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.

Sharing & Backing Up Across Multiple Devices

The Ability To Back Up Data
Across Multiple Devices

Mobile phones, tablets, netbooks and other such devices are great for allowing you to work remotely and not be tied to the office.

But the potential problem with them is that they are not backed-up, which means that if something goes wrong with your device, you might lose everything on it. So if you lose your phone or spill coffee on your iPad, you could have lost everything on it. Everything. Documents, contacts, photographs – the lot, never to be replaced.

There’s also the problem of not being able to access data or files on your server when you’re out, unless you specifically connect your device to it. So that important document you want to work on might not be accessible.

One of the solutions to this is called SafeSync Safesync from Trend Micro. It works by synchronising everything on your team’s remote devices, seamlessly and automatically in the background. So you can access files on your device and it will automatically be backed-up, giving you both access and security.

The cost is based on the number of users and storage space needed, so there will be a package available that suits your need.

SafeSync isn’t the only method we have of doing this but a big advantage is that you don’t have to guess which device something might be stored on. Have you ever wanted to find a particular tune or photo but can’t remember if it’s on your phone or tablet? With SafeSync it doesn’t matter as you can access it from any device, regardless of which one you thought it was stored on.