Article from http://www.powerhomebiz.com/News/052009/virtual-store.htm 

May 20, 2009 ( PowerHomeBiz ) - San Jose, CA  - Usually, if a company shuts its doors forever it’s a bad thing. When ShapiraMedia CEO Isaac Shapira closed his trendy headquarters (complete with all the “dot-com trimmings”), it was actually a sign of prosperity and productivity to come. Isaac is joining thousands of other small businesses in making the transformational leap from traditional “brick and mortar” office and retail space - a move that is paying off huge. He is able to do that by using a business collaboration and communication suite that empowers him to present, meet, and collaborate with customers, partners, and co-workers anywhere in the world. His office is now at home, and anywhere else he roams to with his laptop.

Isaac evaluated a number of solutions that were tested by the Web Conferencing Council (www.webconferencingcouncil.com), and ended up selecting the same product that won the council’s best of class award (VIA3 from www.viack.com) – mostly due to the affordability and richness of features.  Brainstorming sessions, sales calls, PowerPoint webinars, file sharing, Audio and Video meetings, and instant communications are all at his fingertips now, making his small company act and look like a much larger entity.  The best part is the cost savings; instead of paying $3,750.00 a month for office space, furniture rentals, food and supplies, etc… he now pays around $200 a month.  For this 200$, Isaac has enough product licenses to give 10 employees full functionality of the web conferencing suite. His up front cost was zero, because his employees were already using laptops with built-in web cameras and microphones.

And here’s more good news; his customers love it. 

First, they love the convenience of meeting and collaborating online.  ”We used to make sure that all customer experiences with ShapiraMedia were off the charts productive, creative, and enjoyable for customers,” said Isaac. ”They were drinking espressos, seated in colorful beanbags, with hip music like ‘Kings of Leon’ resonating in the background.  The one downside to the meetings, however, was the need for travel back and forth to facilitate in-person face-to-face interaction.  That meant an unproductive element to their day, which we can now avoid by conducting these meetings online.”  

Secondly, because of the tremendous savings Isaac incurred in his overhead, he is now able to pass those savings along to the customers.  This results in ultra-competitive bids that are winning them a steady stream of new business.  Neil Woodruff, Viack CEO, said this is a common story with VIA3 users.  “The quick productivity and cost saving infusion that happened at ShapiraMedia is something our user base enjoys consistently, and immediately.  Because of VIA3’s ease of use, affordability, and near-zero investment costs, businesses are able to turn on a dime from brick and mortar to online powerhouses”. 

There are a number of other collaboration features above and beyond straight meetings that help ShapiraMedia.  Creative projects are stored, shared, and collaborated on through the included Workspaces.  All employees are a click away from each other using Instant Messaging with presence awareness.  They brainstorm over images in the included Whiteboard feature.  They utilize the included voting and polling feature during company meetings.  They are also able to share desktop control with each other for an even higher level of collaboration.

The only thing missing? 

“VIA3 doesn’t handle espressos”, laughs Isaac.  “As for the colorful beanbags - those are still being used.  You can see them in the background during online meetings with ShapiraMedia.  Some things will never change.”

Telecommuting, e-commuting, e-work, telework, working at home, or working from home (WFH) is a work structure in which employees enjoy flexibility in working locale and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a normal place of work is replaced by telecommunication. Many work from home, while others, occasionally also referred to as nomad workers or web commuters use mobile telecommunications technology to work from coffee shops or any number of other remote, disparate locations.

Telework is a broader term, referring to substituting telecommunications for any form of work-related travel, thereby eliminating the distance restrictions of telecommuting. All telecommuters are teleworkers but not all teleworkers are telecommuters. A frequently repeated motto is that “work is something you do, not something you travel to”. A successful telecommuting program requires a management style which is based on results and not on close scrutiny of individual employees. This is referred to as management by objectives as opposed to management by observation.

Long distance telework is facilitated by such tools as virtual private networks, conference calling, videoconferencing, and Voice over IP (VOIP). It can be efficient and useful for companies as it allows staff and workers to communicate over a large distance, saving huge amounts of travel time and cost. As broadband Internet connections become more commonplace, more and more workers have enough bandwidth at home to use these tools to link their home office to their corporate intranet and internal phone networks.

The roots of telecommuting lay in early 1970s technology, linking satellite offices to downtown mainframes by dumb terminals using telephone lines as a network bridge. The massive ongoing decrease in cost and increase in performance and usability of personal computers forged the way to decentralize even further, moving the office to the home. By the early 1980s, these branch offices and home workers were able to connect to the company networks and computers using personal computers and terminal emulation.

The adoption of local area networks promoted sharing of resources, and client server computing allowed for even greater decentralization. Now, telecommuters can carry laptop PCs around which they can use both at the office and at home (and almost anywhere else). The rise of cloud computing technology and Wi-Fi availability has enabled access to remote servers via a combination of portable hardware and software.

Telecommuters are linked to their home office by using groupware, virtual private networks, and similar technologies to collaborate and interact with team members. As the price of VPN-capable routers, high-speed Internet connections to the home, and VOIP technology has plummeted in recent years, the cost to connect a telecommuter to their employer’s intranet and telecommunications system has become negligible when compared with the operating costs of conventional offices as well.

Telecommuting options increase the employability of proximal or circumstantially marginalized groups, such as mothers and fathers with small children, the disabled and people living in remote areas. It can also reduce an individual’s carbon footprint, through minimizing daily commuting. The set up also offers possibilities for increased service and international reach, since telecommuters in different time zones can ensure that a company is virtually open for business around the clock. Telework has also enabled offshore outsourcing. Telecommuting provides employee flexibility, eases the working parent’s burden, increases employee productivity, and reduces absenteeism. Virtual offices allow employers to keep valuable employees, allow employers to hire employees otherwise not available, and have facilitated productive re-engineering of order-management and customer service processes.

