Work is Not a Place Anymore

Remote work was already on the upswing before the pandemic. Now WFH (work-from-home) is firmly established in our vocabulary. In the post-COVID 19 era, remote work is in fact work-from-anywhere (WFA).

As part of the massive WFA experiment, companies have also realized that WFA does not mean less productivity. Frankly, employees crave the flexibility and the work-life balance that this new model affords.

Work from anywhere is the new normal. Work is Not a Place Anymore. The fallout is enormous.

Hybrid and Remote Options

According to a recent survey, 82% of US office workers say they want to continue to work from home when the pandemic is over. But only 16% want to jettison the office forever. Thus, a high percentage of employees do not see the office of the future disappearing!

Many companies are taking the next logical step and moving to a hybrid model, where employees spend some time in an office setting, and the rest in a place of their choosing. Those companies that can move to an all-remote workforce (not all companies have that luxury), are considering that option. Tech companies can do this more easily than say, a manufacturing plant.

McKinsey has created a matrix of six models that aligns a company’s preferences based on hiring needs, productivity concerns, and real estate costs. These are useful new work models to consider when contemplating the best option for a company’s given situation.

The savings from a move to a remote or hybrid work environment can be determined in advance using a calculator e.g. like the one at globalworkplaceanalytics.com (shown below). A typical employer can save as much as $ 11,000 per remote worker per year.

There is research to suggest that even before the pandemic, 56% of employees had a job that could be done remotely. A third of workers were willing to take a pay cut in exchange for the option to work remotely. Clearly, flexibility to work from anywhere, remains an even higher priority for younger workers, and employers would do well to consider the needs of that growing workforce in the current situation.

Companies that no longer care where you work

In a recent survey of 4,400 technology employees, two-thirds said they would consider leaving the area permanently if they could work from anywhere. If one can live in smaller towns with good schools, a better standard of living, and a good mix of cultural and outdoor pastimes, many city dwellers are deciding to pick up and leave. The de-urbanization phenomenon may have begun in earnest.

Technology companies that have rapidly moved to hybrid or even permanent remote models include big names like Salesforce, Apple, Microsoft, Xerox, Dell, Okta etc. Healthcare is another sector where large percentages of staff are now allowed to work remote.

Particularly for the digital nomad, an entire industry catering to their needs is now gathering steam. Home exchanges are becoming very popular. Elite Alliance, a company based in New York, has built an exchange network of 130 upscale resort properties around the world in iconic destinations like: Cabo, Italy, Telluride, Bermuda, Florida Keys, Morocco, Greece and more. Countries from the Caribbean to exotic European locations are now offering work abroad visas to make this easier.

Impact on Real Estate

The impact of these changes on the office centric real estate sector are likely to be massive. In the bay area, home to some of the most expensive real estate in the world, rents are falling, and leases are being cancelled. We are now even hearing of bankruptcies in the bay area, something that was unthinkable not too long ago.

Pinterest recently paid $ 89.5 million to terminate a San Francisco new office lease due to the changing work environment of their employees.

It seems the one place where employees may need more office space is in their homes, not in their office buildings. Those who rent homes, are now looking for amenities like high speed internet and co-working spaces, and this is creating a rapid change in the services being offered by the rental real estate market.

Overall, demand for office space is falling by as much as 20-30%, and this will create very different valuations for office real estate. In the Boston area, one estimate sees as many as 50% of workers stay at home post-COVID. According to another report, there is a large percentage of subleases hitting the market.

Where leases are coming due, companies are seriously considering a radical shift to a new paradigm of hybrid work, where they need far less office space than before. An entire new niche of consultants has emerged (including #WellforceIT) to help companies move to the most appropriate hybrid work model of the future.

Recruitment and Hiring

When you can recruit the best and most affordable talent from any place in the world, and not miss a beat, companies are increasingly electing to do just that. Geography is not a boundary anymore. Soon, language may not be an issue either.

Companies like Upwork, Freelancer, and Flexjobs are focused on this market of gig workers and those looking for remote jobs.

The Naysayers

Amidst the race to become the ubiquitous organization, yes, we still have naysayers, who think this shift will not, or should not happen. Among them are at least three prominent companies and names that should surely surprise you: Zoom, Netflix and Amazon.

Amazon is adding 3,500 employees in six major cities. In New York city, Amazon recently purchased a building for $ 1.15 billion from of all companies – WeWork, the co-working space company!

The Netflix founder and CEO, Reed Hastings, was recently quoted in a WSJ interview as arguing that he doesn’t see any positives from the WFH syndrome. According to Reed, as soon as there is a vaccine, it is back to the office for Netflix workers. It will be interesting to see how many other companies follow suit in a post-vaccine world.

According to Yuan, the CEO of Zoom, “When you’re working in the office, stopping in hallways for a quick chat — ideas come from that, or in a conference room, with a whiteboard…that’s where creativity comes from. From a creativity perspective, working from home is not as good as working in the office.” His company may be the single biggest beneficiary of the work from anywhere culture. Zoom is now a verb meaning video calling!

Whether work remains a place in the future, or is just something that we all do, regardless of location – time will tell. For many, including me, it is hard to imagine that we would all go back to a time where going to work means going to a specific place every day.

Are you working from home, or living at work?

Contrary to what many experts believed when the great global “work from home” experiment was suddenly unleashed upon us in 2020; six months on, it does not seem like we have arrived at the Shangri-La of telecommuting and flexible work. Many thought that having saved so many hours from long commutes to work, we would finally now have free time for all the things we have always wanted to do.

Surprisingly, the reverse seems to be true. Evidence suggests we are working more at home compared to when we were in the office!

One study by the National Bureau of Economic Research which analyzed 3.14 million users from 21,000 companies, found that meetings went up 12.9% and the average workday went up by 48.5 minutes. Microsoft found that in one group, three times as many of their employees are now working on weekends!

Why are we working more at home?

One of the reasons being cited for this increase is that most people have nowhere to go, and being stuck at home, they just end up working more. Others have blamed their newly accessible home office, which they pass umpteen times a day, and just cannot help a cursory ‘check’ on the email, which somehow turns into hours of work, and less overall downtime. The fragile job market has also put additional pressure on workers to spend more time at work and continuously show their value, lest they be part of any planned layoffs.

Stress and Focus

The truth is, this increase in work hours – together with the stress related to the pandemic – has large swaths of the employee base feeling burnt out. The anxiety is compounded when you consider that many of those working from home, are also educating their children, while simultaneously trying to keep their kids tethered to their homes and prevent them from getting infected.

We are all struggling with focus too. In laboratory experiments, there is evidence suggesting that being frequently interrupted, can have an impact on the quality of work. It takes 20 minutes for a normal person to refocus on the task after an interruption. And, due to the pandemic, we are all juggling many more tasks.

Many employers are seeing a noticeable and concerning rise in stress levels in their employees and have already started making adjustments to help. Goldman Sachs added 10 extra days of family leave. Microsoft added 12 weeks of parental leave and Starbucks employees now have 20 free therapy sessions. Meditation apps like Calm and Journey are now part of the employee benefits that companies are offering so that their workers can destress. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) does mandate enhanced employee rights for paid leave, but one estimate suggests that only 17% of private sector employees are covered.

Microsoft’s Experience

Microsoft conducted what amounts to a deep dive into how a 350-person Microsoft team in the USA adapted and performed under the pandemic’s remote work conditions. Some of their findings:

22% more meetings of 30 minutes or less and 11% fewer meetings of more than an hour. So, more frequent shorter meetings and this occurred organically, without any mandates from management.
Interestingly, meetings also moved from the morning 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. window to the 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. afternoon window. Pre-pandemic, meetings were earlier in the day, and focused work was being done in the afternoons. Post-pandemic, it was reversed.
Managers spent 115% more time on instant messages, ostensibly to have increased touch points with their teams in lieu of hallway conversations and informal office gatherings. Many managers increased their one-on-ones with their staff too.
The pre-pandemic fall-off in communications during lunch hours, was also reduced. Post pandemic more people worked over lunch while at home.
Due to the increase in meetings, one team decided to make Fridays meetings free and designated it “Recharge Fridays” as an antidote to the always-on model that seemed to be burning out employees.
Microsoft has also seen that in countries where their workforce is slowly returning to the office, these post pandemic changes in behavior, have survived.
It appears there is a new normal, regardless of where you work.

The “work from anywhere” trend

With technology and collaboration tools for remote employees in place, companies are not seeing a productivity decline, and hence many are now moving permanently to a “work from anywhere” mode. Siemens just announced that 140,000 of its employees can now work from anywhere, as did Twitter, Shopify, Atlassian, Tanium, Coinbase, and many others. Facebook CEO, Zuckerberg thinks that as many as 50% of Facebook’s staff of 52,000 could be working remote soon. In fact, these trends are so strong that rents in San Francisco, one of the more expensive cities in the world, are falling as tech companies are moving to a dispersed home based workforce.

Paul McDonald, senior executive director at staffing firm Robert Half International says that by expanding the geography, “You are able to tap into a pool of candidates that’s greater than what the company may have looked at before.” A distinct advantage for some companies. Glassdoor, the job posting site, says its remote job openings are up 28.3% from a year ago, even while overall listings are down 23%.

However, it would be wrong to think that working from home is a panacea. Many employees feel a sense of isolation, they must deal with many distractions at home, and many have difficulty maintaining working relationships with their colleagues.

It is not just employers who may be taking advantage of the new work from anywhere paradigm. Consider the story of enterprising “Bob”, a software developer, who being a remote worker, outsourced his own job to China,and paid someone a portion of his salary to do 100% of the work, while he spent his own time at home watching cat videos!

If you can do your job from anywhere, can anyone do your job, without your employer noticing? This is occurring more frequently than you might think. It may take a while for the dust to settle on this experiment.

Securing the Remote Working Environment

The coronavirus pandemic has created an unparalleled and urgent challenge for those entrusted with the responsibility for securing digital assets in companies of all sizes.

The new mandates for remote working promulgated virtually overnight have exacerbated the need to secure data traffic and do it at scale.

Video Conferencing

Zoom is close to becoming a verb. So many people are using it and frankly, like it because of its simplicity of use. However, the security problems of Zoom are now manifest in many companies, school districts and even congress mandating that the product is not used. “Zoombombing” is now commonplace. Until Zoom can reengineer parts of its problem components, it remains a big problem and it should be used with caution.

In the meantime, there are many other video conferencing products that are secure, have been used in business for a long time, and remain viable alternatives.

Zero Trust

Simply put, zero trust means never trust, always verify. This model inherently assumes that trust is a vulnerability. As such, the effort is to try and create a behavioral profile of users and the way they should interact with key company assets. Thereafter, constant monitoring and remediation is used to identify and isolate abnormalities against that benchmark.

Zero trust can be achieved in a myriad of ways, including with the use of established frameworks e.g. ISO, NIST etc. In an age where brand image can be seriously damaged, and may never recover from breaches and hacks, making sure that the remote environment does not become an avenue for compromise, is critical. Various solutions for this model are discussed below.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

MFA adds security to critical applications and can be easy to enable on the backend systems. Most users today carry smart phones and between SMS and authenticators from Google, Microsoft etc., implementing the frontend piece for the MFA, is also not complex. Even so, a small pilot to iron out any kinks is recommended before a companywide rollout. Prioritizing those that may have access to sensitive information should be a key focus.

Virtual private networks (VPN)

VPNs can be used to protect and encrypt traffic from users to datacenters and cloud-based assets. There are any number of reasonably priced commercial VPNs that can be procured with bulk licensing and when used together with MFA, they provide a robust foundation to secure all data traffic.

Mobile device management (MDM)

MDM becomes a must have to manage and control the plethora of devices that remote employees use. These include phones, iPads, laptops etc. An MDM platform can limit connections to only devices that are either owned by the company, or at the very least have been checked to make sure that they have the latest security patches. Additionally, if the device is lost, remote wipe capability allows for securing sensitive information that would otherwise be compromised. Some MDM platforms will also allow company applications to be delivered to the device, while at the same time, limiting the users’ ability to add unapproved applications to the device.

Imaging devices

Some companies, particularly those that operate in areas like finance or healthcare, where sensitive information needs to be controlled, may prefer to have pre-approved images installed on company devices. This allows the environment to be tightly controlled for security vulnerabilities. It also enables IT departments to be able to provide replacement devices at short notice, should there be a catastrophic failure or loss of a device.

Staff security enablement

Self-service portals

When staff are remote, it is helpful to create self-service portals where employees can reset passwords etc. This also helps take pressure off the increased demands on the helpdesk staff.

