One in five people were unable to get to work because of heavy
snowfall last week, but it was business as usual for staff who
could log in to corporate systems remotely.
Small businesses ill equipped
Business continuity in action
VPN access on demand
Breaking down barriers to remote working
Why business continuity plans fail
Remote working enablers
Useful links
Phil Flaxton, chief executive of non-profit organisation
Work Wise UK says more enlightened employers already allow
their staff to work smarter, enabling them to work flexibly from
home.
The
2007 floods made many more UK businesses aware of the need to
plan for
restricted access to offices, leading them to better equip
themselves for future incidents.
But these tend to be large companies with large resources that
represent only 20% of the UK economy.
Small businesses ill equipped
The majority of small and medium-sized businesses are still not
sufficiently prepared, says Russell Price, chairman of the
Continuity Forum.
Only half of small businesses affected by the snow storms in
Essex were able to benefit from home working, according to a survey
by
Shadowfax Technology.
Business continuity in action
Sutton-based
Reed Business Information (RBI), publisher of Computer Weekly,
has made remote working part of its business continuity plan.
When the snow hit, 500 employees were able to log into corporate
systems and work remotely using a secured virtual private network
(VPN) connection, says Dan Olley, IS director at RBI.
"The ability to flex our VPN capacity on demand was introduced
two years ago as part of our business continuity strategy," he
says.
Staff were able toaccess the company's Microsoft Exchange-based
e-mail viathe web.The companysupported over 700 users at the peak
of demand on the first day of snow-related disruption.
Another key part of RBI's strategy is
softwareasaservice and
cloud-based infrastructure, using tools such
asSalesforce.com and
Google Apps.
The strategy adopted by some firms of moving staff to a
designated disaster recover site is flawed, says Olley,as most
disaster scenarios are likely to knock out transport networks.
"Having key staff in a position that they can work remotely if
required provides a more efficient and flexible continuity
strategy," he says.
VPN access on demand
The ability to increase VPN access on demand is a good strategy
because it is secure and gives companies control over the resources
users can access.
Without VPN on demand, companies may be tempted to allow staff
to use unprotected network connections in a crisis, which opens up
the opportunities for hackers and fraudsters, says Andrew Moloney,
EMEA marketing director at RSA, the security division of EMC.
One company admitted to Computer Weekly that it did not have
enough
Citrix licenses to allow all its snowbound employees to use VPN
links.
The IT infrastructure needed to support secure VPN access is
often complex and expensive, putting it out of the reach of many
smaller businesses, which typically rely on a small number of key
staff.
Breaking down barriers to remote working
But remote access on demand and other web-based services are
rapidly lowering the technical and cost barriers to remote working,
so why are so few small businesses tapping into these
resources?
According to the UK's Federation of Small Businesses (FSB),
business owners are not aware of the online resources,such as
Google Apps, that can provide staff outside the office with secure,
low-cost access to work tools.
The FSB says it is looking into ways of educating business
owners on how to take advantage of this technology.
Wireless technology has improved the workforce's capacity to
work from anywhere and limited the economic impact of the snow
storms, but a lot more needs to be done to help smaller businesses
get those benefits at a price they can afford.
Why business continuity plans fail
Plans tend to be too focused on IT systems
Not enough emphasis on people
Few plans include remote working
Plans often overlook common threats such as bad weather
The focus is on long-term disruption
Remote working enablers
Broadband internet connection
Virtual private networks (VPN)
Outlook web access
Web-based productivity applications
Web-based virtual switchboards
Social networking sites
Web-based video- and audio-conferencing
Useful links:
Salesforce.com
Google Apps
The
Federation of Small Businesses