Telecommuters need not necessarily work from the home. A more recent extension of telecommuting is distributed work. Distributed work entails the conduct of organizational tasks in places that extend beyond the confines of traditional offices. It can refer to organizational arrangements that permit or require workers to perform work more effectively at any appropriate location, such as their homes and customers’ sites - through the application of information and communication technology. An example is financial planners who meet clients during lunchtime with access to various financial planning tools and offerings on their mobile computers, or publishing executives who recommend and place orders for the latest book offerings to libraries and university professors, among others.

These work arrangements are likely to become more popular with current trends towards greater customization of services and virtual organizing. Distributed work offers great potential for firms to reduce costs, enhance competitive advantage and agility, access a greater variety of scarce talents, and improve employee flexibility, effectiveness and productivity. It has gained in popularity in the West, particularly in Europe. While increasing in importance, distributed work has not yet gained widespread acceptance in Asia.

Virtual offices are attractive to management because they reduce overheads, reduce office space needs, increase productivity, and reduce staff turnover. However, managers (whose roles are varied and not well defined) in telecommuting roles typically receive fewer promotions due to the lack of direct contact they need. From that aspect, telecommuting seems to work best for professionals such as engineers.

DRAWBACKS:

Telecommuting has come to be viewed by some as more a “complement rather than a substitute for work in the workplace”. Thus, some workers may find their work load increased to the point where they are under more stress than before. Distractions at home can have a similar effect, especially among workers who leave the office to be better able to care for small children and the infirm.

Fellow employees in the employer’s office sometimes resent home telecommuters.

A telecommuter may lack the sense of loyalty to the company that he or she would have if working at an office.

Employees who work by telecommuting can lose space in their homes, possibly even suffering the cost of converting a room into an office.

Telecommuters need to be more adept at using their equipment as they have less access to a dedicated employee at the company whose job is to maintain that equipment.

Even when a company successfully implements telecommuting practices, increasing productivity and decreasing stress, they face an increased risk of confidential data loss and risks to data integrity resulting from the increased geographical diversity of their network and the loss of direct corporate control over the telecommuter’s physical work environment.

Initially, managers may view the teleworker as experiencing a drop in productivity during the first few months. This drop occurs as “the employee, his peers, and the manager adjust to the new work regimen”. The drop could also be accountable to inadequate office setup. Managers need to be patient and let the teleworker adapt. It can be claimed that as much as “70 minutes of each day in a regular office are wasted by interruptions, yakking around the photocopier, and other distractions”. Eventually, productivity of the teleworker will climb.

Management needs to recognize the communication barriers that telecommuters experience. The feeling of alienation can be very difficult for the teleworker. The job should be clearly defined as well as its objectives. Performance measures should be thorough and apparent.

Managers need to be aware that although overhead decreases, the cost of technology becomes greater. Information Technology (IT) managers experience greater demands because of user requirements for remote access through laptops, personal digital assistants, and home computers. Use of non-standard software can create problems. Setting up security and virtual private networks increase the demands for IT.

Telecommuters can experience a loss of social community with coworkers and must be able to overcome feelings of isolation. Although this can be done by finding a social life away from the company work environment, it precludes the ability to develop close connections with those that share the common experience of the company, job, departments, and functions they may perform.

Traditional line managers are accustomed to managing by observation and not necessarily by results. This causes a serious obstacle in organizations attempting to adopt telecommuting. Liability and workers’ compensation can become serious issues as well. Companies considering telecommuting should be sure to check on local legal issues, union issues, and zoning laws. Telecommuting should incorporate training and development that includes evaluation, simulation programs, team meetings, written materials, and forums. Information sharing should be considered synchronous in a virtual office and building processes to handle conflicts should be developed. Operational and administrative support should be redesigned to support the virtual office environment. Facilities need to be coordinated properly in order to support the virtual office and technical support should be coordinated properly. The conclusion for managers working within telecommuting organizations is that new approaches to “evaluating, educating, organizing, and informing workers” should be adopted.

Out of sight, out of mind… Teleworking can negatively affect a person’s career. A recent survey of 1,300 executives from 71 countries indicated that respondents believe that people who telework were less likely to get promoted. Companies rarely promote people into leadership roles who haven’t been consistently seen and measured.

For information on what services to choose for Telecommuting, you can start by viewing the Top 10 Vendor list for 2009.

Every company understands that work-life balance is a great motivating factor for ensuring employee loyalty and retention. Initiatives like flexible timing, creative leave options and teleworking are emerging as VERY popular trends. In the past teleworking was regarded as a perk but today many organisations consider it as a necessity. It is a preferred option for both employers and employees. Teleworking can be described as the practice of establishing, developing and maintaining successful off-site business practices through telecommunication. Current workplace trends are promoting more flexibility for employees and tailoring jobs to fit individual needs. The image of the traditional workplace where employees walk-in into a work area is being replaced with associates working wherever they can be most efficient and productive, whether at home or anywhere outside office. The availability of affordable technology has also been a major contributors to ‘any time, any place’ telecommuting trend.

Telecommuting is a work option that has steadily gained in popularity and commands a strong position as a viable alternative in the IT business world. Telecommuting is intended to provide a better quality of life for associates and promote enhance job performance.

