Hit the Road: Portable Workforce

As your business continues to expand, you’re going to reach the point where you can’t cover all the bases yourself anymore. Eventually, you will need to trust and depend upon your employees to cover some of the expanding territory. This can be both exciting and nerve-wracking, considering that those people you’ve spent so much time mentoring are now going out as representatives of you and your business. You’ve given them all of the training you can offer, but that doesn’t mean all of the preparations have been made! Part of expanding your business and delegating duties means giving your traveling employees the resources necessary to their success. If your employees are hitting the road, you will need to establish a successful portable workforce, and that entails the right technology for the job. Here are three technologies that will help you launch your campaign to expand.

Remotely Accessible Server

If you host your own server, you should set it up for remote accessibility. Oftentimes a server is accessible only on site, which is a great solution for its security advantages. However, as your employees hit the road they will need to maintain access to the business information you store on the server. Setting up remote access is relatively easy and can be tackled in an hour or so by an IT professional. A remotely accessible server goes a long way towards establishing a central hub of collaboration and communication, especially if you have multiple employees out on the road traveling.

Portable Workstation

Many companies provide portable workstations to employees on road trips. While the desktop at the office is great for most applications, it certainly can’t be packed up and deployed easily by a traveler. A portable workstation serves as a replacement for the desktop computer, and has the necessary configuration to keep pace with desktop performance. Keeping  a small bank of portable workstations is a great idea. The HP Compaq 8510w, for example, is an inexpensive laptop workstation. With an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz processor, 2GB of standard RAM, a wide screen, and Bluetooth accessibility, the 8510w is a great choice 

for a portable laptop deployment.

Teleconferencing

Establishing a reliable line of communication between you and your team is essential to ensuring maximum travel efficiency. With a portable workstation and access to internet, you and your employees can have large virtual meetings with no hassle involved. Many businesses use free services like Skype or professional services like GoToMeeting for their teleconferencing. Even if it is something as simple as establishing a telephone conference, scheduling regular meetings will help you and your employees to keep tabs on progress and maintain the sense of a relatively normal work environment. By utilizing teleconferencing and allowing your employees remote access to your server, you use technology to artificially bridge the physical distance placed by travel. Allowing for a powerful portable workstation like the Compaq 8510w, you will increase efficiency and will be well on your way to establishing a great portable workforce.