You are absolutely swamped at work, you have meetings scheduled for the remainder of the afternoon and your desk looks like it’s been bombarded by a paper explosion. Then all of a sudden the phone rings, it’s your spouse. Is the call just to say hello, with some words of endearment…highly unlikely. You pick up only to hear a ruckus in the background. Yes, your plumbing is on the fritz again and you have to get home on the double before your house, dog and children start floating down the avenue. So, not only have you lost your home to a rising abyss of water but you have also lost your afternoon and the next few days as well in order to catch up on meetings after this debacle. However, not all is sunk; there is still hope of continuing the day at the office, but in flip flops and swimming trunks in your living room. All it takes is a little tech support and patience and before you know it, homework won’t just be for your teenagers anymore.
Exec Phone Home
Remember that avalanche of voice messages in your inbox the last time you were out of the office for that afternoon of playing hooky at the golf course. Well consider a VoIP as that Saint Bernard that will rescue from that inevitable avalanche of voice mail. A VoIP (Voice Over IP Phone System) is the sure fire way of being able to juggle tasks outside of the office without juggling a ton of messages, emails and secretary calls asking your whereabouts. Bill Lenherr, president of Greenbrier Communications suggests turning to Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to safely, yet efficiently connect your home office, with your business headquarters. Yes, it may sound complicated but it’s really quite simple. First, “we create a secure VPN tunnel through the Internet to the office for network connectivity,” says Lenherr. “Using ShoreTel VoIP and SonicWALL VPN solutions, we are able to transparently link a home office to a business office. Through this tunnel the busy executive can access all resources he has at the office, including the phone system.” This system is quite brilliant and will alleviate all of the stress of constantly checking your inbox for new messages. All it takes is setting up a phone within the home and installing it as an extension off of the system. What makes this unique is that it allows the user to control the technology instead of the technology controlling the user. An individual can log into the phone system and choose which extension calls will be directed to, they can choose for calls to be sent to their office phone or to their home phone number all in the matter of seconds. Product information can be found at: www.shoretel.com and www.sonicwall.com
Phone Tag
Isn’t it irritating when you’re trying to get in touch with a client and they are nowhere to be found. First you try the office, then you are told to try their cell phone and so on, well it’s just as annoying for your clients to track you down while you are out of the war room. Don’t fret, ShoreTel has you covered in the phone tag department. ShoreTel’s “Follow Me Find Me” is a clever feature that allows your clients to track you down on any of your lines by the dialing of one number; they can find you anywhere, that’s if you want to be found. Follow Me Find Me allows the user to specify an external phone number,” says Lenherr, “and when a caller gets their voicemail, they hear a message that says for example “you have reached Bob Jones, I am either on the phone or away from my desk, please leave a message or press one to try to find me.” Upon pressing one it will call the users cell phone and announce “you have a call from 304-555-5555, press one to accept the call or press two to send them to voicemail.” The cool thing about this option is that it gives the caller a chance to locate you on any line that you have hooked up to the system, this includes a mobile or home phone as well. The brilliant part is that if you decide not to answer, the caller will never suspect that you have just screened their call, ShoreTel will just send it to your voicemail like nothing ever happened.
Speak Easy
ShoreTel also has a clever program that allows its user to connect to the office from home or away. “For the real road warrior, ShoreTel has a soft phone that lets you hook a headset to your laptop and can connect back to your office over the Internet from a hotel on the other side of the world,” says Lenherr. And, with the ShoreTel CallManager software on you laptop as well, you can transfer calls to extensions back at the office just like you were there. These software features allow you to connect to your office regardless of your location; it’s a quality choice for the traveler that needs to access the office from just across town or across the globe. More information can be found at http://www.shoretel.com/products/phones/soft_phone.html
Access Granted
Sometimes it’s rough to lug all of your computer equipment from the office to your home every single evening and it’s quite hectic to get all of the required goods if you are in a hurry to get out of the office. So forget your laptop and all of your external hard drive memorabilia because all you need is just a click away from your cozy home computer. All it takes is Microsoft’s remote desktop feature and you automatically have all of the information on your home PC as you do in your office, but without the slower than usual connection. “Rather than running applications on your home computer through a VPN tunnel, which would be slower than an office network, we utilize Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection features to access a terminal server or desktop PC at the office,” says Lenherr. “If the connection is broken for some reason, no data is lost. All you do is reconnect and just pickup where you left off.” Feature can be found at www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remoteintro.mspx
Stay Mobile
Who needs a messy rolodex with disorganized business cards and an uncategorized mess when all it takes to stay in touch and at the top of your game is a small gadget that fits nicely in your pocket. “With a PocketPC, SmartPhone, or Windows Mobile 5 device you can easily check your email, calendar or tasks remotely with Pocket Outlook.” All it takes is a little practice and you can be sending emails via WiFi and Bluetooth from your patio or from the sixth fairway at the Greenbrier. Feature can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/about/default.mspx
Safety First
It’s bad enough that you had to leave the office in a panic, the last thing you need to do is bring panic to the office by giving viruses to its network…talk about a real sick day. “Billions of dollars are spent to secure business networks yet most individuals think that a $50 wireless router from the corner market is sufficient for their home network,” says Lenherr. “In reality it is just as important to secure your home network since a lot of times the PCs are used to access your office. You do not want PCs at home to be a back door for viruses to infiltrate the office or for intruders to penetrate the perimeter of your office network. We utilize SonicWALL’s TZ series firewalls to provide security and to block viruses and spy ware before it reaches the PC.” So, rest assured that SonicWALL has the perfect vaccine for your home and office connection.With efficient programs and the proper technology, there is no reason to panic when tragedy strikes outside of the office and a brief leave is unavoidable. However, you might want to keep these new ideas on the down low, because if your boss finds out how connected to the office you are, even outside of the building, then it will quickly become “goodbye vacation and hello homework!” For more information please contact Greenbrier Communications at (304) 645-7548 or visit their website at www.grcs.com