The coronavirus pandemic has triggered an anxious trial run for remote work at a huge scale overnight. A recent study suggests that for many companies in India, this might not be a cakewalk.

According to a report by the IT service management firm, Gartner, nearly 54% of firms in the country do not have enough technology and resources for employees to work from home.

In India, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Swiggy, Hindustan Unilever, Cognizant, Paytm, Ford India, Reliance Industries Ltd, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Nearbuy, and Wipro, among others, have advised their employees to opt for work from home till the working cadence stabilises.

The study found that it is easier for employees in IT organisations such as Google and Microsoft to work remotely through video conferencing and other software. But most non-IT firms and small and medium enterprises (SMBs) have no other option. A lot of these firms seem helpless due to old desktop-laptops, poor internet connectivity and UPS backup. More than two-thirds of employees lack access to information such as Google Hangouts, Skype, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Group Chat, Cisco WebEx, GoToMeeting, document sharing, and software that works for the group.

“The value of digital channels, products and operations is immediately obvious to companies everywhere right now. This is a wake-up call for organisations that have placed too much focus on daily operational needs at the expense of investing in digital business and long-term resilience”, said Sandy Shen, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner. “Videoconferencing, messaging, collaboration tools and document sharing are just a few examples of technologies that facilitate remote work. Additional bandwidth and network capacity may also be needed, given the increasing number of users and volume of communications”, Shen added.

As per the report, employees from non-IT companies and small and medium enterprises (SMBs) are the worst-affected in India as most of them have little or no clue about how messaging and collaboration tools work.