* Branch offices exist in all shapes and sizes
Editor’s Note: The Branch Office Best Practices Alert was sent this morning with the main story by Robin Gareiss missing. We are resending the newsletter now with the main story included. We apologize for the error and for the inconvenience. One of the most basic and frequent questions I receive when advising clients about branch-office strategies is: “What is a branch office?” In other words, is the large regional contact center a branch office? What about a telecommuter who works from home? Or, how about a mobile worker who works primarily from airports and hotels?
Editor’s Note: The Branch Office Best Practices Alert was sent this morning with the main story by Robin Gareiss missing. We are resending the newsletter now with the main story included. We apologize for the error and for the inconvenience.
One of the most basic and frequent questions I receive when advising clients about branch-office strategies is: “What is a branch office?” In other words, is the large regional contact center a branch office? What about a telecommuter who works from home? Or, how about a mobile worker who works primarily from airports and hotels?
The answer: Yes. Branch offices exist in all shapes and sizes, although to many people, they are simply the small bank branches or retail stores. That may be true from a “corporate” view, but from an IT view, each of these remote connections essentially is a “branch” off the main data center and/or headquarters.
The challenge I see forthcoming is the truly small branch — e.g., the individual-person-as-a-branch. These branch locations are the most troublesome for IT support in many ways.
Think about it: If I am at an office, the IT/network/telecom managers handle my Internet connectivity via a T-1 (or T-3/OC-3) link that is shared by all people in the office. My telecom comes in though a PRI line or over the WAN if we’re on VoIP. That is shared capacity and connectivity, as well.
When I’m on the road, though, things change. I access the network from a broadband wireless card or airport Wi-Fi service. I must log in to the VPN. My voice service could be a cellular phone, BlackBerry, or softphone client on my laptop. I may have a separate network optimization client in my laptop to improve throughput. I also may have a Skype client on the laptop to make international calls.
Replicate that by hundreds or thousands of mobile workers, and you can quickly see how set-up, management and troubleshooting could become overwhelming. Different setups, different problems, different questions, and different times of the day or night will become common.
How do the IT/network/telecom support teams address this? It’s not going to be easy, and the branches of one will continue to get more demanding and sophisticated. The best solution may very well be to seek out third-party services from carriers, systems integrators, and outsourcers to help establish and maintain this connectivity and infrastructure.
Up next: The emergence of the “mini-micro branch.”
