VPNs, IP telephony biggest homeworking headaches

VPN (virtual private network) is seen as the hardest remote working technology to manage by IT managers, claims research.

It was chosen by 37 per cent of respondents as the remote working technology that causes the most headaches in a survey commissioned by IP telephony company, ShoreTel.

IP telephony and PDAs linking to office email followed VPN as the trickiest systems to manage effectively.

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But despite issues with certain technologies, 53 per cent of those questioned said having staff working away from the office does not make their job harder.

The survey showed remote working is becoming the norm, with 92 per cent of IT managers saying their organisations have people working away from the office during the working week and 93 per cent have systems to cater for this.

Gartner predicts that by 2011, 46 million employees will spend one day per week working remotely with 112 million doing so once per month.

In terms of staying connected to the office, 73 per cent of respondents have remote access to email, 69 per cent use a BlackBerry and 54 per cent have remote access to the company network.

Three-quarters of respondents regard remote email access as the most useful application for remote working.

A ShoreTel spokesman said, for some IT managers, increased mobility is proving hard to manage so having applications that are easy to use is essential.

The Anywhere Office Survey used responses from 105 UK IT managers from businesses of various sizes.