The traditional workforce model of permanent employees located in a single or small number of offices has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, accelerated by the effects of the current economic landscape. Drivers of this trend include initiatives to drive growth and expand into other markets, improve customer service, speed to market, improve decision-making processes, and increase both worker and overall organisational productivity. The trend is further accelerated by the cost-saving advantage across labor, travel and facility budgets, the desire to tap a broader labor pool, and improving employee satisfaction and thus retention.
whitepaper Virtual Workforce
Accelerate Business through a
Cost-efficient Virtual Workforce
Citrix transforms IT into an on-demand service for virtual workers
www.citrix.comTable of contents
What is a virtual workforce?What is a virtual workforce?.....................................................................................3Remote and branch office employee...................................................................... 4Remote employee - mobile and teleworkers.......................................................... 4Partner, independent worker or outsourced service............................................... 4
Key benefits of a virtual workforce to an organisationKey benefits of a virtual workforce to an organisation............................................ 5Reduce costs.......................................................................................................... 5Drive growth and better serve customers............................................................... 6Increase business productivity................................................................................ 6Attract top talent..................................................................................................... 7
IT challenges and requirements related to a virtual workforceIT challenges and requirements related to a virtual workforce............................... 7Optimising performance and productivity............................................................... 7Maintaining communication and collaboration....................................................... 8Maintaining security and compliance while managing risk..................................... 8Providing flexibility.................................................................................................. 9Keeping infrastructure costs low............................................................................. 9
How Citrix solutions address the needs of a virtual workforceHow Citrix solutions address the needs of a virtual workforce............................. 10Maintaining a high level of performance and productivity.................................... 11Enabling effective and efficient collaboration and communication....................... 11Increasing security and control............................................................................. 11Providing and maintaining a flexible, low-cost IT infrastructure........................... 12Providing business continuity............................................................................... 13
SummarySummary............................................................................................................... 14
2whitepaper Virtual Workforce
The traditional workforce model of permanent employees located in a single or small number of offices has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, accelerated by the effects of the current economic landscape. Drivers of this trend include initiatives to drive growth and expand into other markets, improve customer service, speed to market, improve decision-making processes, and increase both worker and overall organisational productivity. The trend is further accelerated by the cost-saving advantage across labor, travel and facility budgets, the desire to tap a broader labor pool, and improving employee satisfaction and thus retention.
Today, workers in a single organisation may span physical locations worldwide, from a financial services employee working at a remote branch office, to a doctor roaming the halls of a hospital checking on patients, to an outsourced call centre worker in an offshore location to an employee or even contractor working from home. While a virtual workforce provides many tangible benefits to organisations, it also increases the complexity of the challenges associated with delivering IT to a variety of user scenarios. The challenges include managing productivity and collaboration across various worker types, while securely delivering applications, data, communications, and support to ensure that these workers are as productive as possible, no matter where they are located. These challenges can be easily addressed if the right IT solution is put into place as a foundation for support.
This white paper defines a virtual workforce, describes the challenges and requirements that organisati... [download for more]
