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Mistake one: the VPN as a bottleneck
Routing everyone through a VPN to reach a file server built for an office network gives you an office network that is now slow for everyone. The application should be reachable and secured on its own, not hidden behind a tunnel.
Mistake two: chat replaced process, not paper
Approvals now happen in direct messages. Nobody can find the decision three months later, and the person who left took the context with them. A chat tool without a system of record is an organisational memory leak.
Mistake three: one identity, or five
Every tool with its own login means offboarding is a treasure hunt and 2FA is optional in practice. Single sign-on is not a luxury for large companies; it is what makes security actually enforceable in a small one.
Fix the process the tools were meant to serve
Remote work exposes weak processes — it does not create them. If an approval was already unclear in the office, a video call will not clarify it. Write the process down, then choose the tool.
- A VPN in front of everything is a bottleneck, not security.
- Decisions in DMs are decisions you will lose.
- Single sign-on makes security enforceable.
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