Telecommuting and the local worker

Assignment 2 Week 4

Telecommuting and the local worker

Strayer University

CIS 336 – Enterprise Architecture

The number of American telecommuters is expected to increase by 29 million telecommuters or 43% of the workforce by 2016 as more work gets performed from remote locations. Mobile workers can work from wherever they are and use the IT / IS technology necessary to access co-workers, company or corporate infrastructure, intranets, and other information sources.

Describe the impact of telecommuting on energy conservation;

Describe the impact of telecommuting on IT operational Costs

1. Saving on Carbon emissions – Telecommuting saves on carbon emission by having less vehicles on the road. The foot print is reduced by either limiting travel to the office overall, or carpooling. Either way, this should be a part of any organizations green effort.
2. Paper resources – this is one of the first areas that telecommuting impacts. There already should be a paper saving policy in place. However, the less employees utilizing paper copies inside the office the better
3. Water, Heat, Electricity – government agencies have already instituted smart policies to save on resources. Telecommuting obviously cuts down on the usage of utilities including electricity and heating needs for the organization.

Describe how the business infrastructure should be designed so that employees will be able to continue to perform business functions in the event of a disaster (i.e., storm, hurricane, or earthquake) that destroys or makes it impossible to access the buildings.

1. Sick pay/personal time cost recovery – there should be a reduction in sick pay & personal time due to the flexibility of telecommuting. Managers are well- aware of the challenges of day care and other responsibilities and the impact of taking time off. These should be tracked in a way that shows the correlation of helping with work life balance, and increasing morale.
2. Office space/meeting area flexibility – with Cisco assets and SIP based software, there is little need for rented office space or conference halls. This reduces the IT budget overall. There is also a reduction in operational expenses overall.
3. Training time & Cost reduction – Training just like staff and office meetings can be done virtually. Furthermore, end users can conduct training offsite and log in when necessary. There is no need for a training room, and or facilitator locked to one location.
   • Work life balance & morale– this is a no-brainer in terms of retention and hiring. This is a great morale booster, and helps with accommodating and hiring diverse candidates that may have other challenges (e.g. ambulatory issues and other constraints). This is a huge operational benefit. Probably the first and foremost reason for implementing a policy shift like this.

Determine four (4) advantages and four (4) disadvantages of telecommuting from an IT manager’s point of view. Elaborate on each advantage and disadvantage.

1. Disaster recovery team/Disaster recovery plan – This should be a natural extension of plans that are already in place with a BIA (business impact analysist and risk assessment. A team lead should already be assigned with an Alpha and Bravo Roster. The alpha roster designates those on the team and their roles in the event of an emergency. A bravo roster assigns backup in the event that primary team members cannot respond for whatever reason. They are given the chain of command of who to call or wake up, and where to meet offsite in the event of a disaster (natural or man-made) Also, the issuance of company laptop, phone and remote access procedures is paramount to this policy. VPN, log me in, and administrative redundancy is always a plus as some administrators forget their credentials. Obviously if their credentials are compromised, then other steps need to take place. If only one admin can recover data or backups etc., the plan will fail if they are incapacitated.

Advantages

Disadvantages

1. No loss of productivity when emergencies arise at the office – Teams, staff, department heads etc. can stay productive and reach company resources even when there is inclement weather or a crisis at the job site. This give managers that flexibility to activate another resource even if another is down.
2. Morale increase – workers thrive better in the work place if work life balance is moving in the right direction. A happier employee is also more committed to the job and their leadership. Daycare concerns and other stresses are reduced with this model.
3. Flexible conference and meeting capabilities – leadership does not need to be confined to an office space or reserve a brick and mortar meeting place. Rich SIP and Conferencing applications can get the job done effortlessly.
   • Retention/hiring – this is one of the greatest benefit for first line leaders and managers. It is easier to retain good people with the promotion of policies that look to retain. Also, hiring professionals in the IT department should also benefit from this policy. Most professionals today are looking for work life balance.

Examine the effect of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to the IT infrastructure with regard to security, IT support, knowledge, and data management, green computing, and telecommuting.

1. Supervision & Oversite may suffer – Managing from a distance has its own challenges. Employees picked for this model must be mature and clearly understand what is expected of them. This should be kept in mind when implementing, and choosing an employee (s).
2. Distractions- the home environment has many distractions that do not exist in the workplace. This must be kept in mind when it comes to productivity with this model
3. Collaboration suffers– The team environment is not as strong with this model. This model benefits the individual more than the collaborative model. There are pros and cons with telecommuting that need to be heavily briefed and discussed before it is implemented. If brainstorming on a project or issue is needed, there needs to be allowances and tools put in place for this to happen.
   • Security issues – obviously, things like a work provided laptop, and or VPN must be put in place for network security. There are different risks involved in working from home. They include a breach to work information even on company issued equipment. The inability to have complete oversight when the employee is working from home etc.

Sources

1. Security – as a former member of Service Desk in an enterprise environment, it is tempting to forego the cost of purchasing company issued equipment. However, it is in the organizations best interest to do so. It is more work to keep the employee’s personal device patched and compliant than it is a company owned device. Having them sign an acceptable use policy and TOU covers abuse of the network and damage to the assigned equipment. There are plenty of administrative security programs that run in the enterprise and keep mobile devices compliant. BYOD is a good idea if this does not involve proprietary company information or critical business processes. Otherwise, I want you on a company issues mobile device.

Katz, G. (2017, June 17). The benefits of telecommuting for employers and employees. Retrieved January 31, 2018, from https://www.workflexibility.org/5-benefits-of-telecommuting-for-employers-and-employees/

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Telecommuting for Employees. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2018, from https://www.eztalks.com/telecommuting/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-telecommuting-for-employees.html

n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fandrealoubier%2F2017%2F07%2F20%2Fbenefits-of-telecommuting-for-the-future-of-work%2F&refURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Pearlson, K. E., & Saunders, C.S. (2015). Managing & using information systems: A strategic approach (6th ed.). Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.