Global Telework

Proceed cautiously — telework can change office dynamics in ways you hadn’t anticipated

Personal and private information related to both employees and their employers may be compromised by telecommuting staff if privacy risks are not dealt with effectively, according to a new report developed by Ernst &Young LLP and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT).

AT&T has reportedly reduced employee air miles by 15% through video conferencing and Web meetings, while Accenture plans to have 22 video conferencing rooms installed around the world by the end of this year.

"Rising fuel prices, the escalating cost of commuting to work, worsening traffic congestion and reduced air quality compel a change in the business culture of state agencies." Governor Timothy M. Kaine

"We took the data center, we shrunk it, put it in a brightly colored box and rolled one into every office," Merrill explains. "Then we built a whole bunch of tools that work in the background to verify that the LDAP change made in one place is replicated to all the other offices-in-a-box around the world."

"Higher education is a magnet that brings young people to Iowa,” he said. "If we give them a good education, show them a good enough time while they’re here, we’ll get our fair share of those who want to do their careers here.”

Every American adult gripes about the price of daily life, from a gallon of milk to a posh dinner. But in some areas, where ever-increasing living costs and real estate prices are pitted against lackluster salaries and job growth, complaints are more legitimate. There’s no way around it — such locales are anything but bargains.

"With national gas prices hovering near $3 a gallon, American workers could suffer less pain at the pump if they took advantage of workplace telecommuting policies,"

“To the degree that housing costs become a barrier to that group, it can in the long run sap us of that creative potential that we would otherwise have.”

Constant improvements in technology and global communications virtually guarantee that the future will bring much more offshoring of "impersonal services" — that is, services that can be delivered electronically over long distances with little or no degradation in quality.