Seamless Mobile Working

IT Solutions for
Mobile Working

Many companies have an IT network based in the office but also have employees who often need to work away from the office. Whilst they might have mobile phones and tablets that enable them to work wherever required, there are a number of aspects that need to be considered, including:

• Back-ups. Anything done on a laptop, netbook, tablet or mobile will not be backed-up unless you specifically do it – it’s not automatic in the way it might be in the office. So anything done on a device will be gone forever if you lose or damage it, unless you have consciously and specifically performed a back-up.
• Sharing. Items stored on a server or computer at the office cannot be accessed via a remote device – unless you specifically make an arrangement to be able to access it. It can get very messy and annoying trying to access the documents you want.
• Accessing company-wide systems. You might have a system or software used across the organisation, such as email, calendars or a specific application. Unless you integrate your mobile and IT systems the two will remain separate, meaning you can’t access the company calendar or the essential software you need when out of the office .
• Business continuity and disaster planning. If something happens and staff can’t get into the office, perhaps because of weather disruption due to snow and ice for example, they might be able to work from home or another location - but only if you have set up the arrangements in advance for them to do so. It’s often too late to create this ability after the event has happened. We have created some useful articles to help you understand more about the alternative ways of doing this which you can access at What is Disaster Planning & Business Continuity? and An Introduction to Remote Working.

None of these issues are insurmountable though, and a good IT support company will be able to advise on the best solutions for your organisation and its circumstances. With the growth in mobile devices and remote working, we would suggest ensuring your IT company has suitable experience in integrating mobile and IT systems, otherwise you might find yourself dealing with multiple organisations and incompatible systems.

Backing-up

Many organisations and people think that backing up is complicated, tedious and expensive. But it doesn’t have to be - using the right tool can make it very easy to do. The trick is making sure you get the right tool and then applying it correctly.

You also have to think about what needs to be backed up. This could include individual computers or your servers. Many organisations have a shared drive on a server. If everything is saved here there is no need to back up the individual computers, but the server will need a regular back-up. However, if staff have laptops which are used remotely, then they will need to be backed-up.

So decide first of all exactly what needs backing-up. When you’ve identified this, you can start to look at the right solution. It may also involve a multiple approach, e.g. a daily back-up of the server, an automated routine to back-up laptops when they log on to the shared drive and a weekly back-up of desktop computers.

The level of backing-up can also be important. For example, servers might be backed-up locally using a hard drive and/or they may also be backed up over a connection to an off-site facility. This is like a back-up to a back-up, but if it’s vital that your data or programs are available without any downtime, then you may need it.

It’s also important to check that your back-up routine actually works. Your server crashing is not the time to find out that your back-up system hasn’t worked for the last 6 months. So check the back-up periodically to make sure it can be relied upon. A back-up that you cannot rely on is more than useless, because you will have spent time and possibly money on it, but the one time when it was really needed, it wasn’t there. So not only are you without the data you need, you’ve wasted your time and money too.

If you ever want to discuss your back-up routine and whether it is appropriate for your needs, speak to a reliable IT Support company. They should be more than happy to talk through your requirements.