With the increase to London 2012 gaining momentum by the second, summer 2012 looks to be hurtling towards us at break-neck speed. With mass chaos being anticipated on the roads and other methods of transport, some say that we will need to reduce our usual public transport usage by 20% so as to accommodate the in-flow of travellers here to witness the best show on earth as it rolls into London.

Hence the advice from the Mayor of London's office is to urge folks to work from home in this period. It is not just the enormous multinationals who can get staff telecommuting. As a small or medium business in London you also can reap the benefits of having staff work from home. Here is Prosyn's guide to what you will need to prepare in order to get staff working at home.

Email

Email is a key component in the present day's workplace. Your IT support folks should be well placed to set up the right email configuration on your workers work portable. There's also the option of setting up e-mail on a Smartphone. Do be reminded that your IT department or IT support team will need to ensure that the connection between the device and your net server is secure.

Telephone

Telefone communication will be significantly more vital when workers are working at home. A VoIP phone system which is linked to the telephone system in the office is a brilliant solution to being able to evade enormous mobile telephone bills. Again your IT support people must set it up correctly to make sure that the fone connection between home and office is secure.

Webex (Virtual Meeting)

There are times where an e-mail or fone conversation just will not do. Having an eyeball to eyeball meeting with workers working from home is possible with Webex. All you will need is an internet connection, a webcam and a microphone (or telephone). Webex is also a way of enabling tele-conferences without the video.

VPN (Virtual Private Network)

There are many methods of setting up a VPN, and it is critical to give your employees secure access to your office network from home. Your IT support provider will have a preferred system of implementing this solution.

Anti-virus

Either a hosted or locally installed anti-virus solution will be needed for the PC on which your workers will be working on from home. Your I. T department will be able to counsel on which type of solution you have. You may also have to make sure your subscription is recent, otherwise your employee's computer and your office network won't be defended from the newest threats.

Automated Online Backup

All work produced on external devices will need to be backed up also , if the employee not save the files onto the server. Prosyn suggests that you use an automatic online backup system with a high end info centre. The 2 systems we use are Attix5 and Asigra. This can make sure that the work that has been produced won't be lost due to connectivity issues or lost or theft of gadget.

Laptop Setup

Ideally, you would have your IT support people set up the work PCs before they are sent to your employees so that they can home work. All mails, anti-virus, VPN connections, online backup software, Webex and other software are configured so that the worker just wants to get connected to the Net and everything will work.

Last but not least your people should also ensure that their work space at home is tidy and appropriate for work, free from diversions.

At Prosyn we hope that you find this article useful. If you have any query about this document, or any other IT support queries, please do get in touch.