Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Who pays for shedworking?

A very interesting piece in IT Director by Rob Bamforth, Principal Analyst, Quocirca, who asks 'Who bears the cost of home working?'. He talks about the blurring of boundaries as regards business and home use and in particular asks the very pertinent question "who then pays for the home broadband, and who is responsible for ensuring it meets the company's needs?" He goes on to say:
"However, a combination of wider household use and broadband delivered entertainment means the connection might be heavily loaded and by some less than friendly or even unsafe applications. Are these appropriate network conditions for those employees working from home who have to conduct confidential business needing solid security, or who use critical processes needing deterministic confirmation or completion? Probably not, but then can an employer really take full control of the broadband connection, compelling the employee to get another for personal use? And what happens when two members of the household work from home with different employers?

"Ultimately it's unlikely that employers will be able to impose either broadband service provider or IT department approved customer premises equipment, like a router at the entry to an employee's household network. So how then do they retain at least some control, to ensure that corporate security and protection needs are met, and that services used by the employee at home meet suitable service criteria?"
Well worth a browse.

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