How to Integrate a Remote Office

Every company has its own unique technical needs. These needs make a big difference in exactly what it takes to integrate remote offices. But there are a few universal steps that any business can follow during the process:

When you're evaluating your company's needs, first ask for feedback from your staff on problems they've encountered. This will help you identify trouble spots. Once you have a general idea of where you need improvement, ask for technical help from an IT consulting firm or your company's IT team. These experts will help you determine your company's strengths and weaknesses and develop an integration plan.

With all this feedback in mind, you can start updating and enhancing your systems, allowing your business to operate more smoothly. Upgrading and optimizing your network will be a big part of this step. You might also consider adding newer technologies like VoIP (voice over internet protocol) and desktop video conferencing to bring your offices closer together.

VoIP technology can allow calls to be delivered and received anywhere within the company. For example, a receptionist at one branch can receive a call and transfer it to another -- or to an employee who is telecommuting from a home office. The caller won't ever know he's being transferred from location to location.

Desktop video conferencing is growing in popularity as a way for employees to efficiently communicate across time zones -- and even across the hall. Employees can see and hear each other during a video conference, which can make it a more effective way to communicate than e-mail or text chat. Video conferencing also fosters a sense of community among employees who, although they work for the same company, may never meet face to face. "People gravitate toward video," says Steve Westmoreland, CIO of Avistar, a desktop video conferencing provider. "They gravitate toward the visual image very readily because it most closely approximates regular human interaction."

The last step to integrating a remote office is to secure all the data, which we'll look at on the next page.

Perhaps the biggest mistake a company can make when setting up branch offices is allowing its data to be scattered among the offices, rather than centralized in one location where it can be shared, secured and reliably backed up, says Joe Rejeski, founder of Avenue X Group, an IT support and consulting firm. In a worst-case scenario, scattered data can make it hard for a business to rebuild its network after a major technical failure. But not having a central data server can also lead to day-to-day problems within a business. For example, employees may be communicating with customers using old or incorrect documents, with the correct versions stored on someone else's desktop.

Rather than keeping sensitive data on employees' computers or on servers at each office, a more integrated solution is to collect it all and store it on one server or collection of servers in a central location. The servers don't have to be in the same building as the main office -- they may be in another facility. The important part is that IT staff only need to secure, maintain and back up data in one location.

Employees working in the same building as the servers can get to their data using a local area network (LAN) or using WiFi. Elsewhere, employees can access their data through terminal server, which allows users to log in remotely. Another important tool is a virtual private network (VPN), which lets employees access and retrieve data from outside the office while still keeping the communication between their computers and the central server secure.

These tools do more than just offer flexibility and remote access to important data. They can also help prevent employees from accidentally duplicating or losing important files. If everything's stored on one central server, IT staff can perform regular backups in case of problems. And since everyone's on the same system, everything from training to system upgrades can be easier and more efficient.

Read on to the next page for more on integrating remote offices.