The availability of more affordable technology has enabled companies to adopt telecommuting as an alternative work arrangement. A tight job market, fierce competition for talent and a record high turnover among the IT workforce are several reasons why many organisations see teleworking as a benefit to entice new recruits. Another factor fuelling the teleworking trend is the high price of commercial real estate. Instead of leasing new office space or expanding existing office buildings, it is considerably less expensive to provide associates with notebooks and phone lines to work from the convenience of their own homes. Ranajoy Punja, vice-president, marketing, Cisco Systems India, says, “Increasingly, there is a lot of pressure on IT organisations to improve productivity and the need to quickly react to market requirements.

Teleworking is not entirely replacing the office environment, instead it is increasing in certain key IT segments such as call centres, customer support and telemarketing, where the workforce for whatever reasons cannot work in office full-time.

For employees teleworking has its obvious advantages leading to increased productivity, more autonomy, greater lifestyle flexibility, reduced stress, work satisfaction, motivation and no wastage of time commuting to the workplace. Teleworking also provides easier work conditions for workers with disabilities. On the other hand, employers can benefit from teleworking as it allows a reduction in  overhead costs, increases labour productivity, which means higher profits and provides additional recruitment and retention options due to a larger, talented labour pool. Telecommuting also reduces business disruptions due to emergencies such as floods, power outages, strikes and illnesses.

There are several problems associated with teleworking, namely time management and team coordination with co-workers and managers. Isolation is another drawback as teleworkers at home may miss the camaraderie and support of co-workers. Without formal structure that the workplace provides, it may be difficult for telecommuters to work efficiently. Teleworking can also lead to burnout or overwork as telecommuting gives 24- hour access to work and workaholics may work in excess. This mode of work is vulnerable to household distractions and hence there can be blurred boundaries between work and family, which might interfere with a teleworker’s productivity. In certain cases teleworkers may worry that their reduced visibility will limit their potential for advancement due to isolation, the potential for longer work hours and diminished access to resources in the workplace.

On the other hand, one biggest obstacle for employers is the issue of control. Because monitoring performance is more difficult for those working at home, managers often do not recognise the contributions made by teleworkers by way of good performance reviews and promotions.

Teleworkers are often not provided clear performance goals by their managers, who sometimes mistake useful work with physical presence.

Successful teleworking comprises four main elements — the right work, the right associate, the right supervisor and the right top management support.

From Mary Mosquera, who says it best:  Telework isn’t as widespread in the federal government as it should be, a government improvement group said. The lack of widespread adoption of telework is part of the general management and performance challenges at many agencies, said Max Stier, president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for Public Service.

If senior officials don’t have a true sense of what their objectives are and how to set and measure them, telework won’t happen, Stier said at an event sponsored by the Telework Exchange on April 8.

Telework requires more agency managers with the additional skills necessary to oversee employees who work away from government facilities, he added. Those managers must be able to effectively communicate the agency’s objectives so employees can mesh their goals with those of the agency, Stier said.

“If you can’t provide the answer without having them in front of you, telework won’t work. Having employees sitting at their desk isn’t a goal,” Stier said. Agencies need to invest more in training for managers to learn techniques for managing remote workers effectively, he added.

“This is about effective government,” Stier said. “Telework itself is not the end goal.”

The National Institutes of Health has 3,300 teleworkers, defined as employees who spend at least one day a week working from another location, but the agency has the technological capacity for 10,000 teleworkers, said Jack Jones, NIH’s chief information officer and director of its Center for Information Technology.

NIH has many more employees who perform some of their duties remotely, he added.

“It’s more about mobility,” Jones said, adding that NIH has 9,000 employees who use BlackBerrys and iPhones.

Thomas Boyce, deputy CIO at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said telework is an important aspect of recruiting and retaining top talent. Some managers might think that teleworking is unnecessary because more people are applying to work for the government during the economic downturn. However, “even in a difficult economy, telework is a way to attract the best,” he said.

Boyce is a member of an NRC committee that’s studying work-life balance, and telework is part of that. NRC is considering a pilot program in which a group of employees could take care of family duties during part of the day and perform work activities at home in the evening, he said.

Funding telework and the technology infrastructure it requires is problematic for agencies, Boyce said. He recommended that telework funding be part of disaster recovery and continuity-of-operations planning.

Jones said the forces that are driving telework also include:

• The ability to gain more productivity from employees.
• A tool for emergency preparedness.
• Public law and agency policy.

 (From PRNewswire-FirstCall) — As recession-battered companies look to save money on real estate costs, a growing number of businesses are equipping their employees with Blackberry smartphones and laptops and moving them out of the main office as a way of reducing expenses. The Regus Group (LSE: RGU) , the leading global provider of workplace solutions, is reporting an increase in virtual office contracts due in part to this growing corporate trend.

“During these challenging economic times, employers are embracing flexible workplace practices as a key business strategy,” said Regus Group CEO Mark Dixon. “Companies have created a new band of mobile workers who don’t need a full-time office but require a professional environment and support services on-demand. Our virtual office program is an ideal solution for this type of worker and is proving popular with businesses eager to reduce facilities cost.”

Striking a Balance Between Home and Office

To advance the process, employers are helping workers set up home offices and are securing virtual office locations for them to use instead of heading to the main office. As a result, companies are able to shed costly office space and employees are realizing substantial savings on commuting costs and improved productivity.

CrowdConnect is a New Jersey-based marketing and advertising firm whose employees work remotely but need a centrally located facility when meeting with clients. CrowdConnect enlisted Regus’ virtual office services to establish a professional business address and to utilize a support staff without the expense of hiring and managing a full-time assistant.

In addition to basic, but necessary, office equipment like fax machines and copiers, virtual office users have access to furnished offices, meeting rooms, business lounges and videoconferencing studios. They also have the opportunity to network with other professionals in a business environment quelling the fear of isolation as they adjust to a new work style.

