Cisco has introduced a virtual office solution that it says will be a boon for Singapore companies which have a high percentage of mobile workers.
Speaking to BizIT, Cisco's Singapore and Brunei managing director Tom Cheong described Cisco Virtual Office as a highly secure solution that allows companies to extend their enterprise and productivity.
'It does so by 'bringing the office' to employees who regularly work in a variety of remote settings, such as branch locations or from a home office,' Mr Cheong noted.
Mr Cheong added that the virtual office addresses the growing trend among mid-sized and large enterprises that have increasingly distributed workforces who need access to collaborative business applications and services outside of their corporate offices.
The Cisco official highlighted one of the solution's most valued features, its 'zero-touch' set-up.
'(The) automated, pre-configured set-up off-loads installation responsibilities from employees, most of whom are not qualified or knowledgeable enough to implement networking systems themselves.'
The system operates out of a remote site which has a Cisco 881w Series Internet Services Router (ISR) and Cisco 7970G IP phone with colour display.
Once the 'zero-touch' set-up of the router is connected to the Internet it 'calls home' and automatically downloads a pre-defined configuration that syncs with the headquarters.
'From then on, the employees can benefit from efficient automated delivery of collaborative business applications and services,' Mr Cheong said.
At the headquarters, a Cisco 7200 series router serves as a converged platform for virtual private networking, offering easy-to-manage encryption and security, he added.
On top of this 'network' Cisco and its partners provide services for Cisco Virtual Office planning, design and implementation.
'Services include deployment and integration at the head-end site, consultative guidance for automating the deployment and management of remote sites and ongoing operational support,' Mr Cheong noted.
These services help reduce customers' operating costs and continually assess, tune and evolve Cisco Virtual Office components to keep pace with customers' business needs and security threats, he added.
Mr Cheong noted that when an employee connects to the Cisco Virtual Office in the branch or the home, the experience will be exactly the same as if he or she were in the office.
The Cisco official added that at around US$700 per seat, companies can provide their branch offices or mobile workers with a networking solution that packages routing, switching, security, wireless, IP telephony, and policy control technology.
According to Cisco, as the number of distributed workers increases and the way they access corporate networks multiplies, businesses need a flexible IT infrastructure that extends the same protection found within a corporate office to remote locations where employees connect.
'Because of the solution's security capabilities, businesses can safely establish highly secure mobility, collaborate with their constituents and adopt distributed employee work models that can be more efficient than relying exclusively on centralised corporate sites for conducting operations.'
The Cisco official noted that the solution is applicable across industries and is suitable for any company that has a mobile and flexible workforce.
Cisco is an active user of the solution. More than 12,000 employees in 70 countries use Cisco Virtual Office, and in 2009 the company plans to increase adoption to 20,000 users, Mr Cheong said.
He added that by 2010, Cisco plans to have deployed the solution to 30,000 of its employees globally.
'In Singapore, Cisco has just implemented mobility with around 40 per cent of our employees.
'This means that they do not have an assigned workstation in the office but with Cisco Virtual Office solution in their homes, they are able to work securely from their homes as though they were in the office.'
He added that the solution comes at an opportune time as businesses look for flexible and cost-effective work options, particularly in the wake of rising gas prices and energy costs.
'The solution enables them to ensure highly secure collaboration among a more distributed workforce.'
This article was first published in The Business Times on September 15, 2008.
