Now that you’ve made the decision to take your office with you when you go, you should consider drafting a mobility plan, especially when your employees want their offices to go, too. Creating an intelligent plan will ensure that your business’s IT environment and data are protected regardless of where you or your employees choose to set-up shop.  A well-crafted plan will address the following areas:

Access

Consider who needs to have a mobile office. Employees that would benefit from the 24 hour/7 days a week access of a mobile office might include:

• members of the sales force
• department heads
• corporate officers

Determine what programs and data they will need to access offsite. Many programs can be used remotely but may need to be modified.  Some very useful programs and the data associated with them include:

• databases
• spreadsheets
• word processing programs
• email

Decide who will be able to access which programs and data at any given time. Not everyone needs access to every program and all data.  Also consider the times that your business’s

servers will be backing up—you might consider blocking all users from remotely accessing your IT environment at this and other similar times.

• Create and prioritize a list of users who will need access to mobile data.
• Match users to data and their needed resources.
• Create specific permissions mapped to individuals.

Also consider how you will control document revisions. When a user is working in a mobile office setting, it might be impossible for them to constantly sync their mobile device; this inability to frequently connect and update data on the home server could cause multiple versions of many documents to be created by different users working on the same project.  Steps to implement version control may include:

• installing SharePoint or other file sharing software
• creating check-in/check-out procedures
• mobile device syncing procedures

Implementation

This part of the plan should address how your business will actually create and maintain a functional mobile office network to enhance your onsite IT environment.  Some key points to consider:

• Determine which onsite hardware and software resources are available or needed to support your mobile offices.
• Choose the mobile devices best suited to your business’s needs—keep in mind how the device will connect to the internet and what sort of data will need to be manipulated.
• Decide if remote users need to access your corporate phone system.
• Contact your ISP and request a bandwidth report to ensure your main office can handle additional internet traffic.

Security

When you choose to extend your IT environment beyond your physical business, you should be aware that security risks increase and take steps to protect your network and data.  Consider the following:

• How is your mobile accessible data protected (AV/Encryption/special access)?
• How often are data backups scheduled?
• Server logging should be configured to track remote user access.
• If you use Microsoft Exchange or SQL server, plan to keep their security updates and patches current.
• Determine if your website needs a remote access portal for users to “phone home.”

Next steps

The most important part of ensuring that your mobile plan is successful is dependent upon training.  Regardless of how much money you do or don’t spend on a mobile office, it won’t matter a bit if your users can’t remember how to use their devices or practice safe remote access procedures.  To learn more about a mobile office plan, or to discuss training your mobile office users, please contact the mobility experts at All Covered or call 866-446-1133.

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