“Clients and interviewees are consistently impressed with the quality of our space,” said Patrick Diogenia Founding Partner of CrowdConnect.

Based on Regus calculations, companies can save up to 60 to 80 percent on their real estate costs by implementing flexible workplace strategies. Virtual offices are playing a major role in how businesses support employee needs. Consequently, Regus reports a trend of increasing month-on-month demand for the product.

Virtually There - Businesses Test Markets with Minimal Risk

While virtual offices benefit companies looking to trim property expenses, they also serve as a resource for businesses interested in testing new markets without taking on additional costs and risk.

CAPCO Health Group, Inc. a provider of healthcare services in the North American medical insurance community has been a Toronto-based Regus client since 2000 and is using virtual offices to pursue new business opportunities.

“For as little as a few hundred dollars a month, virtual offices allow us to move into additional markets such as Mexico and Central America,” said Ernie Gershon, President and COO of CAPCO. “The services, along with the office and meeting space we use, vary depending on the market and our ever-changing needs. Establishing a presence with virtual offices allows us to avoid costly upfront capital expenditures and minimize our risk. If a market is not as successful as we had initially planned, our investment and risk exposure is minimal.”

“The local phone number, the recognizable business address and in-country phone answering services that virtual offices provide are also very important to our expansion into these new markets,” added Gershon.

“Second to payroll, real estate is a company’s second largest fixed expense. Increasingly, real estate expenses will come down for businesses who adopt flexible working practices. This newly-saved capital can be re-directed back into the business,” said Dixon.

About The Regus Group

The Regus Group is the world’s leading provider of pioneering workplace solutions, with products and services ranging from fully equipped offices to professional meeting rooms, business lounges and the largest network of videoconferencing studios. For more information visit www.regus.com.

Website: http://www.regus.com/

By the vivacious and scintillating Deborah L. Cohen:

Businesses are smarting from the fallout of a deep recession but smart businesses are finding that creatively cutting costs can save jobs and still boost earnings.

Last year Stalco Construction Inc., a privately held commercial building firm, watched rivals cut staff amid the slowdown in real estate development. Instead of joining the herd, it rolled out a plan designed to streamline operations, boost employee accountability and bring in new business.

The strategy called for adherence to stricter project timelines, a commitment from employees to put in additional hours and join trade groups to network, shared marketing with subcontractors and the renegotiation of service agreements ranging from insurance to technology. Common sense measures such as these helped boost productivity 35 percent from November to January, typically the slowest time of the year.

“We made a decision that we could fall to circumstance or we could create our own circumstance,” says Kevin Harney, principal of the Islandia, New York firm, which added four new positions in the past month. “If it meant working harder - maybe doing things differently, working outside the box - we were going to make that commitment.”

Throughout the country, the layoff headlines are grim. But even with December’s U.S. jobless rate of 7.2 percent marking a 16-year high, some small to mid-sized companies are determined to buck the trend, finding ways to take costs out of their operations without reducing headcount.

Their nimble size and lack of bureaucracy frequently gives them an edge over larger corporations, for whom change is slow to implement. For many businesses with a service bent whose success depends on highly trained and experienced employees, finding alternatives to staff reductions seems like the smarter long-term bet.

“It took me twelve years to put the talent in place that I have,” says Harney of his the 37-man firm, which had 2008 revenues of $50 million and is banking on a 20 percent increase this year.

A MORE “GRANULAR” APPROACH

Elsewhere, similar mavericks are attempting to beat the odds. In Houston, Texas, Blinds.com, the country’s largest online seller of window treatments, has installed a costly new phone system that integrates calls coming into its two U.S. call centers and gives customer representatives the ability to work more efficiently, reducing wait times, allowing for higher levels of service and improving individual productivity. Its new accounting process more closely ties customer invoices to supplier payments and has uncovered some $500,000 in discrepancies such as overcharges. Among other steps, the company has assigned a marketing representative to the full-time task of analyzing its multi-million dollar online ad program, eliminating descriptions that don’t jibe with search terms used by potential customers in queries on Google and other drivers to the site, and managing bids, a move that last year saved roughly $800,0000.

The company’s founder and CEO, Jay Steinfeld, meets regularly with his staff of some 80 employees to provide status reports and explain difficult decisions such as recent wage freezes and reductions in 401K contributions. So far, there has been no need for layoffs at the company, which last year boosted headcount by 33 percent and is expecting record sales in excess of $50 million for 2009, despite an industry-wide downturn.

“I’m getting much more detailed, more granular, causing everybody in the company to bring their game up,” says Steinfeld. “The recession has made us not only cut costs but figure out processes that we don’t need, eliminate time, eliminate money, and just make us more efficient. This has made us a better company.”

Indeed, growth businesses such as Blinds.com in the past may have paid little attention to details such as turning off the lights, monitoring office supplies, or scrutinizing their vendor contracts. Bolstered by healthy top lines, they focused on momentum. When the downturn hit, it’s wasn’t hard to find fat ripe for trimming.

That was the case with Mimeo.com, a New York-based online printing company, sort of a sophisticated Web-based Kinkos that lets corporate customers upload and customize documents such as training manuals, which are later printed and delivered to their offices. The company, which has 550 employees and sales approaching $100 million, has seen revenue growth averaging more than 30 percent for five of the past six years.

“When you’re growing that quickly, you tend not to be focused on a lot of the cost of the equation,” says CEO Adam Slutsky. “We quickly found out a couple of things, small things, but it all really matters.” 

