Managing Data in Your Virtual Office

 Once your company sets up a staff of telecommuters, they must be managed, and that takes some technological savvy.

First, you have to get them hooked up to your company's office network. Typically, with a proprietary access infrastructure, a password is enough.

 

However, if you are using Internet protocol networking, your security risks are higher because there are more users on the Internet than any shared business data network would ever have. Thus, most companies use Virtual Private Networks (VPN).

 

Telecommuting Pitfalls

Don't lose a fortune by insisting on outsourcing or insourcing. In general, neither approach works 100 per cent for all situations. Some services are cheaper to farm out, while some gear makes sense to buy.
   Security is paramount. Invest an adequate amount of money in authentication and tunneling. Set up and reinforce good security policies. Your VPN is worth nothing if end users download and use file-swapping software (known as a back door for hackers). Give employees instructions on what they can and can't do on office equipment.
   Be aware of the limitations of various software packages. Some work wonderfully with broadband connections, but using a dial up may take several hours for synchronization.  Make sure end users know how to use the applications you provide them in different circumstances.

 

VPN technology full-fledged communications technology that creates "tunnels" between end users and servers to transmit encrypted data. It is easiest to use VPN service from one of the multiple service providers offering IP access.

 

However, if a service is not available, a hardware setup on the company side is required to establish and manage tunnels. Your employees aren't likely to encounter difficulties using VPNs ? but they should know that certain applications won't work unless they launch a VPN gateway on their machine and log in.

 

Which brings us to the issue of software. If you decide that many employees are going to work out of their homes or other remote locations, you need a mechanism to push information their way and enable them get the data they want.

 

Enabling access to data is relatively easy, because much of your corporate data can be accessed via the Internet if applications that you use internally have been designed to work over the Web. If not, your employees might need a special "translation" browser that enables IP-based access.

 

And there is push technology. Since your employees all use e-mail, you may want to upgrade to something like Microsoft Exchange, which stores e-mail centrally with a local copy on the user's machine and enables contracts, files and calendar sharing. So next time you schedule a company picnic, or set up a telecommuting skills improvement workshop, you'll have a way to get the news out.

 

You may need to hire an outside consultant who knows your company to craft a telecommuting policy and carry the strategy to outside contractors.