WebPorch – WebPorch Solution

Chelsea’s Q&A with Jack our Technical Consultant

Paul Kiveal — Tue, 19 May 2020 14:45:28 +0000

Being new to the company and only experiencing the office… well from my kitchen, I wanted to know how our Techies have been affected with remote working. So, I asked Jack one of our Technical Consultants, a few questions on his experiences with working from home. As well as delivering high end projects for new and existing customers.

Let’s see what Jack has to say:

Q: How have you managed delivering Projects from your Bedroom?

A: Luckily, I have my own room setup where I can work from at home. So, it’s not been too bad, still having to get up and go into another room is the best way to detach my bed from work. I don’t think I’d sleep if I actually had to work from my bedroom!

Q: After being told you would be working from home, for the foreseeable future, what were your first thoughts?

A: I’ve worked from home for intermittent days before, however being told it was going to be for a long, unknown, length of time was a little daunting. Not knowing if you’re going to see anyone else besides from those in your household can be a little worrying.

Q: Having experienced delivering projects in the office and from your home – Apart from the obvious, what are the main differences?

A: Peace and quiet, when delivering projects! It’s a lot easier to focus yourself on a specific task when there’s no distractions around.

Q: What has been the hardest part to adjust to, whilst still trying to maintain a high level of customer service?

I would say the hardest thing to adjust to, is how hard communication has become. Whilst in the office communication happens a lot easier and more naturally. From home, we do need to document things more and share across different platforms, to gain the same level of communication we have in the office. We are however, lucky we have the right systems in place, to help keep the cogs turning smoothly.

Q: Now you are fully settled into working from home, what will you miss when we go back to the office?

Being able to wake up at 8:55 and be on time for work!

Q: Do you think you’re more productive at home or less productive?

A: More productive for sure. I can get more stuff done, but it does have some drawbacks. Sometimes, you can spend more time looking through the web to fix an issue instead of quickly turn to someone, show them the issue, and quickly resolve it together.

Q: How has our cloud technology stack made it easier (or even possible) to deliver projects from home?

A: Working with cloud technology has made it very easy to deliver projects from home. Utilising technologies such as InTune on Microsoft Azure, has provided us the ability to configure a new full environment for a client. This meant that we haven’t needed to attend site to deliver project work.

Q: How might a client have done better to help? (come on… be honest)

A: I would love it if they gave us a call back when we asked them too! I don’t think they realise how hard it is to give professional support when we can’t get in touch with the end user!

Q: Has your partner learned any new technical skills, by listening to you all day long?

A: Fortunately for me, Rachel’s still been working, so I get peace throughout the day.

How working from home allowed me to enjoy my future wife’s wardrobe

Paul Kiveal — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 08:33:08 +0000

It’s 17:00 on a Wednesday, we’re having our daily company Teams meeting and I’m sat here in a leopard print leotard, ginger hair extensions and a full face of makeup – I look pretty hot to be fair, but I’m not sure the neighbours walking past my living room window would agree.

It’s become a regular occurrence now, where we all take turns in picking a theme for our evening call – we’ve seen geeks, star wars, harry potter, fruit and, well… if it’s not clear from the title, this one was “come dressed as your partner”. Admittedly, it may have been an attempt to see Steve recreate Jen’s amazing hair do, or even better, see Paul dressed in his wife’s nurses’ outfit. Either way, it’s always a good laugh and sets out for a great team catch up on how the day’s been.

The last few weeks since we entered lockdown and fully engaged working from home have been interesting; with a lot of challenges to overcome and not just our own! We’ve had to come up with some innovative solutions for our clients to help them with “keeping the lights on” to quote another one of our recent blogs.

Adapting to working from home was quite easy for me; I’ve been provided with all the tools I need to work effectively; with anything I’ve needed being provided at breakneck speed. When all is said and done, I do miss the office in a weird way – I miss my dual monitors, the peace and quiet, that cannot be recreated at home whilst children are present (despite chocolate bribes and Disney+ subscriptions); and I even miss the commute.

However, I am grateful we haven’t lost the office banter as colleagues are only a click away from a video chat, thanks to Microsoft Teams. It’s also been instrumental in keeping connected with our clients, in addition to allowing them to stay connected with their teams and their clients (admittedly in more appropriate attire). It really has provided a great platform for many organisations to keep the cogs turning, providing access to files, folders, have video calls across departments, countries and made working from home A LOT easier.

As you may have already seen, despite being in “unprecedented times”; WebPorch Solution have successfully grown our team by bringing Chelsea on board; you may have seen her blog post but, if you haven’t, it’s well worth a read.

