Overview:

The Issue:

Nemertes Checklist: Branch Office Best Practices 

Small and the lower end of mid-size companies are leveraging the virtual workplace to reduce real-estate costs and attract otherwise unattainable employees.  This helps them compete with larger, more established and wealthier companies.  Nemertes provides some best practices around branch offices, convergence and mobility for the small to medium businesses.

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Clients: Branch Office Best Practices Checklist

Non Clients: Nemertes Checklists are available to clients only. If you're not a client and would like to receive a copy of this Checklist, please contact us.

Press Rlease: For Immediate Release 

For more information, contact:
Karen Wucher
Nemertes Research
Phone: 972-335-7028
Cell: 970-846-4768
Karen.Wucher@nemertes.com

Overview

A growing number of organizations are dealing with a growing number of virtual workers. What does it mean to operate in a virtual workplace? It means employees working in multiple locations, away from their supervisors or their workgroups at least some of the time. Basically, virtual workers do not have a single place where they conduct all of their business. The number of employees who work from home (either full or part time) has risen to 17% in this year's benchmark, up from 10% last year. And only 8.5% work in headquarters, on average.

These figures are creating new challenges for both business and IT staffs, to make sure the right network infrastructure, collaborative applications, and emerging technologies are in place to make virtual workers as productive as possible.

Press Release

March 27, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Complex Networks Lead To Falling VOIP Vendor Ratings
Shortel continues to impress IT executives according to Nemertes study

NEW YORK, NY -- March 27, 2007 – IT executive ratings of their IP telephony vendors have declined this year, according to Nemertes Research latest benchmark volume, “Voice Over IP: State of Deployment, Architecture, Vendor Ratings, ” which has tracked vendor performance in several categories for the past four years. The study, based on five months of in-depth interviews with more than 120 IT executives, finds that vendors need to improve the most in the areas of management tools, ease of installation and troubleshooting, and customer service. IT executives rated vendors highest in product features, overall performance, and technology.

The number of branch offices continues to increase, creating more IT challenges

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 2/6/07

It’s no huge surprise that with a relatively healthy global economy, we’re seeing corporate expansion. I’m not talking about the $36 billion profit Exxon recently reported. I’m talking about the expansion of the size and number of branch locations.

Telecommuting benefits employees and employers

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 1/30/07

Telecommuting can be a luxury or a curse, depending on who’s talking. Many companies (ours included) view telecommuting as a benefit to employees. But it’s also a benefit to the employer—if managed properly.

True, there are people who simply don’t want to work from home—or worse, those who think they can work from home but simply can’t. I’ve worked from home full-time since 1991, and I’ve had dozens of my staff work from home in that timeframe.

Recently, iPass (NASDAQ: IPAS) expanded its Managed Remote Access Services (RAS) with a second U.S.-based CDMA cellular data service, expanded international WiFi service, and global high-speed satellite access.

These expansions reinforce iPass' position among the leaders in Managed RAS, and highlight mobile enterprises' desire to use multiple wireless Internet connection types to ensure access to its home network.

Managed RAS providers give users secure access to their companies’ networks wherever they are, by the best available connection type through the Internet, all on a single bill.

Microsoft, Nortel’s branch device has potential, but it’s not the first

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 1/23/07

The CEOs of Microsoft and Nortel last week provided a further glimpse into some of the fruits of their partnership during a press conference in New York. One of the products they promised was a branch office appliance that combines VoIP and unified communications capabilities.

Overview

A growing number of organizations are dealing with a growing number of virtual workers. What does it mean to operate in a virtual workplace? Employees work in multiple locations, away from their supervisors or their work-groups at least some of the time. Basically, virtual workers do not have a single place where they conduct all of their business. The number of employees who work from home (either full or part time) has risen to 17% in this year’s benchmark, up from 10% last year. And only 8.5% work in headquarters, on average.

These figures are creating new challenges for both business and IT staffs, to make sure the right network infrastructure, collaborative applications, and emerging technologies are in place to make virtual workers as productive as possible.

Nemertes’ latest groundbreaking benchmark, “Building a Successful Virtual Workplace,” examines several key areas: WAN and branch-office infrastructure, convergence deployments, collaboration and unified-communications best practices, and mobility strategies. Nemertes will detail the findings, based on discussions with 120 IT executives, in this detailed research in nine volumes, in addition to upcoming vertical-market studies.

Volume 1: "Branch Office Best Practices" presents and analyzes the latest trends and best practices for maximizing the effectiveness of branch offices and the employees in them.