Having some training materials for staff on the same portal to help them with security related questions, or guidance on the use of MFA or VPN etc. is also recommended. When remote work is thrust upon a workforce in an instant – as has happened recently – having an online resource that can provide ongoing clarity on the use of technology, can be reassuring for both employees and cybersecurity staff.

HelpDesk

When staff are asked to work from home, the perimeter that now must be secured and supported, also scales. It is common to have employees ask for help with their home internet connections, configurations, troubleshooting and security. It would be reasonable to make accommodations for such calls.

Security awareness

Another factor is the staff security awareness regimen. Bad actors are still looking at common vectors like phishing to exploit employee behavior and making sure that the employees are aware of how they can protect themselves and company assets, is well worth the investment. There are many third-party tools that make security awareness easier to deploy, manage and monitor.

Business continuity

Disaster recovery and business continuity take on a renewed emphasis in a remote workforce culture. Making sure that there is a clear and articulated policy around BCP, and testing is done to validate and simulate failure, is always a good idea. Making sure that asset owners and users are aware of the response and restore time objectives is recommended.

Enhanced resiliency and monitoring

It is imperative that thought be given to enhancing the monitoring and remediation of internet facing systems. Today, some or all of this, can be outsourced to companies that specialize in this kind of work.

The task of securing a dispersed workforce is not insurmountable. Over the years, there has been a movement towards architecting and deploying flexible and secure work environments, including for remote work.

Those companies that reacted to these market changes early, now find themselves in an advantageous position as they respond to the current circumstances.

Can you Support 100 Percent of Your Employees Working Remote?

Coronavirus is driving companies that have thus far not supported remote work, to change policies as an urgent response to the new circumstances and begin allowing workers to work from home beginning immediately.

These include some of the biggest technology firms like Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Box and Amazon, as well as many others like Ford, CNN, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Walmart etc. Even the federal government is now ramping up remote work options for certain departments after years of discouraging telecommuting and remote work options.

For IT administrators, technology leaders and others who are responsible for creating and managing the infrastructure to support remote work at scale, this task is not an easy one, particularly if some of the key technologies are not already in place.

If you are one of those now tasked with creating a new remote technology footprint overnight, we look at some of the key components to consider while implementing your new mandate:

SECURITY

Virtual Private Network

If you do not already have a VPN, it may be one of the first things to implement. VPNs protect information sent between remote employees and businesses by encrypting data and, hence protecting communications.

VPN accounts are generally licensed by number of users. Making sure that you have enough licenses for your workforce is key.

Mobile Device Management (MDM)

Making sure that all devices that have access to company resources are also maintained and have all their patches in place for a secure connection, is a vital element in safeguarding company digital assets. MDM also allows you to remote wipe a device that may be lost.

COLLABORATION & COMMUNICATION

Internet Connection

Since remote work invariably puts a lot of pressure on internet bandwidth, making sure that there is a large enough internet connection for remote employees to connect, is very important. Most ISPs allow such expansion to be implemented quickly.

Teleconferencing

In lieu of face-to-face meetings, teleconferencing is likely to be a key component for collaboration within a remote workforce. Many providers, e.g. Cisco with WebEx, are currently making the service available for free for small companies.

Other companies like Microsoft, Google, and Zoom, are also providing access to key technologies in this time of need for remote work. LogMeIn is providing an emergency remote work kit for three months without charge to provide collaboration support for organizations.

Companies that have not already invested in new technologies for remote access, may be forced to upgrade certain equipment in order to meet the new demand. For example, if employees do not have devices at home for remote work, such laptops, headsets, webcams etc., these would need to be procured at short notice.

Crisis Communication

Microsoft is currently making its crisis communications app available for free for small businesses. The app includes Microsoft’s GitHub page as well as a dashboard for monitoring employee absences. Microsoft completed the app in 2 days to help companies deal with the current crisis.

Microsoft is also touting its free Teams application for online meetings. In fact, Microsoft announced that since January 31, 2020, Teams has grown by 500% in China. If you are not currently a Microsoft customer, you can avail of a free 6-month E1 license that includes Teams.

Making sure that you have an intranet site where communications and important messages can be posted, is a necessity. If you are using Microsoft, a SharePoint site to do this job is relatively easy to set up.

Productivity Suite

App maker Zoho built and released a new suite of remote working tools in a week. The package dubbed Remotely includes a virtual meeting platform, an office productivity suite and project management tools. Best of all the suite is free for all.

REMOTE ACCESS FOR DIGITAL ASSETS

If enterprise assets are already in the cloud e.g. Microsoft 365, or other Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products – remote employees already have the ability to access such assets from their personal or home devices.

RDP

On premise assets would need access to be specifically configured and the roll out is likely to be different depending on the asset under consideration. For SMB enterprises, partnering with an MSP, like Wellforce, may be one of the quickest ways to configure remote access, if the on-site personnel are unable to complete the implementation on their own.

If moving an application off-site is not an option, it can be made accessible using a remote desktop protocol (RDP) application. This functionality comes resident on Microsoft machines, but there are open source and commercial versions as well.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

If you are a larger company and are unprepared, one option might be to stand up a virtual infrastructure. The challenge is to make sure that you do so securely with options like multi-factor authentication (MFA).

One advantage of this option is that instead of being reliant on your enterprise VPN, you are letting each user supply their own bandwidth to your remote desktop. Advanced users may still want to use a VPN. Several companies like Microsoft and Amazon offer options for virtual desktops and Desktops-as-a-Service (DaaS).

SUPPORT

With employees trying to deal with the pressure of remote work, while at the same time trying to understand how to use new technology for such work, there is likely to be increased pressure on support and helpdesk to assist such employees.

Many managed service providers (MSPs) have the capability to scale such services if you already have a contract with one. If not, it might be an option for support as well as for training employees who need such assistance quickly.

CLOUD MIGRATIONS

Virtually all software is now available as a SaaS option. Cloud migrations have many advantages including:

Cost-effective: You don’t need to spend money on equipment or infrastructure needs and relieves the burden on your IT staff.
Scalable: You can add or remove services as needed.
Convenient: Remote employees have easy access and the cloud makes for easy collaborative and file sharing experiences.

Many MSPs, like Wellforce, have transitioned companies to the cloud and have a lot of experience. In the current situation, where a cloud migration needs to be completed in short order, using an experienced MSP can be a big advantage.

CANCELLED EVENTS

As part of the precautions, many organizations are suddenly faced with cancelling key events. In the case of nonprofits, these events are major revenue streams for the year.

Virtual Events

Some organizations may still have time to setup virtual events in lieu of physical ones. The good news here is that these events have been growing in popularity in recent times. Make sure that you give the attendees and speakers enough time to familiarize themselves with the technology. Commit to rehearsing with the key presenters so that they feel comfortable in advance.

Here is a list of some tools to consider:

Icebreaker – Offers a main chat room where a host can present.
AirMeet – Host up to 1M live attendees and let them seamlessly interact with each other just like at a real venue.
Vfairs – Host virtual job fairs, online tradeshows, online conferences, and more.
Remo – A virtual tradeshow that can have virtual tables, and floors.
Toasty + Zoom -Similar to Icebreaker with activities participants can engage in and connect with using their smartphones.
Crowdcast – Host live talk shows, webinars, Q&As, summits etc.
6connex – Host a virtual trade show, job fair, summit, and even establish an e-learning program for your organization.
RingCentral – Traditional webinar style. Renders recordings very fast.
YouTube Livestream – Easy way to livestream on desktop, mobile, and the YouTube app and reach your audience in real time.
Zoom – Traditional webinar style with either 1 host or a group chat. It also offers breakout rooms.
Shindig – Enables a host to give a video conference, lecture, seminar, interview or media event in front of an online audience of thousands.
Adobe Connect – used in smaller groups, particularly by educational institutions.

Change is the only constant we know. We can look at disruptions as catastrophic events, and many times, that is the case. However, they are also opportunities to change the paradigm of how we have done things in the past and look to new and innovative ways to use technology to help alleviate a bad situation.

Many in the IT world will be asked to do just that in the next few months and weeks.

The Office Moves Beyond Our Line of Sight

Recently, I was on a conference call with a team participating from Singapore, Moscow, Zurich, and Washington D.C. We shared documents, collaborated on projects, and checked off action items in rapid succession. None of this was new or strange to any of us. We had done this many times. We are remote workers.