ELECTRIC DRYERS AND TREADMILL MEETINGS

Mimeo.com’s cost controls run the gamut. They range from installing electric hand dryers in its bathrooms to reducing office cleaning services and shifting more marketing to lower-cost guerilla-style tactics. The company has also instituted corporate policy changes that include lowering the price threshold for invoices requiring senior-level sign-off and calling on staff to push for better pricing on every vendor quote.

“With a little discipline and focus, I’m sure we can squeeze things out of the equation without impacting headcount,” says Slutsky, who began aggressively cutting costs at the end of the summer and has already identified savings totaling about 2 percent of revenue.

Some companies are even getting clients in on the cost-savings game. In Phoenix, Arizona, Amanda Vega’s public relations firm recently asked customers to forgo the fancy lunches and instead meet outdoors or at the gym to take a walk.

“We’ve always been the agency that comes in at lower prices,” says Vega, whose client list includes many startups, frequently green-based businesses with an environmental bent. “We’ve always tried to consistently stay affordable.”

The reduction in entertainment costs alone saved Vega’s 32-man firm some $50,000 last year, or the equivalent of nearly two entry-level positions. The firm has also tightened its travel budget, shifted to more Web conferencing and promoted increased telecommuting. So far, she says, clients have warmed to the changes; the company’s revenues rose last year to more than $3 million, up from the year earlier.

“We have one client who actually dropped 60 pounds last year,” she says. “He actually took our idea and started doing it with his clients.”

Tips for keeping job visibility high while working from home

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it can sometimes make it wander.

That’s what some telecommuters fear when it comes to whether their bosses’ hearts are beating fast for them during raise and promotion time.

A.C. from Denver works remotely for a Fortune 500 technology firm as a midlevel manager, but he isn’t sure telecommuting is helping his career. “It’s been my experience that real advancement takes visibility, managing other people, and being where the action is,” he says.

“From an organizational standpoint,” he adds, “it’s very easy to hire and fire remote employees. After all, they are just appendages to the company and can be clipped off at any time.”

This grim assessment is not that far from the truth for some of the 12 million or so employees who telecommute today.

As more and more employers look for ways to get workers out of expensive offices, off the roads and working remotely, tele-employees can find themselves in a career no-man’s land wondering if managers have forgotten that they even exist.

But you can stay on the minds of the power-that-be if you take action.

Teleworkers who are proactive and get their accomplishments and their faces in front of their bosses as often as possible are actually thriving in the telework environment. And they’re also taking advantage of all the technology out there making it easier for employees and managers to connect. Webcams, video and audio conferencing, instant messaging and, of course, e-mail, are all becoming telecommuter lifelines.

Daily IMs to managers, along with a host of other initiatives, helped Lawrence Imeish advance in his career even though he’s been a telecommuter for five years, first with General Electric and now with Dimension Data, an IT consulting firm.

Imeish, who works out of his home in Reston, Va., believes he was promoted from senior solutions architect to principal consultant at New York-based Dimension Data because of three factors: He’s good at his job; he makes sure his direct boss and other managers are aware of what he does; and he does his own external promotion, writing technical article in trade publications that give him credibility in the industry and with Dimension Data higher-ups.

“It’s the fundamentals of pride in your work,” he explains.

Telecommuting has been working out so well for Imeish that he recently turned down a more lucrative job offer from a company that wasn’t open to teleworking. “It would have required me to sit in two-hour traffic to drive to Washington, D.C. I would pull my hair out,” he says.

With all the benefits, you need to realize that even with the promise of flexibility, telecommuting is not for everyone, and you could actually end up working more than you did before.

“Many teleworkers overcompensate for their non-physical presence.  Teleworkers prove themselves by being extremely timely in returning good results and responses to managers,” says Elham Shirazi, a national telework consultant.

Indeed, Imeish often finds himself working into the wee hours. “It’s a double-edged sword,” he says. “I can take 15 minutes out of my day to help my wife with my 2-year-old, and then more than make up for that time after 7 p.m.”

And no way around it, you’ll miss out on the office socialization that many people thrive on. No more impromptu employee birthday cakes or happy hours after work.

There are also financial issues to keep in mind. In some states, teleworkers end up getting taxed twice on their earnings, according to Nicole Belson Goluboff, an attorney and author of “The Law of Telecommuting.”

For example, she says, “If you’re a Connecticut resident who works for a company in Manhattan but chooses to work a few days from home, New York will tax you on income for your New York days but also on your Connecticut days. And Connecticut will tax you on the income you earn at home.”

Once you take all these factors into consideration, and you’re ready to telecommute anyway, be proactive in setting up the right plan, and put it in writing if possible.

Belson Goluboff suggests sitting down with your manager and discussing what the zoning issues in your community require; how overtime will be tracked if applicable; whether training will be provided; how company data will be kept secure; and the daily and weekly job requirements.

Look for firms that are committed to making telecommuting work, not those just looking to cut costs. Good signs are companies that invest in technology and firms that have telework training seminars for workers and managers.

JetBlue trains all its 1,200 reservations agents who work from home in the Salt Lake City area, and they periodically bring the agents in to interact with their supervisors and participate in team meetings.

Also, JetBlue rents out a water park once a year, inviting all the agents and their family members. This helps keep up “the face-to-face interaction,” says Bryan Baldwin, a company spokesman.

Advertising agency Barkley pays for Scott Brown, one of the firm’s creative directors, to fly to the company office in Kansas City from his home in Houston every other week so he can work hands-on with his team of five people.

Brown actually came up with the idea to telecommute after he applied for the job, fell in love with the company but couldn’t move to Kansas City because of family obligations.

“The key is communication,” says Brown, about making it work. What helps him is face time, IM, e-mail, phone and his Blackberry, which he admits, “I’m a little bit married to.”

