Enable Employees to Work from Home to Cut Business Costs
By Steven Hill, Small and Mid-Market Solutions and Partners area manager, Microsoft
Business owners in St. Louis are looking for opportunities to increase their efficiency and simultaneously reduce costs to survive the current economy. One way to achieve these goals is to implement a remote-working strategy that allows employees to work from their homes or on the road. As a business leader, you first must consider how your assets can enable your employees to benefit from a rich remote-working experience. When implementing this strategy, technology can help as a strategic and cost-cutting measure, making businesses leaner, smarter and often greener.
A remote working program can help you operate leaner by reducing costs. When supported with the right technology, you will not only find that employees can effectively work from home, but you may realize that the office space designated for teleworkers and frequent travelers is an expensive and unnecessary cost. Once office space is reduced, you can effectively lower overhead for such items as common office space, utilities, maintenance and parking. Your business will also benefit from decreased energy bills.
A mobile workforce not only reduces overhead, but also provides your company with a reason to examine technology security measures. Security improvements contribute to smarter processes. For example, laptop computers now can be equipped with Windows Vista operating system’s BitLocker Drive Encryption. BitLocker protects the contents of a laptop’s hard drive if it is lost or stolen. Other tech tools, like Network Access Protection (NAP) included in Windows Server 2008, help keep company networks free from viruses and other malware by ensuring that the machines of remote employees are compliant with company security settings and policy. These technology innovations help concerns about administrative costs and risks associated with maintaining security and support for workers on the go.
In addition to cutting costs and operating more securely, you can help your company become “greener” with remote working. When you eliminate travel to the office or to customer meetings, you save money and reduce your carbon footprint. Unified communications (UC) technologies now enable teleworkers to communicate with managers, customers and peers and collaborate in the context in which they prefer, helping to reduce the physical barriers that have been at the root of resistance to employees working away from the office. UC integrates commonly used tech tools, including the telephone, voicemail, and conferencing—into work that can be done on computers—documents, spreadsheets, instant messaging, e-mail and calendars. UC also aids in videoconferencing, providing valuable face-to-face interactions between employees without travel costs.
Operating in ways that are leaner, smarter and greener in this economy is crucial for business success. Adopting a remote-working policy may contribute to accomplishing these goals, and your IT assets can help you to create a successful program.
About the author: Steven Hill is
Microsoft’s Small and Mid-Market Solutions and Partners (SMS&P) area manager based in St. Louis. For more free technology tips
and other valuable information, visit
http://www.microsoftgameplan.com/.
