI solves licensing issues and keeps everything up to date. As a result, call centre employees never have to worry about application functions not working correctly or other issues that might affect the quality of calls to customers. VDI simplifies processes while simultaneously taking a heavy burden off IT.
3. VDI is cost-effective
Over the span of time, simply put, VDI saves you money you can put back into your operations budget. With a distributed workforce using VDI, you’re not paying overhead costs yet you’ll have the full capabilities as if everyone was working in-house. Other indirect cost-effective benefits include:
Reduces high employee turnover
Studies suggest employees are more productive, happier, and suffer fewer mental health issues when given flexible work options.
Addresses attendance issues
Working from home eliminates the need for employee commutes which reduces — or even eliminates — lost time for tardiness and absenteeism. This means fewer coverage or productivity problems which can negatively impact your bottom line.
Offer yourself room for scalability
Your company is a living being that evolves and grows over time. With VDI, you don’t have to worry about needing to constantly upgrade to keep up with your competitors, as it naturally offers you the scalability and flexibility you need in a competitive landscape.
VDI minimises the IT costs associated with establishing a remote work structure — everyone is working from the same system and VDI staff can take care of any IT issues that emerge. Overall, the VDI experience offers both your IT staff and your customer service representatives a stress-free experience.
4. Ensure your ecosystem remains secure
Remote work offers both employers and employees numerous benefits, but there is one drawback that needs to be addressed: security. To ensure your ecosystem remains secure, your IT team faces the immense task of monitoring security on a distributed workforce. Workers might be operating from outdated computers, obsolete operating systems, or infected with malware.
VDI addresses these security risks and much more:
- Pre-configured security — VDI is structured so any PC or device connecting has to link to a corporate computer that is pre-configured to meet all security requirements.
- Isolates security risks — any activities performed by employees are run on a virtual machine and therefore segregated from any potential security issues on their home device.
- Maintains strong security — even if malware slips through, VDI has the ability to consistently reset to a pristine and “clean” state at the end of each session.
Even though call centre IT teams can take many security precautions, they have no way to guarantee each remote computer or device being used adheres to the company’s security policy. It’s essential for call centre employees to utilise a secure line when calling customers. Also critical is for any data collected in each session to be safely processed and stored.
Call centres that invest in VDI are happy with this system because the benefits far outweigh the costs. If you need assistance finding the right solution for your company to improve your remote working operations, consult with an IT specialist to learn about more benefits and how VDI works.
