Telecommuting is not merely something “nice” to offer employees. It’s becoming a necessary way of doing business and a competitive advantage. Increased mobility is probably the single most important factor leading to better customer relationship management.  For example, mobility is allowing healthcare providers to access patient information from their bedside to ensure more accurate record keeping and improved healthcare overall.  In addition, more and more workers are demanding greater work/life flexibility. To meet their needs and retain high-value employees, many companies are offering flexible work styles as an important component of their benefits and compensation packages.

In several countries, telecommuting is also being driven by societal needs. To ease traffic congestion during peak hours, Japan launched a pilot program in 2005 to encourage 20% of its workforce—12.6 million out of 63 million—to work from home by 2010. In the U.S., 23.5 million people—about 16% of the American workforce—work from home at least part of the time, more than double the number in 1997. Nearly 20% of these telecommuters live in California—which has five of the top 10 most traffic-gridlocked cities in the nation.

Companies must be able to deliver access to business-critical information for all of these teleworkers, wherever they are, across any network, to any type of access device. At the same time, they must ensure the security of that information. By making information more securely, easily and instantly accessible by anyone—whether local, remote, or mobile—companies improve both the lifestyle of workers and the immediacy of the services they provide to customers.  

Citrix enhances workforce mobility and provides on-demand access for teleworkers and mobile workers in a variety of ways, including:

• Delivers greater access to dynamic and mobile users without compromising security

• Ensures personal access continuity across devices, locations and networks (even wireless dead zones) with always-on access

• Enables file access from any device, including those with small-display form factors

• Accelerates delivery of full-function applications over the Web and wireless networks so that even remote users can experience “LAN-speed” application response times

• Enables device-independence with consistent application performance

• Maintains open sessions even during temporary losses of network connectivity

• Provides a means for collaboration between employees that are geographically dispersed while traveling between offices

• Facilitates remote technical support for employees while on the road