|
||
|
She gets her kids off to school, enters her home office, and fires up her computer. Nothing. After spending half an hour with the corporate help desk, she goes it alone and plugs the computer into a different outlet, bypassing the surge protector.
Aha, problem solved.
Three weeks later, you're on the phone with a very frustrated teleworker whose computer and a week's worth of work just blew because of a power spike.
Don't let this happen to you again - assess your teleworkers' risks in light of the costs associated with those risks. From power protection to the help desk, figuring out your teleworker support plan is just as important as the right notebook or security strategy.
Preventive maintenance is key, especially when you're dealing with teleworkers. While many IS staffs implement cost-effective preventive maintenance, it's usually directed toward networks and servers, not employees' workstations. That's OK for the corporate environment, where online backups are readily available. But teleworkers have their own needs.
Contingency Planning's surveys place power failures and surges at the top of the list for data loss, with a whopping 45.3% event rate. By comparison, the second-highest-ranking problem is storm damage, at 9.4%. Power problems are common and can be expensive, averaging about $1,800 per machine. And that doesn't include the hidden costs in downtime shipping new machines to teleworkers, employees' learning curve with new machines, or the time IS spends configuring new ones. When considering the total cost against the average hit rate for power problems, a UPS becomes a sweet deal.
More than a surge protector, a UPS provides power to a computer and peri-pheral equipment when there's no power to be had. Modern UPSes also provide surge protection for peripherals and phone lines. The better ones also provide automatic voltage regulation, which protect computers against brownouts and over-voltage conditions without having to revert to a battery. The best units, such as those from APC and Tripp Lite, include automatic shutdown software and a sizable lifetime warranty against electrical damage to your computer.
When you choose a UPS, protect your investment by securing all avenues of entry. Your computer is just as vulnerable to power spikes from your peripherals and network as it is from the main outlet. If you're plugging into a network, use a separate network protector, such as APC's Pnet1.
Last, don't skimp. Most people choose a UPS that gives them 5 minutes of runtime, but that's only when it's supporting the com-puter itself. Add a monitor, a second processor and another hard drive, and later your UPS will shut down about a second after the power goes out. To prevent this, plan for enough power to support your computer, your monitor and all internals, then, add 30%, and purchase a unit that will support this load for about 20 minutes.
Other support measures you should consider:
- A 2,000-volt discharge of static electricity is just as deadly as a 500-volt power line surge. Spend an extra $35 for an antistatic chair mat. If that breaks your budget, get a $10 antistatic touch pad.
- Cover all the holes in network security (http://www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 4625). Preventive security measures such as antivirus software and personal firewalls are a lot less expensive than house calls.
- While RAID is rarely used for workstations, if your teleworkers' data or artwork is critical to your business efforts, protect their work with an in--expensive, high-speed, large-capacity Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics RAID controller, such as Promise's FastTrak 100 ($75). If your teleworkers use high-speed con-nections with VPN through your corporate firewall, you might implement an incremental back-up solution to a corporate server instead. It's even less expensive is to use Moon Software's Backup Magic, which, for $20, will perform automated background backups to a variety of sources, and, unlike RAID, will also guard against accidental deletions.
Networking 911
The help desk can be a corporation's source of pride, or the scourge of its employees. A good help desk technician should be among the better trouble-shooters on your IS staff.
Periodically rotating your IS staff through the help desk position is an excellent way to break the monotony while putting some much-needed experience where it belongs. Even so, you may want to buy some experience in the form of help desk software, such as one of the many powerful diagnostic tools found on HelpDesk.com.
When the help desk fails to solve the problem, it's time to hit the road. If your teleworker has a laptop, it's usually cheaper to have the remote worker bring it in or overnight it to headquarters. A house call may be required for more substantial problems, particularly those where networking is involved.
To belay the high cost of house calls, consider your service options when buying the computer. Most leading computer manufacturers have multitiered technical support services, ranging from personalized help desk support to on-site troubleshooting. They're not cheap, but may be less expensive than the alternatives.
By carefully considering all risks associated with teleworking in conjunction with the costs of mitigating or preventing those risks, you can develop a sound, cost-effective preventative maintenance program for your teleworking staff.
Next story: Hardware - The latest news on computers options for your teleworkers.
Related links
Janss is the president of Jansys Information Systems, a consulting firm specializing in IS technologies for small busi-nesses. He can be reached at bizcom@jansys.com.
Net.Worker newsletter archive.
