Systems for employees who work remotely

[MoneyGuy]

Does anyone have any advice or resources on the technology that would allow an employer to have employees work from remote locations? The jobs would involve answering phones, completing paperwork, LOTS of other phone work with clients, electronic filing, office meetings, arranging client meetings and the resulting follow up, etc. The employees would be a great distance from the employer so there would be no office visits.

I imagine Skype or similar technology would be an asset. There are phone systems that allow the seamless transfer of calls between locations. What about accessing client files remotely? What systems would a person require? What about sending electronic files between office locations for signatures, etc. The remote employee fills out paperwork, emails it to the main office where it's printed, the client signs and it's sent back to the remote employee for filing - that sort of thing.

These are valued employees who are moving. The jobs are hard to fill effectively so the employer would like to retain the great people he has.

[Russic]

My ways may not be the most professional, but they work great for us.

I don't know about phones, but for my working-from-home needs I generally use a combination of LogMeIn and dropbox.

LogMeIn just allows me to control my work computer from home, and DropBox is essentially a folder that can exist on my work compter and any other computer I want. Any file that is modified gets modified everywhere else. I keep all of my work files in it, so my work files are accessible in my home, on my mobile devices or any computer that has an internet connection.

Where this could benefit you is that you can also share folders with people. We have one folder for team projects that is accessible by 5 different people in the office. Anytime we need to send a file, we just drop it in that folder and anybody has immediate access to it. Sure you could email it, but it's important to keep the folder hierarchy in place and you also don't want too many copies floating around.

There is a free DropBox that gives you 2 gigs of space and a $10/month version that gives you 50 gigs.

[Azure]

VPN.

Fast and secure.

We setup remote stuff for a client this past week. Used a Sonicwall TZ200 for the VPN.

[Superflyer]

You can also setup a VPN connection with the built in features in Windows itself. It is secure and works pretty well. Also in combination with that you can use remote desktop and control a computer located at the office.

There is also a solution like Citrix, we have that in place and it works great.

As for phone you can use something like Skype or if you have the time and money you can setup a VOIP based solution. With this you can configure a handset, send it to them, they plug it into the internet connection and it works the same as a handset on your desk at the office. Or you can use a software based version as well.

A lot depends on how much time\money you can dedicate to this solution.

[Rathji]

One of our contractor uses this for phone. It routes all calls to their targets depending on how they are signed in.

http://fonality.com/trixbox/

and then remote web workplace for the computer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microso..._Web_Workplace

It is essentially like the person is working right in the office other than face to face meetings.

You could also use any VPN firewall from Cisco (or another brand), a terminal server, or just remote desktop into a dedicated machine.

[sclitheroe]

The most important consideration, and the one that nobody has mentioned here yet, is how the employer plans to support the employee machines at the remote end. The connectivity technology is easy - you have Citrix, SSL VPN, RDP, Skype, Microsoft OCS, Sharepoint, Exchange Unified Communication, etc...literally more technology than you can shake a stick at. VOIP telephone is relatively easy too (so I’ve been told, not my area of expertise)

But all of this is useless if the employees are unable to sufficiently maintain their machines to be able to make use of the remote access. Who is looking after their desktops, internet connectivity, keeping AV and patching up to date, etc. What happens if a machine breaks and is out of warranty? What happens if a machine is stolen or lost? What if they suddenly can’t print? etc, etc.

Unless you have technically savvy employees that can take care of getting connected themselves, these are the most important issues that have to be planned for, otherwise it’s not going to work, or not going to work well enough for the remote staff to be productive and happy.

Edit: these issues become even more important if the employer needs to be PCI compliant, is SAS70 compliant, etc. Securing the internal network and processes is straightforward, but you need to provide compliance out to the remote end points too, otherwise you have exposure and will fail your audits.

[You Need a Thneed]

Remote desktop to a dedicated machine might be all you need. Then you can set it up so you have the same desktop as you have at the office from anyway on the planet that has a internet connection.

There's probably countless ways of doing what you want to do, each with their pros and cons. I don't know enough about different systems to really give you a good answer

[mykalberta]

If you are serous about keeping these users then I would use log me in. I assume you are in a financial capacity given your username and logmein is likely the most secure option and when you decide to cut the employees there are no contracts to cancel and not computers to get them to ship back.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

If you are serous about keeping these users then I would use log me in. I assume you are in a financial capacity given your username and logmein is likely the most secure option and when you decide to cut the employees there are no contracts to cancel and not computers to get them to ship back.

Ugh...LogMeIn is the last remote solution I would use. You are completely reliant on a third party, cloud system for authentication. Passwords are stored outside your network. You machines are using NAT traversal to circumvent firewalling.

LogMeIn is fantastic, and fantastic at what it does, but until they offer better security for enterprises, its not for me. They need to support SecureID fobs, or at the very least, let me hook my own RADIUS server into their infrastructure so that passwords and authentication can be stored and happen inside my network.

You are literally flying blind using LogMeIn - you have no idea who is connecting to your machines because all the trust is placed on LogMeIn to remain secure and their password DB’s intact. It’s such a juicy target I am amazed every day that it hasn’t been compromised yet.

Edit: This is just my opinion, not a criticism of Myk's recommendation, but of holes I see in using LogMeIn for production work.