S 2.115 Care and maintenance of workstations for telecommuting

Initiation responsibility: Head of IT section

Implementation responsibility: Head of IT Section, administrators, telecommuters

A special concept geared towards the care and maintenance of telecommuting workstations and encompassing the following points needs to be prepared:

• Designation of a contact person for user service: This is the person with whom telecommuters establish contact on the occurrence of software or hardware-related problems. The user service is intended to provide quick assistance (also via telephone) and initiate maintenance as well as repairwork.

• Maintenance appointments: Appointments for on-site maintenance should be announced well in time so that telecommuters can guarantee access to their home workstations at the arranged times.

• Introduction of standard telecommuting computers: All telecommuters working for an institution should use defined, standard computers to facilitate problem-solving for the user service department.

• Remote maintenance: If telecommuting computers are to be administered and maintained from a remote location, the necessary security measures and online access periods should be agreed upon. In particular, a security routine must be specified in order to prevent misuse of remote maintenance ports (refer to S 5.33 Secure Remote Maintenance Via Modem).

• Transport of IT: For reasons of liability, specific persons should be made responsible for the transport of IT between the institution and home workstations.

Additional rules are specified in S 2.4 Maintenance/repair regulations.

Additional controls:

• Does the telecommuter know who the contact persons for hardware and software-related problems are?

• Is the user service familiar with the configuration of standard telecommuting computers?

• Does the user service have the addresses of telecommuters to be able to provide quick assistance on location?