Visa boosts staff efficiency with wireless hotspot

Payments giant Visa has implemented its own fully managed public/private hotspot in its London headquarters to provide staff and visitors with wireless access.

Previously, visitors and mobile employees would congregate in coffee shops with wireless hotspots, says Andrew Vorster, Visa’s head of technology services.

‘Staff had to either leave the building or use a dial-up modem,’ said Vorster. ‘The main benefit is much better flexible working with key business partners who need access to their own systems when they visit us.’

The wireless hotspot was supplied by virtual network operator Sirocom, which already provides wireless access to Visa’s mobile workforce in more than 108,000 access points worldwide.

The hotspot, has been installed in isolation to Visa’s network, with staff using wireless-enabled laptops equipped with virtual private networks for online access.

Staff from 10 regional offices regularly visit Visa’s headquarters and 50 per cent of the workforce is mobile, so wireless access allows substantial efficiencies.

The biggest challenge Vorster has found in the three months since rollout is usability.

‘Wireless technology is almost at consumer grade, but there are still people who have trouble configuring access so some user education and extra handholding is required,’ said Vorster.

The important thing is that there is a strong access control mechanism behind wireless access points, says Graham Titterington, analyst at Ovum. ‘With hotspots, people can catch login information so it is vital all communications are encrypted and free from interception,’ he said.

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