Selling and Remote Working BYOD

In a study by Regus in 2012 72% of firms said that higher productivity was a direct result of flexible working practices. The desk based sales workplace is no longer always a cubicle, a hot desk or even a permanent desk. Companies and their IT companies need to adapt accordingly.

More and more sales organisations have embraced remote working. But there are inevitably concerns both from technical and cost management  view points over security concerns.

AVG in 2011 found that £3.37 million worth of damage was inflicted on small firms by cybercriminals  . AVG expect expect the figure will rise significantly for 2012 /13.

For example the Cloud computing company Dropbox last year encountered a number of serious  security issues  that may deter larger companies from using it. A number of password and usernames were stolen  from other websites and used to sign in into a small number of Dropbox accounts according to a report in City A.M. Feb 1^st .  

Advantages + for employer of Remote working

·         Competitive edge when seeking to attract/recuit new staff

·         Even increased staff loyalty

·         Reduced levels of absenteeism

Advantages +employees of remote working

           - Want and expect BYOD

- Technological advancesgive them a competititve edge in working.

IT departments are likely to be  pressured to set up and enable infrastructure from the increased use and demand for remote working. Cloud computing might help overcoming infrastructure shortages particulalry in

1.       Accessing data in real time

2.       Accessing data from multiple devices

Security concerns

1.       Network intrusion and infection

2.       Data theft and loss

Visual of security threats Trojans, worms, viruses,  hacking, malicious codes are on the rise according to BT

Security mitigation measures can include :  firewall management, intrusion detection, virus detection, spam prevention, disaster recovery, remote device deactivation

Security needs to  more sophisticated. Not only who and what is coming into the enterprise but also location and context.

Less of a concern because of their own stringent robust securitymeasures are remote meeting services e.g   Webex, Adobe Connect Adobe connect , GoTo meeting GoTo meeting

More affordable options are available through using  Skype ,  Facetime video conferencing  , communication tools like Flowdock Flowdock

It is easy to see the attraction of file hosting systems  like cloud computing such as Dropbox with its free 2Gb storage  which enables employees to access files anywhere in the world and keeps files on all computers up to date.

With this increase is remote working come additional challenges for sales team managers but that is a topic for another post.

Related Links

How will selling tackle the rise of Bring Your Own device (BYOD )?

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/how-will-selling-tackle-boyd-up.htm l

Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/

Webex http://www.webex.co.uk/

Adobe Connect http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/adobeconnect.html

 GoTo meeting http://www.gotomeeting.co.uk/fec/

Skype http://beta.skype.com/en/

Facetime video conferencing http://www.apple.com/uk/mac/facetime/

Flowdock https://www.flowdock.com/