In fact, we were all part of a global company with agile virtual teams created from different geographies and time zones. We had few, if any, constraints to function effectively. Our biggest headache was deciding who would have to get up early, or stay awake late, for the call because it spanned so many time zones. Hardly a showstopper.

Remote working is part of a recent movement to build a flexible, performance driven culture vs. a time-based office environment that was created during the industrial revolution for factory workers and may have outlived much of that usefulness.

Are you ready for the remote workers?

Before you invest another dime in your office space, consider the following:

According to one study, since 2005 non-self-employed remote workers have grown 159% – which is 11 times faster than the rest of the workforce.
3.4% of the population in the USA or 4.7 million employees work from home at least half the time.
Freelance workers, most who work remote, are expected to become the majority of the US workforce by 2027.
50% of the US workforce is currently doing work that is compatible with remote working.
According to one estimate of Fortune 1000 companies, office desks are empty between 40-60% of the time already.
Gen Z (those born between 1995-2005) will make up 36% of the global workforce by 2020. Not only do they expect to work more flexible hours, they are looking for work-life balance and may be the first digital nomad generation that demands remote work options.

Are remote workers less productive?

According to a 9-month long Stanford study, remote workers took fewer sick days and were 13% more productive than their office colleagues.
Flexjobs, one of the larger sites for remote jobs, did a survey and found that 97% of respondents thought that remote work has a positive impact on their well-being and work-life balance. 75% thought they were more productive because of fewer distractions.
86% of respondents on Flexjobs said that they would be much less stressed in a remote position.

How much do employees want to work remote?

A Gallup study found of that 21% of employees would give up their vacations to work remote.
In the same survey, 33% would quit and move to another employer who offered remote working opportunities.
In the OWL Labs survey, remote workers earned 2.4X times higher than onsite employees. The notion that remote work pays less is false.
On the Flexjobs survey, 76% said that they would be more loyal to their employers if they had remote options. 65% said that working with “minimal office politics” in a remote position, would be better. Most might agree!
And according to the OWL Labs survey, remote employees are 29% more likely to be happy compared to their onsite colleagues. Happier employees can mean happier customers.

Is remote work more suited for certain types of organizations?

Admittedly, some companies are better situated for remote work. For example, it would be hard to perform certain functions in the service industry remotely.
On the other hand, Gitlab is an 850-person company, based in 55 countries, is valued at $ 2.75 billion and has no offices.
You might think that tech companies are more suited for remote work. And yet, IBM and Facebook have recently curtailed remote work.
Frankly, in an era of low unemployment, companies – including nonprofits – that were previously averse to remote work, are being forced to adopt a remote worker policy to be able to fill critical jobs. The competition for skilled workers is intensifying every day.

What are the top three cultural lessons for remote work?

Gitlab’s CEO Sid Sijbrandij focuses on the following cultural attributes:
- Prioritizing results over hours.
- Document everything. This is key to coordination and communication.
- Finally, use challenges as learning opportunities.

Can you save money with remote employees?

By some estimates, companies could save up to $ 11,000 per employee per year. Most of this is the cost of rent and property overheads.
Remote employees too save money on transportation costs, clothing etc. which can amount to $ 7,000+ per year.

What are the top challenges for remote work?

Some employees are unable to adjust to the self-discipline of working by themselves. Co-working spaces might be one alternative here.
Prioritization of tasks, planning a schedule and dealing with loneliness – are some of the other challenges.
38% of respondents to the OWL Labs survey said that they had received no training. Perhaps more importantly, 84% of remote employee managers had received no training. It is quite likely that this may have contributed to some of the remote work pilots that failed. Managing onsite and remote workers is vastly different in so many ways including delegation, maintaining culture, number of meetings etc.
Not having the right equipment can be a severe handicap. Outsourcing all your needs for technology to managed service providers like #wellforceit solves much of that problem. Such an MSP takes care of maintenance, replacement, upgrades and even a help desk for all hardware and software. They can also provide training for remote workers.

Companies have no place to hide. They cannot wait for trends to pass them by. They will have no choice but to adapt to the changing demands of the new workforce as it relates to remote work and work-life balance, if they want to recruit and retain high quality employees, and in turn keep their customers.

Welcome!