Susan Seitel, president of workplace consultancy WFC Recourses, offers this telecommuter survival list:

• Touch base with each of your co-workers at least once a week to see what they’re up to.
• If you don’t have any pressing business issues, just ask if there’s anything new, compare notes, and find out if there’s anything you can do to help them.
• Ask for a volunteer “office buddy” to take responsibility for e-mailing office news at least weekly (maybe in return for a monthly invitation to lunch).
• Be ready to reschedule telecommuting days if necessary. People won’t always be able to work around your schedule, so you may have to come in on some days you ordinarily work from home.
• Take the initiative to be present at key meetings. If you can’t alter your schedule, be an active participant via conference call, videoconference, or Web conference.
• Make sure you’re clear about your career goals and share them with your manager. Is there a next step for you? If so, what is it and how would you like to get there?
• Make sure anyone who might need you knows exactly when they can get you, what to do if they feel it’s urgent, and how long it will be before you return their voice mail or e-mail message.
• Watch the tone of your e-mail messages. Without a smile or vocal inflections to soften what may be perceived as criticism, feelings can be hurt and colleagues irritated.
• Keep checking out the perceptions of your in-office colleagues. Telecommuters tell of suddenly noticing relationships cooling with no warning, perhaps the result of a perceived slight, a little jealousy on the part of someone who had been wanting to telecommute, or the sense that the telecommuter just didn’t care any more. There’s no need to wait for signs and symptoms.

Ask this question regularly, she advises, “Do you have any thoughts about how this arrangement is working?”

(By the brilliant Eve Tahmincioglu, msnbc.com contributor) 

Piyush Dhingra, Sandeep Koul and Swapnil Arora were looking at the Video conferencing demand in India and eyeing the upswing as it relates to NEW Video Conferencing Technologies:

First off: According to a recent study done by Zinnov Management Consulting, the market for full HD video conferencing such as TelePresence alone would be USD 40 million by 2012. Given the fact that the current TelePresence market is about USD 7.2 million, we are about to witness significant growth in the next five years. Even the current slowdown has become a bliss for video conferencing vendors. As companies look at ways to lower their costs, cutting traveling costs and using video conferencing is on the top of the list of many. Another key driver for this growth is the current focus on green tech, as with video conferencing, companies can cut their carbon footprint. With vendors coming up with new technologies and customized devices for various verticals, video conferencing market is full of action. In this story, we look at a few technologies in video conferencing and take a look at how different verticals are using it.

High definition video conferencing
As the name suggests this form of video conferencing provides better quality then conventional video conferencing. But of course you would need HD capable equipment. Benefits of HD video conferencing include clear and crisp images. As the resolution of images transmitted is high, it can be stretched to a bigger screen without a drop in picture quality. Bigger screen means more number of people can get involved. Other benefit of this technique is that more information can be shared; ie in hospitals doctors can remotely check X-rays or MRIs of patients as the images are very clear. Moving from benefits to actual technology, SD (Standard definition) video conferencing is of 640×480 resolution; on the other hand HD video conferencing is of 1280×720 resolution. So, you can see more pixels mean more information.

The standards used in video conferencing before HD encoding/decoding were based on the common interchange format (CIF). ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union- Telecommunication Standardization Sector) has developed video standards H.261 and H.263. H.261 supports QCIF (quarter CIF) and CIF formats while for high resolution 16CIF (defined in H.263) is used. H.264 is a new breakthrough standard in HD video conferencing which will allow interoperability of different products from multiple vendors.

Two important aspects of video conferencing are visual and audio accuracy. Visual accuracy can be achieved with high resolution images as mentioned earlier and devices that can capture and reproduce these images. Conventional HD camcorder is not a great option for HD video conferencing; instead image sensors specially built for conferencing should be used. The other equally important aspect in video conferencing is audio quality and audio video synchronization. Now there are two criteria for acoustic realism: input and output quality. Here input quality, as the name suggests is quality of sound capturing devices. To maintain high quality audio transmission, usage of good quality multiple microphones that are properly directed is a must; while the other important issue is transmission frequency range. Output quality constitutes high quality speakers and proper synchronization between audio and video signals with echo and noise cancellation.

Video communication management
With increasing demand for video conferencing and wide implementation, the need for proper management of video communication is high on priority. As video conferencing is used in critical areas like medical field, the reliability is becoming more important. There are several aspects to video communication management, namely bandwidth management (most important), meeting scheduling and support for ever increasing users and their devices. There are several solutions (eg LifeSize Control) available that can be used to cover all these aspects; most of them have simple browser based interfaces. Some other key criteria to keep in mind before going for a video conferencing solution are: an open and extensible platform, security, multi-vendor compatibility and efficient management features.

Mobile video conferencing
Video conferencing is used by various companies for faster and convenient meetings. A typical video conference is room based utilizing a video multimedia conferencing unit. These systems are quite expensive and they have other problems too. Conferencing using a mobile could be a far cheaper solution. By utilizing the emerging 3G technology along with appropriate video gateway devices, mobiles can be used as video terminals. This, when deployed with QoS enabled IP networks, can give a quality comparable to the existing ISDN-based solutions. The plus point is that it would be a great return on investment as compared to an ISDN based solution. Not only this, it will also move the conferencing from room-based to desktop or 3G mobile based conferencing.

GIPS (Global IP Solutions) have built a Video Engine based on Windows which will support P2P video calling and multi-point video conferencing on mobile phones.

Tandberg
Profile 6000 MXP
3D video conferencing
Moving from 2D HD, the future of video conferencing is 3D video conferencing. This technique will guarantee natural representation of all participants in virtual space to enhance quality and efficiency. There are various approaches to accomplish 3D video conferencing.

