Building a team overseas? Give them a secure desk, not a laptop in the post

Something we’re seeing more and more with the businesses we look after is teams that don’t all sit in the UK anymore.

It might be a bookkeeper in South Africa, a customer service team in the Philippines, or a designer in Portugal. Sometimes it’s one person, sometimes it’s a small team. And it’s easy to see why.

Every business owner I speak to is under pressure to stay competitive, and employing people in the UK isn’t getting any cheaper. Employer National Insurance went up to 15% last year, wages have risen, and good people are hard to find. So it’s no surprise that owners are asking which parts of their operation could be delivered just as well from somewhere else.

Done well, it can be a brilliant move. But there’s a practical question that often gets left until the last minute. How do you give someone thousands of miles away access to your systems and your data, without handing over the keys to the whole building?

The laptop problem

In the UK, getting a new starter up and running is simple. We set up a laptop, secure it, and it arrives on their desk ready to go.

Overseas, it’s a different story. Sending laptops abroad means customs forms, import duties, delays that can run to weeks, and in some countries restrictions on the security technology the laptop contains. Devices get held up, damaged or lost along the way. And when that person moves on, getting the laptop back can cost more than it’s worth, so it often never comes back at all, along with whatever is on it.

The alternative many businesses fall back on is letting people use their own computer. That’s quick, but you have no idea what that machine is like. It could be shared with the family, missing years of updates, or running software from who knows where. And now your client files, your emails and your systems are sitting on it.

It’s a bit like giving a new starter a copy of every filing cabinet in your office and asking them to keep it safe in their spare room. You’re relying entirely on trust and luck.

A secure desk in the cloud

For one person or a small team, our usual answer is a Windows 365 Cloud PC.

In plain English, it’s a complete Windows computer that lives in Microsoft’s data centres rather than on someone’s lap. Your team member opens an app or a web browser on whatever device they have, logs in securely, and sees a normal Windows desktop with your software, your files and their email. It looks and feels like any other work computer.

The difference is where everything actually lives. Think of it as giving someone a key to a desk that stays in your office. They can use it from anywhere in the world, but the filing cabinet never leaves the building.

Because we set up the Cloud PC ourselves, it follows exactly the same security rules as the rest of your business. The same two step verification, the same updates, the same protection and the same controls over who can see what. Your overseas bookkeeper gets the same secure setup as the person sitting in your UK office, and only access to the things they need.

Why it works so well

• Nothing to ship. No customs forms, no couriers, no waiting. A Cloud PC can be ready in a day or two and the person can start as soon as they can log in.
• Your data stays put. Files and systems stay inside the Cloud PC, and we can stop people downloading files, copying them onto their own device or printing them. It isn’t a force field, someone could still photograph a screen, but it removes the everyday ways that data goes walkabout.
• Their own device matters much less. Because nothing is stored on their computer, the state of their home laptop becomes far less of a worry. It still needs to be reasonably looked after, but it’s a window onto your systems rather than the place your data lives.
• Switch off in minutes. When someone leaves or a contract ends, we turn off their access and that’s it. There’s nothing to chase, nothing to post back and nothing left behind.
• Flexible and predictable. It’s a monthly cost per person, and you can take it on a flexible basis rather than tying yourself into a long contract. At the time of writing, Microsoft’s list prices for Windows 365 Business start at around £24 per person per month, rising to around £49 for a more powerful setup, before VAT. Compare that with buying a laptop, shipping it, paying duties and possibly never seeing it again.

It works for contractors too

The same thinking applies closer to home. If you regularly bring in contractors or freelancers, perhaps a developer for a project, an outsourced bookkeeper at year end or a consultant for a few months, you face the same dilemma. You want them to be productive from day one, but you don’t want your data living on a laptop you don’t own.

A Cloud PC gives them exactly what they need for exactly as long as they need it. When the work is done, you switch it off and move on.

An example

Imagine a 40 person accountancy practice that takes on two bookkeepers based in South Africa. Rather than shipping two laptops and waiting weeks for them to clear customs, the practice gives each bookkeeper a Cloud PC, set up in a couple of days. They log in from their own laptops, work in the practice software as normal, and client files never leave the practice’s secure environment. A year later, one of them moves on. Their access is switched off the same afternoon, and there’s nothing to recover. (This is an illustration rather than a real client.)

When it’s the right fit, and when it isn’t

We’d be doing you a disservice if we said it suits everyone, so here’s our honest view.

A Cloud PC is ideal for an individual, or a small team of up to around five people. Beyond that, or if you’re setting up a whole overseas office, using specialist software or need something more tailored, we’d usually look at a more comprehensive solution designed around how your business works. It also needs a reliable internet connection at the other end, so if your team member’s connection is patchy, that’s something to sort out first.

Talk to us before you hire

Building a team overseas or bringing in contractors can be a smart way to grow. The key is getting the setup right from the start, rather than sorting it out after a laptop has gone missing or a contractor has walked away with a copy of your client list.

If you’re thinking about it, let’s have a chat first. We’ll look at who needs access to what, recommend the right approach for your size and budget, and get it set up so your new team can hit the ground running safely.

Call us on 0330 002 2466 or get in touch at creavo.co.uk.