Beatrice Vogel
By
Global PR Director
  0

Untidy Bedrooms, Tidy Online Meetings

Many of us are still working from home at the moment and might be lacking proper equipment for this purpose. The high proportion of home office workers presents a tremendous challenge not only for those concerned but for their IT departments as well. Before attending to these, however, a few basic remarks about working at and from a desk at home might be advisable:  

Video Calls

Whoever takes part in video calls from home regularly is sure to have seen quite a lot of this: Untidy bedrooms, kitchens full of used cups and plates and many a balcony cramped with crates full of empties. Those wishing to avoid such less than agreeable insights into their private lives should spend some thoughts on the camera’s perspective—or consider using a digitally created background.  Something else to keep in mind: If you place your laptop on your desk directly the resulting worm’s eye view will not be very flattering for your chin neither will your counterpart have the impression of looking you in the eye directly. So the webcam should always be positioned at eye level if possible, with the help of a pile of books as a makeshift or, more professionally, using a laptop stand. Good lighting is important, too. Windows or bright lights should always be facing you, not behind you. The backlight is difficult for any webcam. 

Good acoustics

Good acoustics are also a must for video conferences. The microphones and speakers the laptops come with can be sufficient in quiet surroundings, a proper headset will make conversations much clearer and more agreeable for all participants, however. Anyway, you will not be able to do without an ergonomic working environment if you are sitting in front of a computer all day. A chair at the dinner table is no option in the long run, you will need a good office chair. And the right peripherals count as well. A laptop all on its own without accessories is not an ideal work place. An extra keyboard, a mouse, and an additional monitor will create an office atmosphere and add convenience. 

The right software outfit 

By now, IT departments in most companies have defined internal communication and collaboration tools for holding video meetings and group chats within business divisions. A single tool of this kind will not suffice in most cases, however, the reason being that customers, business partners, and service providers might use other solutions. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack are common solutions used by numerous companies. Anyone meeting up with partners or customers will soon need more than just their own internal tool. Some services also allow online meetings using your web browser, others do not. Sooner or later, this leads to all clients from all vendors gathering together on your system.  

Further issues arise when employees accustomed to using desktop systems in the office need to work at home with their private computers or newly purchased laptops. In such cases, the software solutions in use and the computer might not fit together perfectly. The company uses Windows clients und software but now the private MacBook needs to be the working device? With solutions such as Parallels® Desktop for Mac Business Edition, this will not present a problem. This allows Windows software to be used on Mac computers seamlessly and at full speed. And it is separated securely from the private macOS system thanks to Windows virtualization. In many cases, IT teams will need ways and means to keep software distribution and possibly required system access rights under control. This is where suitable solutions such as Parallels® Remote Application Server and Parallels® Access can help. 

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