Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

March 27, 2020 Viral Business

IT company experiencing surge with virus-related telecommuting trend

IMAGE | Pixabay.com With the coronavirus crisis, more people are working from home than ever, which means a boost in business for a Naugatuck firm.
By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo

While the coronavirus outbreak has had a negative impact on many businesses, for others, like NSI in Naugatuck, it has meant a flurry of calls for help and more work — so far.

The family-owned NSI is an IT support and cyber security firm founded in 1985.

Tom McDonald, co-owner and CEO of NSI, said the business has been much busier recently, which he attributed to the majority of the company’s customers “going remote.”

He estimated the company’s call volume has been up 150 percent over what it normally experiences.

NSI has a range of clients, including small medical practices and manufacturing, non-profit, service, home heating oil and HVAC businesses.

“We have been busy and are still busy today helping people work remotely,” McDonald said. 

According to McDonald, no one was prepared for a situation like this one, where most employees had to shift to working off-site. 

Tom McDonald, co-owner and CEO of NSI.

In addition to helping clients set up remote work operations, the company is assisting them with ensuring they have secure connections. Cybersecurity is key, he said, to protect private information and guard against data breaches and cyber attacks.

When making the transition to remote work, companies need to ensure all employees have proper training and there is adequate internet bandwidth to support their operations.

The company has been helping its clients with finding new ways to operate. Some of these include small medical practices that have stopped seeing patients in person. NSI is helping them roll out telemedicine, so patients can at least confer via computer with a medical provider. This helps these clients maintain some business during the crisis, according to McDonald.

Working from home has been a major shift for many, he noted. As many are finding, telecommuting has the advantage of saving on gas, but there can be distractions — children who are home from school, for example.

“The technology is the easy part,” McDonald said. “For people who have been working decades in an office — it is an adjustment.” 

While no one currently knows how long the crisis will last and when everyone will be back at work — whether that’s in an office or factory, McDonald realizes it could take a while. And though NSI’s business is booming now, McDonald fears things could turn around the longer it takes to return to normalcy. 

“It’s good for our business — for now,” he said. “But if our customers don’t do well, then we won’t do well, either. It could affect us negatively later.”

Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com.

VIRAL BUSINESS SERIES:

Struggling to stay in the black — without the Blue Mother

No customers, and no safety net

When no one can predict what’s in store

 

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF