Remote Working

Remote working is a simple idea that has taken a surprisingly long time to mature. It is also known today as teleworking, telecommuting or flexible working. The promise of remote working is that it can save your company significant time, money and resources by allowing an employee to work regularly from home rather than travel to an office.

Remote Working Today

Remote working is clearly on the rise; although precise statistics can be difficult to come by, you should consider these facts:

A Survey by the Department for Trade and Industry, (DTI) reveals working from home has risen to over 28% of workplaces since 1998.*

Key findings of the 2005 RAC Foundation study in the UK:**

• Over 70% of working mothers in the UK would like to work flexibly or from home at least some of the week
• The number of remote workers in the U.K. grew to 2.2 million in 2001, or about 7.4 percent of the total workforce. Of these, 1.8 million could not do their jobs without a computer and phone.

Remote working is something that is here to stay and a tool that companies should harness and use.

The biggest perceived stumbling block to remote working is the idea that the technology does not yet exist to provide a worker with access to the full resources they have at the office – the computer-based applications, files and data that today are at the heart of many work environments. With fast broadband, IT departments still have to maintain network security and data integrity whilst allowing remote workers access to the tools they require.

Remote Access Security

Home computer systems and portable computers connecting from remote locations to the Internet or other networks across the Internet are increasingly vulnerable to external attack from the Internet. The growing threat of worms & viruses and attempts by others to illegally gain access to your computers makes it more important than ever for you to ensure that your desktop and portable computers are as secure as possible. Although it is possible to provide protection from virus, worms and intruders, it still raises the issue of how secure these are and how to control access to confidential company information.

*Source: Department of trade and industry
**Source: RAC Foundation