Steve Pavent of Optimum Payments is a small-business owner who offers payment solutions to many other small businesses. Before using OfficeClip, the head office manually processed all business applications. Steve had the following requirements:

1. Each agent should be able to view and edit their assigned contacts and leads, because agents are geographically dispersed and earn commissions from their sales. They have to work on the contacts they acquire and manage.
2. The corporate office needs to look at all newly acquired leads and allocate them to various sales agents for further action.
3. Each agent's work hours, as well as the amount of work, need to be captured.
4. To maintain contact for better conversion and upselling, newsletters and periodic emails should be sent to all contacts and customers.
5. All documents associated with contacts and customers need to be connected within the system.
6. Careful records should be kept of all notes, events, and issues associated with any contacts.
7. Business forms should be sent directly to all prospects.

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Although gasoline prices have fallen drastically in the last few, the economy has gotten far worse. Those still employed are looking for any way possible to save money and are putting in more and more hours at work. Now, with online software like OfficeClip, workers can log in from any computer with an internet connection and manage their contacts and issues, and submit their timesheets. This means telecommuting has never been easier or more efficient.

Benefits and Risks

IBM estimates that teleworking can help improve worker productivity by about 20%, while reducing stress, cutting commute time and giving workers a better work/life balance. This is great news for employers and employees alike. While this seems like a good way to make workplace improvements in the current economy, a workable solution must address remote access needs of teleworkers and handle the security risks this can bring. It is important to realize that without proper security in place, an organization's sensitive information can be exposed to outsiders.

Additionally, there are risks of viruses which can be transferred from an infected device to other computers on your network and of hackers who could effectively destroy much or all of your important data and information.

None of this has to be a reason to abandon telecommuting.  There are solutions out there, such as SonicWALL, which delivers real-time security that can fit into the most demanding network infrastructures. Solutions like these ensure that employees can telecommute without risking any company information or exposing the networks to viruses or hackers.

Tell us how you are using telecommuting in your company by leaving us a comment.