Remote working is not a simple issue to tackle effectively and securely in situations when it must be done right. To give us the low down we invited Anton Levchuk, Marketing Director of Famatech to provide us with some insight on the things we simply need to know in order to pull it off correctly. Over to you Anton.
For those people whose office is actually a ‘patch’, who are on the road all day, every day seeing clients or going to meetings, setting up their laptop and accessing their corporate emails from a coffee shop just off the motorway is an all too familiar occurrence. And it isn’t just these ‘road warriors’ who are transforming the face of remote working, For many large companies, employee location isn’t a consideration any more – they find the right person for the job and it doesn’t matter if that person works from home or the office. Technology enables organisations to be more flexible than ever before – making life easier for all concerned.
As well as employees who are based out of the office permanently, either through the nature of their role or their location, technology also enables traditionally office-based staff to work remotely if they need to. This can be useful when transport problems, weather or even someone’s personal circumstances make it difficult for them to get in to work – remote working isn’t always a matter of choice.
Location, location, location
Companies are recognising that what is most important is employee productivity, not where they are based, so by enabling members of the team to work from home when they need to, managers can help keep staff motivated. After all, employees are fruitless if they are shivering on a platform waiting for a delayed train, or having to take a day off because they need to wait for the washing machine repair man.
The emergence of technology that allows people to connect directly to their office PC has given them greater control of how they work and, more importantly, where they work from.
Some interesting trends were highlighted in a recent survey on flexible working carried out by a leading research company. Seventy percent of respondents now consider themselves totally location independent, with the ability to work from anywhere at anytime.
This new trend can be put down to a number of factors. One key point is the quality of the remote access technology that is now available – making sure that ‘working from home’ doesn’t mean the employee will be delivering less value or getting any less work done. Another factor is the attitude that companies and other employees have towards the remote worker – it isn’t seen as an excuse for taking it easy as maybe it once was. But all this it is not all plain sailing. Remote working, be it nine to five or once in a blue moon, cannot be taken lightly by any organisation because of the security problems it can cause.
The hidden threat
From PDAs to laptops, they may look like innocent, efficiency-enhancing gadgets, but as soon as workers leave the office with mobile devices that contain any confidential information, the company is vulnerable.
However the IT administrators appreciate that if remote working is to be as efficient as possible, and really deliver productivity gains, it is essential that remote users have real-time access to all the data and systems they would have if they were in the office. They therefore have to find the fine line between accessibility and security, so information can only be accessed by authorised individuals.
Fortunately, today’s technology allows access to office-based PCs from mobile equipment, without ever having to store information on the remote device. When this type of technology is used, the company is no longer vulnerable to confidential data falling into the wrong hands, even if the device gets lost or stolen.
Very real risks
Recently, laptops owned by Dunstan Medical Centre in Bolton and St Edmundsbury Borough Council were stolen. Both devices contained highly-confidential, medical details of patients. In response a statement was issued to staff reminding them of their responsibility for the security of private information stored on laptops and the need for security protection on mobile devices. It also said that hardware should not be left unattended in public places or in cars. But are companies doing enough to ensure that their information is secure? If highly confidential information is stolen the recriminations can be far ranging and potentially very costly.
Even if companies think that information on their worker’s laptops or PDAs isn’t sensitive enough or big enough to be of interest to opportunistic theft should consider what would happen if their biggest competitors obtained their customer database, price lists or R&D information from a missing device.
Technology that enables remote workers securely to access corporate applications, systems and databases with no need to store any information on the mobile device, solves all these problems.
What’s more, such technology enhances the security measures already in place on the company’s network. Very simply, it means that only one access point needs to be opened up in the corporate firewall, rather than one for each different application like email or CRM. This means the company is less vulnerable as all traffic is going through one secure ‘port’ or gateway.
The other benefit to remote access and control technology is that it enables IT helpdesks to access and work on machines wherever they are in the world in real time, allowing them to support remote workers easily and quickly. This means staff are spared the trial of dealing with a distant and uninformed support desk when their laptop does something unexpected.
By giving remote workers and IT administrators a more secure system from which to access workstations remotely, companies are reducing the likelihood of data loss. They can rest assured that their confidential company data is safe and they aren’t vulnerable to expensive breaches or law suits, whether staff are regularly on the road or if they are kept at home by leaves on the line.
