The world is changing drastically, and technologies are developing at a very high rate. Technology has practically transformed everything from education, medical services, and transportation, to name but a few. Moreover, it has also changed how people perform their office work. Today, people do not really need to go to work to do their jobs. Most of the jobs can now be done from the comfort of one’s home. This is called telecommuting jobs. This paper seeks to analyze the role of technology on telecommute jobs.
Technology is one of the major determinants of the effectiveness of telecommuting jobs. Moreover, the development of mechanisms for the convergence of data, video and voice over a common IP framework and the availability of broadband internet services in employees’ homes, has made telecommuting a practical option especially for medium to large sized businesses in today’s diverse marketplace (Clark, 2008). The input of technology towards telecommuting has improved over the past decade, and there also has been an upsurge in proficiency related to information and communication technologies within working populations, both in developing and developed countries. For there to be a complete telecommuting program in any company, there needs to be proper technological infrastructure support. This helps leverage the company’s existing network setup to create a joined extension of the local area network to telecommuters, further helping to minimize security risks by maximizing their supportability through the application of company standards. Additionally, it enables the formation a framework for other services such as having a common IP framework, voice over IP and convergence of data and videos.
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Technology also comes into play in the configuration of the network infrastructure to the telecommuters, allowing the company need to come up with a type of remote access technology. Some of the varieties include dial-up and private circuits. However, most of the available telecommuting programs prefer to use the virtual private network (VPN) technologies rather than the public internet broadband services. Moreover, the flexibility of technology allows for the design of systems to fit the lifestyle of the telecommuters, in that it can cater to them whether they are stagnant or on the move with the use of services that include cable modems, public WI-FI hotspots, digital subscribers line and 3G/4G cellular networks. And also if the work they are dealing with is sensitive, there is the option of using a network provider that is able to provide a private IP environment and keep the telecommuting traffic off the public internet and on their private links (Tartaro, 2003). This, however, is expensive compared to the VPNs and the public internet. There are two main VPN technology models that the telecommuters can use for their work, and they are IP-Security (IPSec) and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) (Tartaro, 2003).
Despite the fact that both models are used to transmit the data from the telecommuter to their corporate network, in the SSL model, VPNs are only capable of providing security to Web-enabled applications like Web portals and email by establishing a session where encrypted date is exchanged between Web browser applications such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Web server application. While applications that need client software like CRM systems and ERP are referred to the IPSec VPNs (Clark, 2008).
To conclude by improving standard based technologies, telecommuters can be able to backup their work when the connection is low or unavailable. Moreover, since telecommuters are not in traditional office setups most of the time, companies need to also enhance their communication tools so that there is a flow of communication between the employees in the office and the telecommuters. Some of the tools they can use include web-based presentation rooms where they can video conference, use web cameras and IP Telephony can also come in handy by continually improving their technology they can enhance the performs of the telecommuters since they job mostly relies on technology.
References
Tartaro, M. (2003). Best practices for supporting home users. Network Computing, 14 :11, 73-75.
Clark, T. (2008). Ten trends and technologies driving secure teleworking. White Paper, the FactPoint Group, Los Altos: California.
