Many employees panic if they lose their Internet and/or phone connection while striving to meet a deadline. However, teleworkers - who lack the safety net of corporate IT staff and must rely on local service providers that may move slowly to resolve technical problems - can experience even more stress when technology works against them.

No doubt, new technology greatly eases telecommuting by allowing employers to move from dial-up remote access solutions to high-speed Internet connectivity and virtual private networking, thus establishing faster connections.

Still, employers considering teleworking options must examine those measures within the context of their IT infrastructure. "You really have to plan on how and when you are going to implement the basis infrastructure that supports the teleworkers," explains Amy Moriarty, senior engineering manager at Aetna.

Troubleshooting telework

The three main IT challenges firms must consider concerning teleworkers are remote support, security and performance of applications, says Anthony Hernandez, a managing director at the Chicago-based consultancy SMART who specializes in technology infrastructure.

Teleworkers get stymied when their home Internet or phone service fails. "Those who are providing phone and broadband services to teleworkers are still very much in a residential mindset," instead of treating teleworkers as business clients, says Susan Beers, director of the telework project management office at Aetna.

Fixing virtual private network (VPN) or Internet service provider (ISP) connections quickly is a serious issue for teleworkers and their coworkers in terms of lost productivity, she adds. "So that's one of our challenges that we face everyday, waiting for the provider community to catch up to the criticalness of superior service for the teleworker community."

Some experts believe it's important that companies establish relationships with vendors, carriers and ISP providers and settle on a certain number of standardized carriers that provide services on broad scale. Moriarty says, "You don't want to leave the teleworker at the mercy of dealing with his or her cable company."

Employers should try to take the support and troubleshooting activities out of the hands of the teleworkers because that is not their job. "You want it to be in the hands of the support people at the helpdesk," Moriarty says. This means establishing relationships with those carriers and the ISP provider at the corporate level.

Similar to how a worker would combat a failed VPN or ISP connection onsite, employers must provide teleworkers with alternate options to work off-line when technology problems arise, says Cindy Auten, general manager at Telework Exchange, a Virginia-based group that works with public and private firms on telecommuting policies.

Remote support difficulties "demonstrates the requirement for teleworkers to have help desk/ISP support as well," she says. If a teleworker's home network area is foreseen as a network connectivity problem area, then employees and employers may want to investigate alternative worksite locations, such as telework centers.

Security and performance

Beers says her employer places a huge emphasis on data integrity, security and privacy.

"The technology components of our program that support our telework population would include our VPN secure network connection, our digital certification, client security and personal firewalls," she explains.

"Our wireless users use our Linksys routers to have a technology that also support them. They have encryption software and we have a number of other features that we use as well to ensure security of our data," Beers adds.

Hernandez says some organizations are using desktop management software that allows them to control certain programs on a remote user's computer, thus permitting them to perform software and virus updates through a remote connection.

"Many applications within an organization are developed with the mindset that they are on a local network with high performance, but really don't address bandwidth issues," he explains. "When you are working remotely, even if you have a broadband connection, it's still a fraction of your connectivity speed when you are in the office."

Dealing with the performance of applications, especially in securing the data as it transmits across the Internet, means examining encryption and VPN technology from a remote use perspective, Hernandez says.

Some remote access technologies means teleworkers are sharing bandwidth with other local people and could see performance degradation during high usage times, he notes. As a result, service providers are offering teleworkers greater guarantees in terms of availability, bandwidth and reduced lenient fees.

Andre'a D. Jackson, manager of global work-life, flexibility and mobility at IBM, comments, "Technology is an enabler in the overall business strategy, as all companies begin to look at the world of work and what that means. We are in a virtual environment, and our workers are demanding a certain level of flexibility."