Have you noticed how mobile the workforce has become in the last decade? Lawyers travel cross-country to meet with clients, engineers spend days out in the field supervising projects, and environmentally-conscious office workers look for ways to lessen their carbon footprint by working from home one or more days per week. Mobile workforce solutions help employees to stay connected to their data and applications on the company network while away from the office and employers to maintain control over the various network endpoint units (i.e., laptops and handhelds)out in the field.
Compliance was so much easier when workers and their desktops were confined to the four walls of an office and the hardwire of a LAN-based network. Employers want to be sure that their mobile workforce maintains the integrity of the company network while out of sight. It’s tempting for employees to relax with a cup of coffee at an unsecured WiFi hotspot or download unapproved applications to a company laptop, but what of the security risk? Visibility service as part of a mobility platform allows the company IT department to monitor network endpoints for those lacking valuable security patches and firewalls and those that have had compromising programs and games downloaded from unapproved sites.
Control service mobility platforms enable a company to restart firewalls and download anti-spy and anti-virus software to its endpoints and prevent non-compliant endpoints from connecting to the network. Wouldn’t that be worth its weight in gold for peace of mind! Cloud-based technology allows IT departments to do all that.
Mobile workforce solutions also include In Case of Emergency (ICE) services that maintain business continuity during times of pandemics, terrorist attacks and local natural disasters. ICE services help employees confined to their homes for any of these reasons to stay connected to the company network until life returns to normal.
LAN-based networks are quickly becoming a thing of the past as more and more workers move away from the traditional four walled office setting. Shouldn’t your company stay in step with the 21st Century-and stay competitive-by investing in mobile workforce solutions and the cloud-based technology that makes them possible?
