IT departments are struggling to support the growing number of mobile workers, a new survey has revealed.
The survey, conducted by research company Vanson Bourne on behalf of IT performance company Riverbed Technology, found that more than a quarter (27 percent)of CIOs said that their workers experience network performance problems when they work remotely, while 11 percent have problems with application performance.
Three hundred CIOs across the UK, France and Germany were questioned for the survey.
These performance issues have led to IT departments spending more time and money on supporting remote workers, particularly as more than half (52 percent) of CIOs said that they had seen an increase in the number of mobile workers, up from an average of 32 percent of the whole workforce, in the last 12 months.
Thirty-two percent of respondents said that their support calls from remote workers have risen over the last year, with the same percentage of CIOs estimating that their IT department now spends nearly half of its time on supporting remote workers. Meanwhile, 46 percent of CIOs said that the cost of managing remote workers had increased in the last 12 months.
“To ensure no loss in productivity for off-site staff, the technology experience they have working remotely must resemble that of their colleagues back in the office,” said Mark Lewis, marketing and alliances senior director for EMEA at Riverbed.
“Companies should put in place the solutions and technology to ensure that systems, networks and applications run fast and smoothly. Otherwise IT departments will struggle to deal with basic support calls from a growing sector of the workforce.”