Volume 2: "Collaboration Business Case" presents and analyzes the latest key trends and best practices for usage of collaboration tools and technologies. The interest level in collaborative technologies is on the rise, but organizations continue to struggle with the actual cost and benefits of various types of collaborative applications. The productivity benefits are clear with most of these applications. Nemertes shows how you turn that productivity into dollars and cents.

Read The Benchmark

Nemertes Benchmarks are available to clients only. If you're not a client and would like to receive a copy of the complete benchmark, please contact sales@nemertes.com

Clients - Read "Building A Successful Virtual Workplace"

Overview

A growing number of organizations are dealing with a growing number of virtual workers. What does it mean to operate in a virtual workplace? Employees work in multiple locations, away from their supervisors or their workgroups at least some of the time. Basically, virtual workers do not have a single place where they conduct all of their business. The number of employees who work from home (either full or part time) has risen to 17% in this year’s benchmark, up from 10% last year. And only 8.5% work in headquarters, on average.

These figures are creating new challenges for both business and IT staffs, to make sure the right network infrastructure, collaborative applications, and emerging technologies are in place to make virtual workers as productive as possible.

Collaboration Loop, By Irwin Lazar, 1/3/06

With the finalization last week of the AT&T / BellSouth merger, Net Neutrality issues are once again taking center stage. What does Net Neutrality mean to enterprises struggling to deliver the same level of application services to all workers regardless of physical location?

Last week the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted final approval to the merger between AT&T and Bell South. As part of its process for obtaining this approval, AT&T agreed that it would refrain from degrading or prioritizing network traffic for a period of two years after the merger received final approval (see Information Week: “AT&T Merger Contains First Net Neutrality Guidelines”). Various definitions of Net Neutrality exist but they all boil down to a simple concept, that providers of Internet access services should not take any action that would result in varying performance of applications using the Internet access service.

IT executives are more focused on the branch than ever, so what can you expect?

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 1/09/07

I’m anxiously anticipating these next few weeks because I’ll be doing one of my favorite tasks as a research analyst - crunching data.

Two colleagues and I just wrapped up detailed interviews with more than 100 IT executives, gathering about 200 data points on the virtual workplace from each person. Yep, that’s 20,000 data points - and that doesn’t even include the correlation analysis!

Collaboration Loop, By Irwin Lazar, 1/3/07

With the finalization last week of the AT&T / BellSouth merger, Net Neutrality issues are once again taking center stage. What does Net Neutrality mean to enterprises struggling to deliver the same level of application services to all workers regardless of physical location?

Last week the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted final approval to the merger between AT&T and Bell South. As part of its process for obtaining this approval, AT&T agreed that it would refrain from degrading or prioritizing network traffic for a period of two years after the merger received final approval (see Information Week: “AT&T Merger Contains First Net Neutrality Guidelines”). Various definitions of Net Neutrality exist but they all boil down to a simple concept, that providers of Internet access services should not take any action that would result in varying performance of applications using the Internet access service.

Will telepresence products ever reside in the branch office?

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 1/02/07

Like most new (and expensive) technologies, telepresence is gaining the attention of global enterprises that have large concentrations of employees at a dozen or two dozen locations worldwide. They can install these expensive systems at those sites, and reduce costly international travel expenses.

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 12/12/06

More organizations adopting a multivendor strategy for their VoIP deployments

In Nemertes' current research benchmark, we're seeing a growing number of organizations adopting a multivendor strategy for their VoIP deployments.

One of the drivers for doing so is the growth in the number of branch offices, along with the rise in the number of remote workers.

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Iriwn Lazar, Network World, 12/5/06

IT executives interviewed for Nemertes’ upcoming benchmark, Building a Successful Virtual Workplace, have told us that on average, branch offices have five separate network and telecom classes of devices, typically consisting of a router, Ethernet switch, PBX, file/print server, wireless access point, and firewall or VPN gateway. Branch offices may have more than one of each class of device depending on site size, resiliency, and security requirements.

Overview

The enterprise is in a strange new position when it comes to providing its employees with the tools they need to perform their duties.

On the one hand, the tools continue to become, or come to rely on, information systems. Companies and industries convert processes that were paper-based (such as medical records management) to be all-digital. Physical tools (like packaging machines on a factory floor) continue not only to be driven by ever more sophisticated automation, but also are increasingly tied into the rest of the IT infrastructure by supply-chain management or other software.

