IO Integration is excited to announce our new Creative Operations cloud hosting platform, IO Space™. Current global events have changed the way we work, and how we work will never be the same. Companies prioritizing the expansion of remote workforce capabilities in recent years were better prepared when the stay-at-home orders were put in place, but for many others this process had to be expedited. Several organizations with on-prem technology are still finding it difficult to support and expand the capabilities of their remote workforce. The particular challenge for marketing and creative departments is being able to quickly access marketing assets, maintain creative production workflows, and keep remote teams working efficiently. Moving Creative Operations to the cloud can alleviate many of these issues and it's no longer a question of if, but when to make the move. Based on the next generation Cloud 2.0 platform, IO Space consists of a host of products and services specifically designed for Creative Operations and marketing production teams. Our products and bundles are maintained, supported, and managed by IO Integration Creative Operations technology experts who understand the way your teams work. With data centers around the globe, IO Space offers a reliable, cost-effective, and scalable infrastructure for any organization looking to move creative production or data backup to the cloud.

At IO Integration, our sole focus is bringing the best possible experience to our customers. This past month we gathered all of our employees from around the globe to meet for our bi-annual company meeting in St. Simons Island, Georgia. This is the one time that we gather to discuss ways to improve our overall business and deliver to our customers the best possible experience when partnering with IOI. This provides us a unique opportunity to analyze our service offerings and to ensure we are bringing the most value to our clients.

As we see companies, event organizers, and local governments preparing for the for the likelihood that the coronavirus outbreak will continue to spread, several tech industry leaders and local governments have already begun telling employees to work from home. Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, and Google have all made public announcements and informed their employees to work remotely in an effort to do their part in preventing any further chance of outbreaks in their offices and communities. We are also seeing state and local governments declaring state of emergencies in places like Washington State which has been the most severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. New York and Austin, Texas have additionally declared their own states of emergencies respectively, and in Austin, canceling that city's largest event, SXSW, which was scheduled for March.

The recent global viral outbreak highlights the necessity of having plans in place allowing your team to work remotely. Meeting your deliverables with minimal disruption while protecting your team members' health is vital to any organization's long term success. The challenge of maintaining business continuity for these employees falls squarely on the shoulders of management. How can managers maintain their team's cohesion and keep production moving smoothly? The content creation process makes this even more complicated when dealing with multiple contributors and tight deadlines. In this article, we look at the top four steps to manage a remote creative team successfully.

Rarely, does one size fit all. This is especially true when it comes to creative technology solutions. It goes without saying that every unique tool has both strengths and weaknesses, but every tool is also preferred by different creatives for different reasons. Some of these reasons are based on organizational needs, UI, roles, or even simply what the user is used to. The idea of a collaborative creative tool that works for everyone seems like more of a dream than a reality.

Recently Global Workplace Analytics updated its 2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. Employee Workforce study which shows at least 50% of the workforce is working remotely in some capacity and 80 to 90% of employees would like to work remotely at least part-time. Many companies are beginning to offer this popular option to attract top talent.