Swine flu, Man flu or a cold?

View all news 11/08/2009

Given recent media coverage of swine flu, pundits predictions of mass staff absence and resulting business disruption, now is as good a time as ever to ask the questions . . .

How effectively can I work when I'm not in the office? What can’t I do out of the office, that I can in the office? How would I maintain my business if a large number of my staff were in quarantine, but able to work still?

Most current and recent SME IT systems provide for a reasonable level of remote working, without a huge investment, for example what can I do with a standard Small Business 2003 or 2008 Server?

Well you can access your email through any internet connected browser; this is called Outlook Web Access.

You can also access your email through a PDA, smart phone, iphone or blackberry; there are various alternatives and benefits to these options, but most are straight forward and well rehearsed.

You can have a VPN connection from a remote PC to your network, allowing you to access files stored on the network, which is quite slow whilst opening and closing documents (dependant upon their size), but when working on them it is just like being in the office.

For regular and high numbers of remote users or for specific applications there is Terminal Services; slightly more long winded to explain, but in summary just like working in the office, except you are not!

These solutions can be configured from an hour of time upwards, and those friendly commercial consultants at amicitia would be more than happy to explain how.