Shared virtual table environment (SVTE) concept is used to reproduce 3D representation of members in shared virtual space. To achieve this, multiple video cameras are used to capture different angles of participants. All these images are then grouped in a virtual environment; this gives the participants the feeling that they are sitting across a table. Two SVTE approaches are Tele-cubicle and VIRTUE (virtual team user environment). The difference between Tele-cubicle and VIRTUE is that the former is simple, multiple screen usage while the latter is an extension of a working desk in front of the screen to virtual conference desk.

Public video conferencing rooms
Cisco and Tata Communications have built public video conferencing rooms around the globe to cut travel costs. These rooms will be available at Taj Hotels for rent and will constitute state-of-the-art TelePresence infrastructure. This is a great step, making video conferencing a service open to all, especially those who cannot afford such infrastructure. With rent ranging from $299 to $899, and capacity varying from one to eighteen persons, this is a great option for organizations that are geographically spread across the world.

Video conferencing in different verticals - Let’s look the adoption of video conferencing by different industries.

1. Education
Many educational institutes and training companies have already started using video conferencing to provide training to students, especially those that engage subject matter experts based out of the country. Here again there are two models: one is educational institutes deploying video conferencing in their premises and the other is where the institute collaborates with a video conferencing service provider and use their equipment as well as space to give training to students. This is used by institutes providing distance learning. A common example in India is Reliance Web world which offers courses in collaboration with institutes like XLRI etc and many of their trainings are provided through video conferencing.

Mobile video conferencing setup
Since education is a huge market and with video conferencing gaining popularity, vendors are coming up with products specifically meant for students as well as teachers. These devices are largely desktop based video conferencing solutions and portable video conferencing devices. The portable video conferencing devices also support WiFi so that users can use it from any location.

From end user perspective, distance learning through Video conferencing gives students a chance to receive training from subject matter experts, whereas in the traditional educational model it’s just the local teachers who provide training. As students get to interact with different experts, this also gives them the opportunity to get in touch with them later through email. This opens a whole range of new opportunities for students, especially for those in rural areas which otherwise was not possible in the traditional form of distance education.

2. Healthcare
Use of Video conferencing in health care has been growing at a brisk pace. In our previous articles, we spoke about how video conferencing being used to provide remote diagnostics and for conducting surgery. Another emerging trend in health care is TelePractice. One such example that we came across is providing speech therapy through TelePractice. Here, the complete speech therapy course is provided through video conferencing. The technology is of great help to patients who are in rural areas where specialists are hard to find.

Vendors are now coming up with olutions customized for various industries such as the Tandberg Intern MXP

3. BFSI
Banking industry is another area where usage of video conferencing is on the rise. As most banks have branches across the country, with some even having branches across the world, video conferencing helps to cut costs but also increase collaboration between employees of different branches, as well as quick resolution of issues. Most banks in India use video conferencing for their internal communication; however in US some banks have deployed video conferencing to provide services such as Video Tellers. Another new trend in this sector is to train employees through video conferencing, as this allows top management to train new employees; and at the same it gives them other obvious benefits such as savings in man hours.

Security of video communication
A lot of times the content of a video conferencing call can be critical from a security point of view, for eg, video conferencing amongst directors of company on future strategies or video conferencing used by defense establishments. To secure this communication, one needs to understand different elements of video conferencing security i.e. physical security of the meeting room, data security and network access control, connection security and content security. To secure content, among all the approaches on trial, the traditional approach of encryption is more popular. For encryption there are dedicated devices in market such as Polycom Security Firewall Traversal. Some of the encryption algorithms used in these security devices are 56-bit DES to 128-1bit AES. These devices take care of intrusion detection, provide firewalls and also access vulnerability. To implement video conferencing security, there are laws by countries such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the United States for security of client data (including video conferencing). For authentication, there are three kinds of approaches: tokens, IP address authentication, and referrers; one may use any one or a combination of these approaches. Another point to keep in mind while implementing video conferencing security is switching between secure and non-secure mode of operation. There is no point of implementing multiple security layers if the content of a meeting is generic in nature.

Polycom Video Border Proxy
This is a NAT/Firewall traversal solution from Polycom that can work with any existing firewall. It can combat security threats posed by traversal methods and is largely meant for companies with multiple locations. Besides security, other features of this product include optimization of video quality, shortest path routing and traffic shaping. It is also compatible with the H.460 standard which means mobile and home users can also securely connect and use video conferencing without needing any onsite hardware

For Virtual Office Software needs, there are many, MANY options for you to consider. If you work independently and do not have others that you need to coordinate with then fulfilling your software requirements is not so difficult. Here are some types of software you may need along with links to some of the most frequently purchased packages:
EMail– You can use the e-mail program that your ISP provides, but programs such as Microsoft Outlook Express or Eudora will give you good e-mail functions and you won’t have to change programs if you change ISPs.

Word Processing: — Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, and Lotus Word Pro

Spreadsheet and Database — Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Lotus 1-2-3, Intuit QuickBase
presentation software — Microsoft PowerPoint, or Astound.
Virus protection software — McAfee, or Norton AntiVirus

General computer maintenance — Symantec Norton Utilities, McAfee, or TechTool Pro

Portable Document Format (PDF) reader software - Adobe Acrobat Reader — This software is very helpful for reviewing formatted documents such as brochure layouts from outside designers or co-workers.

Graphics tool — CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop (our favorite!!!), Macromedia Freehand, Deneba Canvas (Image editing software may also accompany your scanner.)