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 11/21/06

Providing IT, desktop, and network support to the branch is one of the biggest challenges organizations face with their growing virtual workplaces.

Nemertes is in the middle of its next benchmark, Building a Successful Virtual Workplace, and early trending about branch office management shows the vast majority of organizations have very little IT support at their branch offices. (In fact, if you want to participate in this benchmark and see the findings first-hand, contact us.)

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 11/14/06

Many factors are driving multivendor VoIP networks, and those with multivendor networks typically are faced with managing different vendors’ equipment not only in their headquarters, but also in hundreds or thousands of branch offices.

What’s driving multivendor VoIP networks, and how should organizations prepare to effectively manage them?

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 11/07/06

Juniper to put competitive pressure on Cisco in branch market

The impetus to implementing VoIP can range from opening a new office to streamlining phone features to reducing operational costs. In the branch, we often see a key driver being an overall network upgrade.

When organizations budget for a WAN network upgrade, only one vendor - Cisco - has made it easy for them to include VoIP in that project. Cisco’s Call Manager Express, implemented on its ISR router series, brings IP telephony to branch locations without the need to buy, install, and house separate PBXs.

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 10/31/06

In last week’s column, I wrote about the need for carriers to offer branch office solutions that combine professional and hosted services. But the major carriers aren’t the only ones who can fill the voids in serving branch offices.

And in fact, because the major carriers have been slow to offer hosted and professional services, we’re seeing other types of companies knocking on doors of enterprise IT executives. They each offer specific benefits and concerns, detailed here:

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 10/24/06

In Nemertes’ current research on the virtual office, we’re finding several interesting trends. Among them, many large global enterprises are experiencing a decrease in their IT budgets.

The logic behind this trend relies on the fact that organizations should be able to get more for less when it comes to technology. They’re actually aggressive with new IT projects; they just expect to spend less on commodity items to make up the difference. For example, when the network staff renegotiates its telecom contract, the mandate from the top is to reduce costs for the same services, or keep costs the same for more services.

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 10/17/06

I have written in the past about the need for a new acronym in our industry. Yes, another one. When it comes to managing the branch, organizations need to appoint a so-called “chief branch officer,” or CBO.

We have found there is little consistency in how organizations make technology decisions for their branch offices. Some rely upon central IT, others rely on local staff - even administrative assistants - at the branch locations, and others rely on bureaucratic committees to make architecture and product decisions.

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 10/03/06

Most small businesses and home-office workers rely on an external hard drive, tape drive, or even just a CD/DVD, to back up their critical data and files.

But is that the best approach? Well, it’s better than no approach. (Let’s face it. How many of us has gotten the blue screen of death only to realize that last backup was a week or a month or… ahem…a year ago?)

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter, By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 09/26/06

Network optimization is becoming increasingly multifaceted and granular. Not only has the market activity heated up - with numerous acquisitions and undoubtedly more to come - the technology is becoming more and more innovative.

As an IT or network manager, you know the drill. It’s up to you to understand how it all works, who offers what, and how to craft a business case for the products.

Branch Office Best Practices

Table of Contents

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6
2 BRANCH-OFFICE STRATEGIES 7
2.1 WHAT MAKES A ‘BRANCH OFFICE?’ 7
2.2 BRANCH-OFFICE DECISION MAKERS 8
2.3 INVENTORY ANALYSIS 9
2.3.1 Tier One 10
2.3.2 Tier Two 11
2.3.3 Tier Three 11
2.3.4 Tier Four 12
2.3.5 Tier Five 13
2.3.6 Inventory Recommendations 13
2.4 BRANCH OFFICE MANTRA: ‘BETTER, FASTER!’ 14
2.5 GROWTH IN BRANCH OFFICES 17
2.6 BRANCH-OFFICE MANAGEMENT 18
2.6.1 Centralized 20
2.6.2 Distributed 22
2.6.3 Combination 22
2.6.4 Service Provider 23
2.6.5 Time Spent on Managing Branch 23

What should be on every branch office manager's "worry" list

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter By Robin Gareiss, Network World, 08/08/06

I’ve had a few inquiries lately about the key challenges enterprises and midsize businesses are facing in the branch offices. In other words, what should be on every branch office manager’s (or Chief Branch Officer’s, where they exist) “worry” list.

That list certainly can get pretty long at times, and it can vary depending on whether you’re looking at short-term, tactical issues, or longer-term, strategic issues. In talking to hundreds of IT executives in the past three years, a few key areas always rise to the top: