An outdated way of running the government is how one industry expert describes Uncle Sam’s preparation concerning telework.

While most government agencies and businesses have continuity plans in case employees need to work from home, a new Telework Exchange study finds they lack the technology to get the job done. The study finds 44 percent of government agencies and 22 percent of businesses do not provide remote network access for teleworkers.

“That is a really old way of looking at running an organization,” says Nigel Ballard, director of federal marketing for Intel, who underwrote the study.

Roughly one in seven laptops lacks built-security features, and organizations have not anticipated their peak bandwidth requirements, according to the study. To make matters worse, 39 percent of private sector organizations and 46 percent of public sector organizations don’t have any mobile support.

There is good news however. In the next three years, public- and private-sector officials say they expect telework to increase by 65 percent and 33 percent, respectively.

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