The holidays offer a much-needed respite during which employees can relax and forget about work for a few days. Unfortunately, this wonderful time of the year has come to an end. Employees had to return to reality and deal with a mountain of backlogs and an inbox swamped with emails.

While remote working has been a steadily growing trend the world over, it was the pandemic that tipped the scale and drove businesses to enforce remote work arrangements en masse. This shift happened abruptly, and in most cases, organizations had very little time to plan.

Staying productive has been a challenge to remote workers the world over, and that’s not surprising. Between a pandemic in full swing, the worldwide economy in a steep contraction, and a workforce adjusting to remote work, stress levels will inevitably increase.

On June 24, the state of North Carolina decided to extend its stay-at-home order until August 7, pushing businesses to continue powering their operations via a remote workforce. The good news is that North Carolina ranks ninth among the best states for working remotely.

Remote working is seeing an unprecedented rise across the United States, as post-COVID-19 workplaces turn to more agile business strategies that ensure business continuity. But adapting to a work from home arrangement can be difficult, especially for employees who have worked in physical offices all their lives.

There are many key roles in a company but none more so than that of managing people and workflows. And among this group is a role with a seemingly overwhelming set of responsibilities — the operations manager, sometimes known as a chief operating officer (COO). Let’s clarify what an operations manager does and how important they are to a business’s expansion.

Business computing infrastructures are more complex than ever as companies migrate to the cloud and collect data from various sources. IT departments often find themselves overburdened as they try to manage all that data into a single, cohesive environment.

Many enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications or systems were made especially for manufacturing environments. With so many moving parts and complex processes to manage, ERP applications have become key to optimizing all of it, reducing margins for error, and gaining a competitive edge.

Any manufacturer will tell you that getting materials on time is crucial within the supply chain. Missed delivery schedules for materials or incorrect amount of supplies could mean expensive disasters for production. To keep production on schedule and to ensure materials availability, manufacturers have developed a management approach called materials requirement planning (MRP).

Also known as a production planning and inventory management system, MRP is a demand-driven planning and scheduling system for ordering materials at the right time.

Recent years have seen a profound technological transformation across businesses of every sector, law included. In fact, the very nature of information routinely handled by practices has made the legal sector subject to much scrutiny. At the same time, clients are becoming accustomed to managing their legal matters online, whether it’s a do-it-yourself divorce, applying for immigration status, or seeking compensation.