Internet browsers — Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox (Both are good)

NOTE: Many business applications come packaged in “suites” that provide all of the above product categories and then some. Some of the more popular packages include:

Microsoft Office, as well as the less expensive Microsoft Works
Corel
Lotus
AppleWorks

Many programs also have less expensive “light” or “limited” versions that may work for smaller businesses. They are also usually available for both Windows and Macintosh computer platforms.

NOTE: Purchase older versions of the same product for up to 10 times savings!

So what about Group software needs?

If you are working with others, and have the need to coordinate scheduling, access central files, maintain a contact manager, meet in chat rooms, etc. then you have more of a challenge. There are programs available, such as ­Lotus Notes or Novell Groupwise, that provide these types of features as a software solution. These solutions may require quite a good bit of computer knowledge and an IT person to manage the system.
As an alternative, there are also online management services that provide these types of services on the Internet for access with your browser. These are fairly simple to use. They offer many features to promote coordination of information between members of a team, client interactions, or simply communication and file-sharing with co-workers. They typically charge a small monthly fee per user, or a larger flat rate for unlimited users. Some include free limited versions, however. Below are some of these services available on the net:

Virtual Office: Afteroffice
Visto: Web-based scheduling, file storage, and management tools
OfficeClip: Clip your team together
PlanetIntra: Web-based management and communication tools
Punch Networks: The Internet file management platform

Your software needs will vary greatly depending on the type of work you are doing. Check with similar businesses or your industry association to find out what programs are preferred by your peers.

Don’t forget about shareware too. There are a lot of great programs that may perform all of the tasks you need without the high price tag. Check out Tucows or ZDNet for shareware and freeware reviews and downloads.   The cheaper the better!

If your work involves traveling to various locations away from your home base, you should definitely consider buying a laptop computer rather than a desktop system.  (Probably with a satellite card).  With a laptop you will always have your files with you and won’t have any of those embarrassing moments where you left an important document at your office, because…well, your office is right there with you. While a laptop may seem a bit cumbersome to always travel with, there are many lightweight models out there that are very powerful. Just make sure you get a good carrying case that has a shoulder strap and room for your hard copy documents.
If always working from the keyboard and small screen of a laptop doesn’t appeal to you, there are other solutions. To make using your laptop more efficient in your home office, a docking station can be set up that you can simply plug your laptop into. Docking stations make it easy to have a standard monitor, keyboard and mouse, printer, fax machine, scanner, and other peripherals always hooked and ready to use. By plugging your laptop into the docking station, you are able to use it just like a standard desktop system, and you won’t have to worry about transferring or synching files to another computer.

If you do not travel, or if you do not need access to all of your files while you travel, you can just get the traditional desktop computer system. Make sure you have plenty of hard drive space, memory for running several programs at once, and a moderately fast processor. If you’re doing graphics work (anything involving photo images, illustrations or animations) you’ll need a much faster processor and as much hard drive space and RAM as you can afford.
Other equipment and hardware options you might consider include:

A web camera, ideally with a built-in Microphone.  Lets face it.  You are going to NEED web conferencing at some point, for presentations, emeetings, or collaboration… and you want to be seen and heard.  Logitech STX is a standard favorite with the council, but MANY are equivalent.

A black and white 600-1200 dpi laser printer if your final documents require crisp, high quality black and white output. Laser printers also provide the fastest output, so if you know your volume will be high you should also consider a laser printer.

A color laser printer if your documents need high quality color illustrations, photos, or charts. These are quite expensive so make sure you compare the print quality with a less expensive ink jet printer.

An inkjet printer if you need good quality text, color charts and graphs, or photos. With ink jet printers, the paper that is used often makes the biggest difference in the print quality. Get paper that is best suited for the job you are doing. Also, try to get a test print from different models to compare quality before you buy. Ink jets can provide very good quality but are not as fast printing as laser printers.

A fax machine if you will need to fax paper documents often. There is also the option of online faxing services such as E-Fax.

A scanner if you will need to scan documents or photos. You can also use a scanner along with e-mail or fax software in place of a regular fax machine.

A CD burner (CD-RW) if you need to provide clients with large files electronically, or if you want to back up your files on CD. There are many business uses for a CD writer, not to mention the ability to make your own music CDs.

A DVD writer (DVD-RAM) if you need to provide clients with extremely large files, such as video, electronically.

A removable media storage device. Iomega™ offers the most common drive of this type, called the Zip™ drive, but there are many others like it. Data is written to the disk just like it would be to a floppy diskette. The difference is the amount of data that can be written. When considering size, go big.  ALWAYS double back up your data!

A modem for accessing the Internet, faxing electronically, and e-mail. This can be either a standard modem that you use with your existing phone lines for dial up access, a DSL modem that also uses your phone line but does not tie up your line, or a cable modem that uses the same cable your cable television is hooked up to. DSL and cable modems are for broadband Internet access and require special connections.   Ideally you will get the fastest pipe you can afford, you WILL NOT BE SORRY.   (Especially if you are using it for web conferencing!)

A digital camera if your work requires photos for presentations, reports, a web site, or other documents. While you can also use a regular camera and scanner to get digital photos for documents, you may find the immediate access you get with a digital camera more efficient than waiting for film to be processed and printed. The quality of the digital image is still somewhat better with actually photos that are scanned, but for most business applications digital cameras produce sharp enough images. Images for use in marketing materials may need to be of higher quality.

A multi-purpose scanner, fax machine, copier, printer if your space is limited and quality not as critical. Keep in mind with this type of equipment, however, if one part of it stops working you’ll be without the other functions until it can be repaired!

For obvious reasons, mainly because equipment in the technology world changes more often than some people change underwear, we’ll not go into the technical specifications for the computer equipment you’ll need in your office.