Blog
Effective remote network monitoring views data about how personal devices interact with the Wi-Fi, so the user experience can be continuously assessed.
The pandemic has sent employees across the country into new remote work environments. Managers have had to adapt by providing additional support and resources for these workers, in addition to being there for their customers in new ways.
Company network managers are tasked with ensuring that employees have the software, services, and internet functionality necessary to keep productivity high from offsite locations. This requires continuous assessments of network quality and performance, which can be a major challenge when workers are spread out.
One solution is to focus on endpoint monitoring. And Mobile Eye® from 7SIGNAL is an effective way to accomplish this goal.
The state of remote work
Remote work may be the new normal, even when employees can go back to pre-pandemic life. One estimate from Global Workplace Analytics states that over half of the workforce that isn’t self-employed (56%) have jobs that could be performed remotely. That equates to about 75 million Americans.
Since the crisis began, Gallup data shows that about 62% of Americans have worked from home because of COVID-19, a number that doubled from the middle of March 2020.
As more offices have gone remote in recent months than ever before, many have discovered that going virtual provides benefits like cost savings on space and commuting, increased productivity, and greater employee satisfaction. The same Gallup research showed that three in five employees in the U.S. who have been working offsite because of the pandemic say that they would prefer to continue remote work, even after public health restrictions are lifted.
While there are many benefits of remote work for offices across industries, the shift also brings a lot of challenges related to hardware, software, and connectivity. Tools like Zoom allow teams to meet face-to-face and recreate the in-person meeting, but many collaboration and communication solutions are dependent on high-performing internet.
The benefits of endpoint monitoring
Endpoint monitoring is an effective solution for network engineers to keep tabs on Wi-Fi and the connectivity of remote workers. It allows the team to track activity and performance on all mobile devices within the network. This requires a monitoring tool to be installed on these end-user devices, from which data is gathered and delivered to engineers for analysis.
This tactic provides necessary visibility into how service functions from the user perspective, which is the only way to know exactly what they’re experiencing moment to moment. Tests are performed on devices like laptops and tablets without the workers ever noticing. It’s a non-intrusive yet critical way to get complete performance data that enables equipment, software, and network troubleshooting.
This solution is especially beneficial for large organizations managing many different work sites and remote employees.
Endpoint monitoring with 7SIGNAL’s Mobile Eye
7SIGNAL created the first and only mobile device Wi-Fi performance agent, Mobile Eye. Deploy this device on all of your mobile workforce devices and get continuous, real-time information about their Wi-Fi experience, like roaming data and issues caused by particular platforms, no matter where they are.
Common problems that workers face are solved with Mobile Eye, including:
- Problems with roaming
- Poor adapter and driver performance
- WLAN congestion
- Interference problems
- Coverage issues with access points
All the data Mobile Eyes collect are uploaded into the cloud, giving network managers a comprehensive and straightforward dashboard view into these performance and quality analytics. Real-time data empowers engineers to act proactively, ensuring that any drops in service or other issues are addressed quickly, and often before the end-user notices. Mobile Eye can be installed on any Mac OS, Linux, Windows, or Android device.
To some extent and for some time, offsite work arrangements are here to stay, and productivity depends on reliable connectivity and bandwidth-intensive applications. Endpoint monitoring is an effective way to ensure that your remote workforce maintains or obtains sufficient Wi-Fi service from any location. And Mobile Eye is the leading industry solution that helps organizations that manage many remote employees do it.
7SIGNAL® is a leader in Wireless Experience Monitoring. The 7SIGNAL platform is a cloud-based Wi-Fi performance management solution that continuously monitors the wireless network for performance issues—maximizing network uptime, device connectivity, remote worker productivity, and network ROI. The platform was designed to support the Wi-Fi management needs of the world’s largest organizations, educational institutions, hospitals, and government agencies. 7SIGNAL continuously monitors the connectivity of over 5 million global devices. Learn more at www.7signal.com.