InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
June 23, 1999
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Vendors are also developing applications that automatically synchronize data on users' portable systems with data on the company network. Last month, PointBase Inc. began offering PointBase 2.1., an upgrade to its Java-based software that offers bidirectional data synchronization between client notebooks and server software. Version 2.1 is compliant with popular database and messaging applications, including IBM DB/2, Lotus Notes, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and Sybase databases.
However, sometimes remote management isn't enough for multinational companies. That's why PricewaterhouseCoopers is building up local IT service throughout the world to include help-desk staffs that can communicate in various languages. In addition, the company is upgrading its telecommunications equipment so that employees who seek IT help on the telephone can be more efficiently routed to someone who speaks their language. The consulting firm is also developing pop-up applications that provide answers to common questions. For example, one software application will provide users with instructions on how to print a document from a local printer. Menu prompts will let them drill down to the appropriate country, city, and printer location within a PricewaterhouseCoopers building.
Also, as phone-line quality and telecommunications infrastructures differ around the globe, PricewaterhouseCoopers is evaluating hotels frequently used by employees to ensure that they offer adequate connectivity points for notebook users.
In addition to providing workers with mobility, notebook computers also put company data in a mobile state. Whether employees are dialing into a server from a hotel room in Singapore or opening a work file on their notebook hard drive at home, they are getting access to company data from outside the office. Unfortunately, such benefits also pose enormous risks, should sensitive company data get into the hands of the wrong person. When notebooks are stolen, companies are typically more concerned about unauthorized access to data than the monetary value of the notebook.
Jackson National Life Insurance in Lansing, Mich., is looking at a couple of ways to prevent notebook thieves from getting access to company data. One method involves the in-house application that field agents use to synchronize their work schedules with a server.
Kerry Hotopp, a software engineer at Jackson National, assumes thieves wouldn't bother with the schedule synchronization software, and he's considering distributing a command-to-delete file if users fail to synchronize with the server within a certain time period. Hotopp is also evaluating a service called Computrace from Absolute Software Corp. that pinpoints a thief's location if he tries to log on to the Internet with one of Jackson National's notebooks. Absolute works with law-enforcement agencies to attempt to recover stolen notebooks.
Some companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers are turning to VPNs because they offer a secure, relatively inexpensive method for transmitting IP data. VPNs, which Internet service providers began offering about two years ago, are typically less expensive than T1 lines, the increasingly common choice for WANs. Sports apparel manufacturer Deckers Outdoor Corp. in Goleta, Calif., uses a VPN to provide 75 field sales agents using notebooks with access to a company database and E-mail server.
"Our VPN is inexpensive, and it provides us with a way to authenticate users before granting them access to a network resource," says Steve Miley, director of information systems for Deckers. VPNs can save businesses money because users connect locally to an ISP rather than use a toll-free phone number. A toll-free line typically costs $4 to $6 an hour, while local connections range from 50 cents to $1.50.
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