One of the more refreshing changes to IT organizations is how they're addressing IT challenges at the branch.

I have talked to many IT executives who have revamped how they make decisions about the technologies, products, and services that go into branch offices. As branch locations and virtual workers grow, IT staffs must take inventory of what is in the branches and how they will best deliver data, applications, and bandwidth out to the remote workforce.

What they are finding in the branches usually is troubling: Little consistence between brands and types of switches, servers, and access.

In the past, deciding on what went into a branch was a crap-shoot. Sometimes central IT decided; other times, a semi-technical administrative assistant or sales rep decided (seriously!). Many organizations had no structure in their decision-making.

I’ve talked to some who simply sent their administrative assistants to retailers such as Best Buy to buy whatever router and small-business phone system was on sale. Others simply counted up the number of employees in the location, and asked IT to send the appropriate equipment. Either way, there was little consistency in the decision-makers and no corporate standards for product and technology selection.

Within the past two years, we have seen a very encouraging change in the level of attention IT staffs pay to the branch office. And in the last round of research Nemertes conducted, called Unified Communications & Collaboration, I was pleased to see the factors companies now consider when developing the IT infrastructure for their branch locations.

The best practices from companies who have solid branch architectures and decision-making processes consider the following metrics and answer the following questions:

* How many people are in the branch?
* How critical is that location to the business? (The more critical, the more back-up services, high-speed access, or locally available application servers are.)
* How many applications do branch employees use, and what’s the most efficient way to deliver those applications?
* Is there IT expertise at or near the branch? Are third-party services required?
* Do customers visit the branch location? What are the IT considerations to make sure customers are appropriately served?
* Who is making the branch decisions—for all branches? (There must be consistency to avoid “islands.”)
* What are the corporate standards for governance and exceptions of branch product selections?

Robin Gareiss is executive vice president and senior founding partner of Nemertes Research. Click  here for the newsletter archive.