Clearly, Chelsea has had a great first few weeks joining WebPorch Solution – can I claim all the credit for such an amazing seamless experience? I’ll definitely give it a go!

With any new starter, you will probably know from experience that a lot of planning, plus organisation, must be put into place: “where will I be sitting?” – that one was easy! Paul and I stole half of Andy’s desk whilst he was out of the office and replaced it with a shorter variant. He might have less space for his lunch now, but his portion size will look bigger – we are thinking about your waistline Andy, we care about healthy eating lifestyle choices…

“I wonder what the office properly looks like? Who are my new colleagues?” – another easy one! I created a virtual tour of our office; complete with her new colleagues’ photos (the embarrassing ones stolen from our watercooler meeting screenshots). For me it was important to show our newest recruit that, although we work very hard, we also have a fun side! Chelsea jumped straight in and got involved from the start, which showed us she was going to fit in straight away! As she says at the end of her blog, “I am now a Webporch ian!”

Stay safe people, speak soon.

Fran

Chelsea tells us about starting a new role in a pandemic

Steve Pickering — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 13:55:05 +0000

So back in February, we recruited for a position of sales and marketing administrator and then all hell let loose. This craziness has even seen the Prime Minister in intensive care and I really hope he pulls through. Regardless of your political beliefs, the country needs a strong leader at the helm and nobody can deny him that! But this left us wondering, what must it be like starting a new role in a pandemic?

To be honest, once the COVID-19 story gathered momentum, we did question (for a millisecond) if starting anybody was the right thing to do. It didn’t take us long though to work out that sales and marketing was the one thing we needed to absolutely do more of if we were going to see the other side of this fitter and ‘stringer’ than we were going into it.

So let me introduce you to Chelsea Andrews, our latest member of the team, she’ll tell you how starting a new role in a pandemic went for her! Chelsea spent a month travelling before starting with us in what has to be the most bizarre of circumstances. Lock down. We asked Chelsea to put in her own words, a blog of her first week with us at WebPorch Solution and you can read how she got on below.

We knew we had made the right decision, even at the interview stage, so just how do you start a new team member without meeting them. Remotely of course!

Let’s Talk First Day Strangeness Starting Virtually at a new Job Role – Chelsea Andrews 1st April 2020

Just think back to when you started at your current position now, all the things running around in your head, What do I wear?, Where will I be sitting?, I wonder what the office properly looks like?, ‘Who are my new colleagues? I had none of these things to worry about as I have started my new role here at WebPorch Solution without having set foot in the office! By far it was the strangest first day I have ever experienced and I’m sure I will be retelling my story for many years to come. Looking back now I have one thought which sticks in my mind and that is just surreal… did I really meet the Managing Director for the first time via video chat from my kitchen? Yes, in fact that is how I have met all my new colleagues, completed any training, as well as attending meetings. I think without the systems that WebPorch Solution have put into place within the office and the amazing team of engineers they have; it honestly wouldn’t have been possible for me to be able to start at another company.

Microsoft Modern Workplace is how we have been able to make all this possible and it has shown to be such a vital tool to use. Using Microsoft Teams we had the facility for users to share their desktop screens with others in a call, this has proven crucial for me and my line manager to complete training. Through this I have been able to show I have understood requirements and even complete tasks given to me all whilst Fran is in another town viewing my every move. That sounds like he is spying on me, but it’s not like that I promise.

We have an end-of-day video chat called the Water Cooler, which I attended from my first day. It is open to everyone in the company and was my first opportunity to meet most of the team for the first time. With this in mind, it was a peculiar event to see everyone dressed as Harry Potter characters, but it did make clear to me that the people I have now joined don’t always talk ‘shop’ and have the ability to laugh together. I absolutely love this idea as we can just let off a little steam from the days work as if we were together in the office, it is a brilliant idea which is keeping the office moral alive in these crazy times of lock down. Now I am excited to meet each one of the people I see on my screen at 5pm, and I know it will be as if we have been working together for as long as we have been working remotely from our homes.

Of course, this hasn’t been easy in the slightest, I have still had to learn new systems, virtually meet new people with the hope they like me, l am completing virtual training and pray I don’t mess everything up but it has all been worth it to say I started my exciting adventure in the strangest way.

I have quickly learnt that the people who work for WebPorch Solution are more than just colleagues, they are a family, they are Webporch ians, I am now a Webporch ian!

So it turns out starting a new role in a pandemic isn’t all that bad…