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Home and Remote Working Technology: With rising fuel costs and the daily commute becoming increasingly stressful, homeworking is now being considered an attractive and viable alternative to working in the office.

Statistically, staff are more productive working at home as there are fewer distractions and they are able to start work earlier and finish later without encroaching on personal time. This is a major driver for both employees and companies, who benefit enormously from the focussed and productive time spent at work.

Setting up a home office is now easier than ever and costs are no longer prohibitive. With broadband, an employee can have voice and data access to the company network and phone system and work as part of the office infrastructure.

There are two potential methods of connection i.e. via the phone system or via a hosted solution provider.

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First things first...

Regardless of the method of connection the homeworker will require a broadband connection at home. It is recommended that business-class ADSL is installed to avoid the quality of service being compromised at 4 o'clock in the afternoon when the children come home from school!

An ADSL router with VPN capability is required for staff to have secure access to your internal computer systems and, once connected, they can use the office applications as if they were in the office.

The next step, to maximise the ADSL connection is to connect the user for voice communications.

Most modern telephone system manufacturers have recognised the potential of homeworking and most have now developed a VoIP card for installation into the office telephone system. These cards can support from 1 remote user to up 30 users. If you are unsure whether your system will support VoIP please contact us and we'll be happy to help.

Using the same VPN connection a voice link is established and either a SIP handset, or manufacturer-specified handset or softphone is installed in the home office. The member of staff now has access to most, if not all the telephone system features, with zero cost calls to the office extensions. In addition, all external calls are made using the office telephone lines, so that costs are easily managed and controlled.

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Should your phone system not support VoIP an alternative method is to use a hosted solution provider. The same principle applies, i.e. a VPN is created and a SIP handset is required, however with a hosted solution the homeworker is connected to the provider's switch and the routing to your phone system's internal extensions is via SIP trunks over ADSL. A monthly rental cost plus call charges applies to this, although calls to internal extensions are free.

Please contact us if you require any further information and we will be able to advise and recommend the most suitable solution for your business.