Written by Willis Cantey, President and CEO of Cantey Tech Consulting and Board Chair for the Charleston Metro Chamber

So here we are. You can’t go to the office anymore, you can’t go to Starbucks all day and the idea of sitting on a park bench somewhere sounded good until the wind stopped but the bugs never did. So, in accordance with the new company policy, you need to work from your house.

Remember that the goal is to get your work done, stay connected with your colleagues and keep your kids from busting through the door with a list of grievances. Do not overdue this process and do not try to rebuild the Matrix in the spare room above the garage. Just use some of the tools listed below and you will be fine.

First, video chat on your computer is as close as you’re going to get to a meeting or the interaction around the office breakroom. If your home office is quiet, video calls should work just fine with a fairly modern business class laptop which will have a video camera and decent audio options. Plug in headsets are cheap these days but you may not need one. Also, the videoconferencing tools typically work on most mobile devices. Finally, videoconferencing makes you get dressed, instead of wearing your pajamas all day which can be depressing. Or so I’ve heard.

When it comes to software, go with what you know. If you are using Microsoft Office 365 for Outlook, Word and Excel you may already have Microsoft Teams. Teams is a great communication tool for texting, file sharing, video chat and conferencing. If you are using Google’s Gmail for email, you should try Google Hangouts for videoconferencing. If you want more scalability for a large audience, Zoom has a great product that can include a large number of people fairly easily.

If you’ve been working on two monitors, you will need two monitors at home. If possible, just use your monitor(s) from your office. This way you don’t have to deal with buying monitor adapters which seemed so simple and straightforward until you arrived at Staples. You’ll end up buying three different ones in hopes that one works. It won’t.

If you need to remote into your office computer or have a server at the office or in the cloud, your IT department may set things up a wide variety of ways. Before you ask – trying to do it all through LogMeIn is an option but not always an appealing one because it may be slow. Sharing files via Dropbox, Box or other software is also an option but only works well in sharing files, not applications. Ask your IT department about the right fit for you.

Finally, you will have to do without the printer/scanner/copier down the hall. It’s a good time to see if paperless is an option for you. Also, most documents that you need to sign come in PDF format. In PDFs you can easily insert some basic information and attach your signature.

In the meantime, get back to work and keep your hands washed!