Office Memo 12

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Office Memo 12

7 July 2004

Home working is no longer an IT issue

The revenues department at North Wiltshire District Council found it hard to keep or attract benefit assessors, a job known to be pressurised and stressful. Many officers who had gone on maternity leave, for instance, were not returning to the job. Stress levels, the demands of commuting and a wish for a better work-life balance dissuaded them. North Wiltshire therefore decided to offer home working to its staff.

To make this technically possible, the Council's IT department decided to replace the existing virtual private network (VPN) system, which was based on IP Security Protocols (ipsec). This was felt unsuitable because of its performance overhead and complex user interface. David Lovelock, North Wiltshire's IT Strategy and E-Government Officer, asked systems integrator Nviron Limited to recommend a replacement. A secondary objective was supplying Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony through the VPN. This would save money and allow calls to be diverted to an assessor's home without the caller knowing it.

Nviron recommended the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) VPN product from Netilla. North Wilts benchmarked it against a similar offering from Neoteris. "After two weeks, Netilla came out on top due to its performance, simple set up and user-friendly interface. This, coupled with its use of thin client technology, made it a natural option for North Wiltshire," said Lovelock

North Wiltshire's home-workers are the new system's biggest fans. Karen is one of the first benefit assessors to use Netilla from home. She does so four days a week, saving a daily commute of an hour and a half - the equivalent of three months a year. She is far happier working from home and feels much less stressed. Also, her productivity has gone up by a fifth.

At first, the IT department was pessimistic about the time it would need to run an SSL-based VPN for home working. Systems staff were mainly worried about the amount of hand-holding they would have to do. This was based on their experience over the previous two years, helping 50 District Councillors (elected officials) use a dial-up connection to get at their work remotely.

David Lovelock said, "The biggest advantage and the nicest surprise is that Netilla's SSL VPN does not require any IT support. It's one of the few products we have ever used that does exactly what it says on the box."

Lovelock has found that users need little training. In fact, the IT department provides just 30 minutes hands-on training. They can play around with the software for half a day in the office before they get to use it from home. Because it has the same look and feel as their computer in the office, users feel confident and familiar with all their applications. There is little technical support needed and a user can be set up and using the VPN within minutes. This applies in the office or for the user's home, as the system uses the same configuration for each.

An unexpected and valuable spin-off is that the Council can now provide its suppliers with access to its network. It currently has 18 different systems being supported by external suppliers. This was causing several problems, such as with dial-back and licensing. System staff were recently able to give access to a Canadian software company that manages an important server. The new VPN allowed this within 10 minutes, and the company solved the problem within a few more minutes, rather than hours.

Lovelock approves of this: "Providing suppliers with access to our network has revolutionised the way we all work together. They love it as it is quick to install, and you can fix problems straight away. It has certainly changed the way we look at support. The suppliers love it to because it does not intervene with their own policies and security procedures, as they are still going through their own firewalls, etc."

This is where SSL VPNs have a great advantage over traditional ipsec VPNs. Previously, information was not getting through the Council's firewall. Also, the old system demanded a great deal of effort and support. The big plus about SSL VPNs is that they use standard HTTP and SSL ports, providing ease of use and adaptability as well as strong security.

North Wiltshire now complies with the Employment Act 2002 and its two associated regulations. Among their other provisions, from 6 April 2003 these gave parents the right to ask to work flexibly.

David Lovelock concludes: "Home or remote working is no longer an IT issue. It's simple to set up and once it's up and running needs no IT support. The real issue to home working is cultural. Netilla makes working from home pretty well foolproof - it's the 21st-century way of working."

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Rob Burrell of Nviron contributed to this article. Our thanks go to him and to David Lovelock of North Wiltshire District Council.

For further information on Netilla's SSL VPN systems, contact Jason Holloway on 07887 943600 or visit www.netilla.com.

For more on Nviron, contact Rob Burrell at on 01928 804008 or rburrell@nviron.co.uk, or visit www.nviron.com.

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