Remote Control: Promoting best practice for your mobile workforce
According to recent research from analyst house IDC there will be one billion mobile workers by 2011. This is being driven by advances in mobile technologies, growing pressures on companies to provide employees with a good work/life balance, and the drive to reduce carbon emissions through home and flexible working.
The proliferation of high-speed networks, widespread WiFi and fixed mobile convergence is enabling people to work effectively from almost anywhere. With mobile working continuing to rise, it is important for businesses to realise that effective mobile workforce management is more than just simply setting employees free with a mobile phone or laptop.
Developing a plan to manage and secure all these mobile devices should play a major part of any enterprise-wide mobility deployment. Security deployment often lags behind the rapid growth of technology meaning that a significant number of workers can be working outside the protection of company’s corporate network at any one time. This means that the potential for data loss or the introduction of malware is significantly increased.
Recent research from BT revealed that the majority of UK workers do not understand business continuity – 38 per cent of those who had lost a mobile device had admitted it was not secure. While a separate piece of research from Cisco showed that a worrying three per cent of UK workers still open suspicious or unknown emails and attachments.
For ICT managers this can be an ongoing headache as they need to keep a tight leash on their mobile workers, but at the same time they need to ensure that they aren’t throttling web usage and restricting their workers’ connectivity, which ultimately can lead to a loss of productivity.
Educating your workforce about mobile working best practice is vital, as mobile workers need to become more IT-literate in order to make best use of today’s mobile devices and applications. For non-techies it is not always easy to master the technology needed to work from home. Take up of mobile broadband, email, VoIP and instant messaging may have rocketed but it doesn’t necessarily mean it is easy for everyone to use.
Mobile and remote working is here to stay, therefore the onus is on businesses and employees to establish mobile standards that will reap the rewards of mobile working whilst not putting ICT assets and infrastructure at risk.
