The remote working trend got a big push when the COVID 19 pandemic ravaged the world. Today, many companies are supporting their employees to work from home, in adherence to the World Health Organization’s guidelines of social distancing and quarantine to curb the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus. With the advancement in technology and digitalization, working from home in the 21 st century is possible, a few challenges notwithstanding.
With telecommunication services being the backbone of remote working, MTN Uganda, one of the country’s leading Telecommunications services provider organized a webinar to engage the public on how businesses and their employees can harness technology to stay productive while working remotely. The online workshop that was live on the MTN Facebook page saw a panel of MTN Uganda’s Enterprise Business Managers offer expert advice to business owners on how they can optimize remote working to keep their businesses afloat even during the lockdown.
Stella Yobu, MTN’s Key Account Manager for Large Enterprises noted that keeping in close contact with customers even during the lockdown and supporting their needs is important. Keeping all communication lines open including company websites and social media platforms to reach out and respond to client’s needs is critical at such a time. This, she said, can also be a way of companies getting new customers onboard and closing new business deals remotely.
She added that companies also need to have online payment solutions to facilitate seamless cash transactions. She noted that due to telecommuting, there has been a tremendous growth in data usage and incredible purchases of data and data-enabled devices as more people are working from home.
Related Article: How to subscribe to Netflix using MTN Mobile Money
Phillip Walera, the Senior Manager, Technology solutions under MTN Business noted that in order to facilitate this fundamental change, MTN Uganda has put in place a plethora of products and services to suit all their customers’ needs as they work remotely. Key among them is the MTN WakaNet which is strictly for home use. It gives users fast internet access from MTN for video calls, e-learning, surfing, gaming, and entertainment among other data-driven services. Other products that can support remote working include closed user group voice calls, Work from home bundles, SME internet packages as well as the Kazi bundles that are specifically tailored to suit the needs of SMEs.
Although there has been a spike in data demand, Sophia Mukasa, the SeniorManager MTN Enterprise Business Unit noted that voice calls are still a very important part of working from home. As such, MTN Business has ‘closed user groups’ offers to support colleagues who are working remotely yet have to keep in touch to keep work going on.
She further noted that sponsored data for organizations that want to help their clients to adapt to the digital lifestyle is also available. Sponsored data is where an organization incurs the data cost to allow its clientele access their digital platform at no extra cost, just like the toll-free lines where customers call a service provider without paying for talk time.
Mukasa finally encouraged employees to embrace remote working as it offers a unique opportunity to balance work and life while working close to the people that are most important to you. She, however, stressed the need for discipline and commitment to meeting work targets and deadlines even when it might be challenging since it is still a new concept to many albeit necessary for business survival and the health of the economy at large.
