Staying in touch with your colleagues is vital throughout any significant change in the schedule — especially as a result of a crisis impacting all or part of campus. Early and frequent communication can ease employees' anxiety and save you from becoming overwhelmed with individual questions.
Working remotely does have some technical hurdles you will need to consider. Please review the teleworking checklist below to gauge your readiness level.
Those are the basics. There are still some details to work out, such as how you save files, connect to shares and possibly take phone calls. Please read the definitions below, and check the Online Resources Section above for instructions. Please also reference the Data Classification policy; it is against SUNY Cortland policy to save important and sensitive files on your personal device.
VPN: Virtual private network. SUNY Cortland maintains sophisticated security to protect our system. Many services available when you are on campus are not available when connecting from a remote location. VPN software creates a tunnel from your machine to on-campus resources. SUNY Cortland uses Cisco AnyConnect for VPN resources.
Shares: A shares drive is shareable, secured storage that's only reachable while on the campus network. If you use your U drive or a department share you will need to first VPN in to connect to shares. You can then use the instructions below to access your shared files. Please keep in mind that often when saving files from a remote location there is a lag; it may take a few seconds to complete.
Remote Desktop: It is possible to use a tool called Microsoft Remote Desktop to connect to your work computer from home. This can be useful if you have a program installed on your work computer that you cannot install at home. Remote Desktop only works if your work computer is powered on.
Phone Calls: You can set your office phone to forward calls to your cell phone, but a better method of getting these calls is to install Cisco Jabber a softphone.
Softphone: You are probably used to taking a call at your desk on a phone. That is not always the case when teleworking. You do have the option to use a softphone, which is basically a phone that runs on your smartphone or computer. If you use your computer, you will need a microphone and speakers; a headset works best (Bluetooth or wired).
Online Collaboration: We have three main tools to assist you. These tools will allow you to hold virtual meetings, conference calls, one-on-ones and stay in touch. We currently support WebEx, Skype and MS Teams.
Select Softphone for the new phone type
Video Conferencing for Group Meetings, One-on-One and Office Hours
Information Security when tele-working. </a href>
Information Resources will be hosting online office hours beginning April 20th. We have IR staff with various expertise available to assist you with your questions and provide technology guidance.