That is also what is driving Gilbert + Tobin, where Solomon expects to deploy a Citrix server to support remote workers by the end of the year. Currently the firm has a small fleet of laptops, access to which is regulated. Access is via an RSA token and although the laptops are not encrypted, they are "locked down", Solomon says, with users unable to install other applications. "It works well, except for the odd occasion when a lawyer may be working outside of the office and is given a piece of software to install by the client. It's the classic trade-off of security versus convenience," he says.

Convenience was a key driver in finance and insurance broking firm OAMPS's decision to offer remote access about six months ago. The company's general manager for information services, Michelle Beveridge, says that many of its data entry operators are women who wanted to continue working but needed flexibility.

An initial flirtation with letting people use their own home computers led to some "strange things" happening to head office systems - software loaded onto the home computers caused problems for the core application. "Even a different version of Windows can clash with our application," Beveridge says. So the company bit the bullet and started installing company-owned desktops in employees' homes.

This has also allowed much tighter control on what is loaded onto the machines, downloaded from them, and who has access. The PCs, which do not have removable disks, connect to OAMPS's head office Citrix server over a broadband virtual private network (VPN) and bitmaps of the applications are transmitted. To ensure security and privacy, users gain access via an RSA token, and there is a 30-minute time-out function. "So if mum goes off to make dinner, son can't come on and have a play," Beveridge explains. Most remote users are not able to download data to a USB stick.

About 70 of the firm's 1100 users have remote access, which Beveridge expects to rise swiftly to about 300 before plateauing.

Although Beveridge has had to rethink some early decisions, she says the security risks of remote access are the same. "You have to protect the core systems. Laptops can be lost and homes broken into", but if the core system remains intact the integrity of the overall system is secure, she believes.

Support is an obvious challenge. "It's not as easy when you have people in their home environment," Beveridge says. OAMPS's IT staff can access remote PCs to investigate a problem reported by remote workers, and are often able to fix problems that way. If not the machine is either returned to base for maintenance or a support team member visits the user's home.

In order to provide this level of service Beveridge has relocated a number of her team, and rather than most people being based in the Kew, Victoria, IT department, she now has support staff in East Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney and Parramatta. Not that she has a bigger budget, just a more geographically spread one. "There was no increase in the budget. Yes, the business is recognizing that IT costs are going up - but also the value to the business is increasing. "We now talk about a per user cost rather than a total cost, which gives us much better conversations with the business, especially as we have moved to offer this remote service."

In addition, Beveridge has recently tweaked user policies to ensure that remote users know that head office will do a lot more monitoring of systems usage. It will conduct random checks on what people are accessing, and also keep audit trails of data access. "If anyone flouts this then it is either instant dismissal or a warning," she says.

While comfortable with the technology, she does still worry that there are health and safety and human relations issues that need to be properly addressed. "This is more about occupational health and safety issues and people issues. We may have people now who only see one another once a week."