A decade of technology advancements and business practice developments has made remote worker activities much more popular and productive. A large variety of businesses now use remote workers in innovative ways including pizza call centres handling overflow at peak periods, mobile medical facilities offering specialized services in remote areas, sales and implementation teams traveling to clients, and organizations offering local services to large geographic areas. Other applications include part-time employment and more efficient use of time away from the office. Key technology developments in voice, computing, applications, and governance have combined to allow remote workers to complete work in an effective and efficient manner.

 Remote workers typically need access to corporate applications and data in conjunction with access to corporate communication systems. Many remote workers now have access to tools with functionality and performance equivalent to those in the office. Thanks to reduced costs, these technologies have entered the mainstream. Communication with remote workers has expanded to include widespread use of voice and email at the core with a diverse range of messaging applications, both wired and wireless. Following are brief overviews of some of the most popular remote worker technologies.

 Many full-time workers are using remote technologies part-time to enhance their productivity. A good example is RIM’s BlackBerry, which allows integrated wireless access to a subset of communications tools and corporate applications all in one small package – typically voice, email and scheduling integrated with corporate systems. 

Phones function from afar

 The transition of PBX phone systems from digital to network based (VOIP) has allowed phone extensions or sets to be located anywhere in the world where high-speed Internet or network access exists and still function as directly connected digital sets do. All the features and functions on a phone can now be used in branch offices, home offices and mobile offices the same way they are used at headquarters. Additional soft phones that run on laptop mobile computers are popular with mobile workers who access the system from hotels and remote office sites.

 Thin client applications using web based interfaces that can run equally well anywhere in the world where high-speed Internet access is available, are now common development environments for mainstream business applications. Common examples of these enabling technologies are ASP, .NET and JAVA (J2EE).

 Terminal Servers and Citrix servers can run traditional applications in a remote control fashion where screen images, mouse, and keyboard data are sent between the remote client computer and a server. One use of this technology is to allow legacy applications to be used at remote locations with good performance.

 Many line-of-business applications that are web based or terminal services work well at remote locations. These applications can be centrally administered and controlled. Simplified rollout, setup, automatic software distribution, and centralized management are benefits of this architecture. 

Increase reliability

 ASP services, or application outsourcing to a managed data centre environment, can provide increased reliability at a lower cost. These services are also available to workers at remote locations around the world.

 Security technologies like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and established policies and guidelines for remote use have made remote working safe and easy. A lot of work has gone into simplifying the user experience while maintaining security. SSL VPNs and integration with authenticating directory services for centralized authentication have simplified the user experience and extended the reach of corporate applications. Encryption technologies and security services allow secure remote access to key business applications supporting remote workers.

 Remote worker technologies have also changed the focus of disaster recovery planning from protecting key corporate data with recovery in months to resumed operations within hours or days for most of the organization.

 A focus on governance or guidelines, policies, and procedures to extend responsibility and control has also contributed to improved results for remote workers. New tools for management and performance metrics have also enhanced the effectiveness of a distributed workforce.

 Knowledge worker applications or tools to share best practices and effective solutions among remote workers are often required to enable the distributed workforce. These applications often require some cultural change, and more operational transparency in the organization. These changes, in turn, build communication and trust among co-workers whether local or remote.

 Remote worker technologies have evolved and used together can offer many substantial or incremental improvements to business operations. Branch offices can now use the same technology as head office, and the same communications features, at lower incremental cost than they could a decade ago. To increase productivity, many full-time staff now spend more time working remotely. This also enables flexible work hours and increased employee satisfaction and retention.

Eric Sundin is a consultant and President at Data Perceptions.  Eric provides a mix business consulting and hands on technical services to help companies select best available technologies to meet their business requirements.  Eric is also a speaker on topics including: organizational structures, business planning, and disaster recovery planning.