Swansea IT firm enables almost 1,000 staff to work from home

Swansea-based IT and communications firm, SA1 Solutions, has exerted an incredible effort to get an unprecedented number of businesses set up for remote-working, following government guidance for the majority of people to work from home, in order to slow the spread of COVID-19.

In just 15 days, the multi-award winning IT specialist has helped more than 50 companies and almost 1,000 staff from across the UK, and from every kind of business sector, get their staff set up with the equipment and software needed to ensure business continuity and service delivery with minimal impact.

The companies helped by SA1 Solutions range from international retailers to large engineering firms, well-known charitable organisations to electrical manufacturers, estate agents to chartered surveyors. Most of the businesses formerly lacked the basic IT infrastructure needed to home-locate their workforce at such short notice.

The mammoth task undertaken by SA1 Solutions included equipping businesses with laptops, PCs, printers, monitors, headsets, Wi-Fi dongles, mobile phones, audio-visual equipment and Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium licences. In order to keep their clients’ teams connected during this period of social distancing, they have installed Microsoft teams software and VoIP softphones, with training to ensure that employees working from home can communicate efficiently, maintain their business’s productivity and continue to deliver uninterrupted service.

Data security for all businesses was also a very important consideration, with vast amounts of new anti-virus software being issued alongside the setting up of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which allow remote workers to access their office network safely by encrypting data and securing devices.

Simon Ahearne, Managing Director of SA1 Solutions, said:

“As soon as we became aware of the pending virus pandemic, we put in place a crisis plan to ensure that we were able to fully support all of our clients needing assistance through this difficult period. Our team of engineers have been working extended hours and over weekends to make sure there has been as little disruption to our customer’s business’s as possible, and that they have had full access to the support, hardware and software they required.

“We monitor all of our clients AV licenses and security daily, and in addition we have issued a vast number of new licenses to cover the new hardware that has been acquired by our clients. We have also set up VPNs to many of our client’s office networks. These tunnel their

internet connection and encrypt data to ensure their devices, and any devices connected to them, are secured. We are also still performing essential site visits, but this is within the government guidelines, and we are safeguarding our engineers and customers by complying with government advice including social distancing regulations.”