Several major Tech companies are offering free tools to support workers during the COVID-19 outbreak.
We’re getting a lot of enquiries at the moment about “how to enable staff to work from home” and “how to set up remote workers / VPNs”, and it looks like self isolation may be a good plan for a lot of people over the next few months. Obviously if your staff are under the weather the first plan should be to send them a get well soon card, honey, lemon juice and a bottle of whisky (please note we are not trained medical professionals), but for those staff who are chosing to work from home or are self-isolating there’s plenty of tools out there to enable “business as usual”.
The good news here is we’re seeing many of the major tech brands putting offers in place for these tools to help small businesses, education bodies and healthcare providers cope so we wanted to put together a small list which we’ll do our best to update as necessary. If you know of any other offers, especially from local Oxfordshire businesses, please let us know and we’ll add them.
If you’re still struggling with getting your heads around the best way to move forward pick up the phone – we’re happy to give a free 30 minute phone consult for any Oxfordshire based businesses.
And finally, if you see any other offers or more importantly work out why people are panic buying loo-roll we’d love to hear from you…
Microsoft – Office 365 E1 and Teams
So starting the list is Microsoft who are offering their Office 365 E1 license for free as part of a 6 month trial for new customers – great product but have a good think about licensing after those 6 months if you’re going to hang around! They’ve also beefed up the functionality of the Free version of Microsoft Teams, definitely worth taking a look.
Google – Hangouts for G-Suite Users
Google are offering Google Hangouts, their multi-user conferencing solution, for free for existing G-Suite users.
Cisco – Webex Increasing free features
Cisco are increasing the free functionality of their popular online meeting solution Webex – worth a look if you want to enable teams to keep collaborating and meetings to continue.
LogMeIn – Free Emergency Remote Work Kits
LogMeIn are providing some functionality for Health Care Providers, Educational Institutions, Municipalities & Non-Profit organizations, and current LogMeIn customers.
Zoom – Increased functionality for free version
Zoom are increasing the functionality of the free version of their impressive online meeting platform, removing the 40 minute limit on free meetings and offering free functionality to schools.
Discord – Upper free user limits
Discord are upping the free user limits from 10 to 50 on two of their features, Go-Live streaming and Screenshare.
Checkpoint – Remote access VPN
Checkpoint are making their Remote Access VPN, Mobile Security and Endpoint Security products available for free to support remote workers.
Cloudflare – Cloudflare for teams
Cloudflare are making Cloudflare for Teams available to small businesses worldwide for free for at least the next six months. They will evaluate the situation in six months and make a determination about whether they will extend the length of the free offer.
