With the Philippines facing the possibility of localized lockdowns to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus disease) across the country, travel by land, air, and water might be soon limited, compelling companies to make their employees telecommute or work from home. This scenario presents an ideal opportunity for companies and employees to realize the many benefits of telecommuting for both ends. The government has been promoting telecommuting among organizations even before the COVID-19 outbreak. As proof, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Republic Act No. 11165 or the Telecommuting Act which allows companies to give employees an option to work from home. Many of today's technologies allow for the possibility of a harmonious work from home setup. Backed by a fast Internet connection, employers and employees can maintain constant communication and ensure the timely fulfillment of deliverables despite being physically and socially distant from one another. Logically, we have to understand that telecommuting works for jobs that can be done with the help of computers. Some of these include clerical work, accounting, writing, and content creation jobs like graphic designing and video editing. Jobs that require physical presence before customers and handling of equipment like in medical fields, food & beverage, agriculture, and manufacturing are excluded from telecommuting. But what makes a work from home setup successful? What are some of the devices and apps that you will need to make telecommuting work for you? Here they are: Laptops. Also known as notebook PCs, laptops, like the Huawei MateBook D 15 or the Apple MacBook Pro, serve as a complete, lightweight replacement of the cumbersome office desktop PC. Laptops combine all the key components and peripherals of a desktop PC like the monitor, CPU tower, keyboard, mouse, and speaker into one portable piece, minus the hassle of many wires. With long battery life, you can carry it anywhere and finish a day's worth of work even without recharging. Smartphones. Considered as mini-computers that are much smaller and portable, smartphones today, like the Huawei Mate Pro 30, Samsung Galaxy S20, or the Apple iPhone 11, can be as powerful as a standard laptop or a desktop PC. Gone are the days when phones were limited to making calls or text messages. You can even attach your smartphone to a compatible keyboard like the Logitech Bluetooth Multi-Device Keyboard K480 and, voila, you have a portable PC. Communication Apps. Thankfully, communication apps for laptops and smartphones are abundant these days. These programs eliminate the cost spent just to make phone calls or send text messages. Since almost everyone is on Facebook these days, company managers can create a group chat on Facebook Messenger as a centralized means of communication among employees. This can also be done on apps like Viber, WhatsApp, and Telegram. Do you need to do a video conference? You can do this with apps like Skype and Zoom. Online Payment Apps. Although everyone is working from home, the employer and employees are still operating as one company and that means operations involve cost. Traveling to banks and other financial institutions might become limited due to localized lockdowns, making a physical transfer of money quite impossible. Thankfully, major banks today like BPI, BDO, and UnionBank have mobile apps to support their clients remotely, apart from having web-based portals. Companies and employees, as well as freelancers, can also do money transfer through non-bank payment apps like GCash and PayMaya. Pocket Wi-Fi Devices. While smartphones can also double as a Wi-Fi hotspot, using them for such a purpose consumes power, resulting in shorter battery life. Employees who do not have a fixed Internet connection should consider using pocket Wi-Fi devices like Smart Bro Prepaid LTE Pocket WiFi, Globe LTE Mobile WiFi, and Globe At Home Prepaid WiFi as convenient, portable, and affordable way to have a Wi-Fi connection at home or anywhere else. With all of these devices and apps in place, companies and employees will realize the possibility and reap the many benefits of telecommuting or working at home whether in the time of localized lockdowns due to a spreading disease or in the time of peace.