You may recognize that the title of this blog post is based on a line from the classic children’s book, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. But Dr. Seuss ended his quote better. It was:

“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.”

Funny is a difficult mood these days. April 1, 2020 was no April Fool’s joke. We are experiencing a new way of living and working due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This global crisis with shelter-in-place orders has impacted every person, organization, institute, and business in the civilized world.

Wilson Allen is fortunate in that we smoothly transitioned over a weekend to enable our global workforce of 150 to operate 100% remotely. Our headquarters in Newtown Square, PA and remote offices in the UK, Canada, Florida, Virginia, and California are closed and our people are all working from home.

How did we make flipping the switch to working remotely relatively painless? From a systems and security perspective, we were prepared. That’s because of steps we had taken in 2019 as part of our organization’s business continuity plan. When we made these plans, we had no idea how thoroughly they would be tested. But that’s exactly why being prepared is so essential.

Planning ahead pays off

Last year, we consolidated operations under the brand name Wilson Allen, following the merger of Wilson Legal Solutions and Stanton Allen. Our workforce expanded with members located across several time zones. To accommodate our new structure, Wilson Allen’s internal systems and security team prioritized several projects that included the following:

  • Merging data from multiple systems in the cloud
  • Upgrading laptops from Windows 7 to Windows 10 with cameras
  • Migrating on-premise ShoreTel phones to the cloud with Zoom
  • Deploying Microsoft Teams

Overcoming obstacles

These completed projects contributed tremendously to our ability to keep our people connected when the work-from-home decision was made and later required for all non-essential businesses. That’s not to say it was effortless. We encountered some challenges that pressured our security setups, including:

  • Selecting alternative devices when shipping was delayed for equipment we needed
  • Implementing tighter restrictions to prevent Zoom bombing
  • Establishing VPN policies to standardize public IP for remote users to client systems

Our team quickly adapted, and most importantly, we remain “everywhere” for our clients and each other.

Stay safe, personally and professionally – including your business systems.

To learn more about Wilson Allen’s systems and infrastructure services, please download the info sheet or read our related blog post: An Ace Up Your Sleeve: Top Tips for Choosing the Right IT Services Partner. To discuss how a member of our team can help your firm meet its current system and infrastructure services needs, please contact us.