Management would be hard-pressed today to find much of a downside to enabling its staffers to work remotely. Besides saving on office space, rent, heating and everything else that comes from maintaining a physical presence, remote workers are generally happier, as they save on commuting time and other factors that in-house workers need to put up with. They may be on to something.
The number of work-from-home employees has been rapidly increasing in the U.S., with their ranks rising 79.7 percent between 2005 and 2012, according to data from Global Workplace Analytics. At last count, Business Insider reports, that amounted to some 3.3 million people working remotely (not including the self-employed or unpaid volunteers), or 2.6 percent of the entire U.S. employee workforce.
Yet, with all that this “remoteness” has to offer, there are some caveats that managers need to be aware of. How can they be sure remote workers are actually, well, working? How can they keep those who are out of the loop of the day-to-day office interactions happy and motivated? Further, are remote workers utilizing their allotted bandwidth properly, to help keep costs in control? What can an IT manager do to ensure that costs for remote access by anyone stays within a manageable range?
Allot Communications (News - Alert) is one company that has some solutions via its Digital Workstyle Services, which offer Remote Workstyle Control. Allot’s high-quality self-monitoring and self-provisioning services gives branch offices and other remote users a customized view of the traffic they are generating on their own bandwidth pipes. Via secure access to a pre-defined set of reporting and provisioning functions, remote offices can track their own usage and adjust QoS policy to better regulate bandwidth utilization and application performance. It’s a win-win for managers and workers alike.
By utilizing Allot’s services, remote users can:
- Get a “my pipe” view in the Network Management System;
- Monitor and troubleshoot “my pipe” in real-time;
- Analyze “my pipe” usage reports to predict growth patterns; and
- Adjust “my pipe” QoS policy (within allowed limits)
Such allocation of resources can lead to improved user satisfaction with IT services, make traffic management more efficient and effective, and empower users and reduce Help Desk calls.
The obvious trend in business is toward more and more remote workers. Savvy business leaders will be taking steps now to assure that the cost savings realized by letting workers toil remotely aren’t eaten up by bandwidth overuse.