Introduction

With the rapid uptake of tools such as Blackberrys, smart phones and laptops in recent years, the notion of ‘out of office’ or ‘mobile’ working practices has significantly taken hold and continues to increase at an alarming pace. This again is not only driven by smart phones which allows mobile or remote workers to push emails and manage documents on the go but with the proliferation of mobile broadband, the boundaries of mobile working and remote access have been pushed to a new high again. Increasingly, mobile workers are being forced to adopt a ‘follow the sun’ work ethos.

Key findings

• Drivers – Lepus uncovered the main drivers behind the strong uptake of remote access working practices to be improving work life balance, increasing productivity, increasing business as usual activities and the ongoing developments and advancements in remote access technologies and systems.
• Technology – Remote network access gives employees great flexibility regarding when and where they perform their job functions. The rapid development in virtual private network (VPN) technology has led to the growth in ‘follow the sun’ workers.
• Risk – One of the key risks uncovered by Lepus interviews and further research was that some banks have established disparate remote working networks rather than one centrally managed system and have failed to implement the required remote worker policies and network access controls.
• Vendors – Banks use a host of solutions and tools to provide remote access capabilities. These range from Blackberrys and other smart phones to increasingly advanced laptops with access to highly secured VPN networks. In addition, Lepus research established that Citrix still remains as one of the key leaders in this space.
• Future trends – Remote access has already become an integral part of most leading banks’ business strategies. Its importance will continue to grow as users have greater access to their company networks from a wider variety of sources and locations as well as the ever increasing growth in mobile devices and technologies.

Conclusion

The significance of remote access and the benefits it provides to financial organisations and their staff cannot be underestimated. Remote access working practices have grown rapidly over the last few years which have been driven by various factors such as terrorist attacks, pandemics, increased productivity and so forth. Furthermore, as this space continues to develop and more banks adopt flexible and remote working practices, this growth will continue at least into the near to medium future.

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Tagged with: 2009, Remote Access, technology, Technology Research Report