Teleworking and the corporate network

For some of us, teleworking has been a way of life for years. For example, we cooperatively write this newsletter twice a week, even though Joanie lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and Steve lives in North Carolina.

While working remotely has been a mainstay in the consulting community, IT support for teleworkers who need access to corporate servers is still a work in progress in many midsized and large businesses. However, it is becoming obvious that teleworking is becoming more than just a convenience for folks who don't like to go to a " real " office.

Corporatewide teleworking programs provide strategic benefits to organizations as they decentralize their operations, strive to improve worker productivity, and factor in home offices as part of their business continuity plans in the face of central-site disasters.

Several years ago, for example, AT&T began an extensive teleworking program, and the results of that program are shared in a series of papers available at Webtorials.Com. In these studies, AT&T found that " knowledge workers, " who form the basic workforce of the Information Age, often are more productive in an environment where teleworking is an option than they are in a traditional work environment.

By way of illustration, Braden Allenby, AT&T's vice president of environment, health and safety, reported in congressional testimony:

" When asked about perceived productive work hours (when tasks are accomplished), office workers reported 6.2 productive hours in an 8 hour day, compared to the teleworker-reported 7.5 hours in an 8 hour day. Over three-quarters (77%) of all teleworkers reported higher productivity at home while only 6% reported higher productivity in the office. "

Of course, teleworking has an associated price in the form of technical and managerial challenges. And while we'll leave the bulk of the discussion of managerial challenges to the above-referenced papers, we'll look at some of the technology issues in the next newsletter.

Network World Fusion telework beat archives

No end in sight for frame networks
Network World, 07/15/02

Steven Taylor, consultant and broadband packet evangelist, and Joanie Wexler, an independent networking technology editor and writer, team up to bring you this analysis and commentary. Taylor specializes in education and market analysis, and Wexler adds incisive reporting and research. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to www.webtorials.com, the first Web site dedicated exclusively to market studies and technology tutorials in the Broadband Packet areas of Frame Relay, ATM, and IP.

Feedback and additional topic ideas are welcome. Please contact taylor@webtorials.com or joanie@jwexler.com.

Frame Relay archive
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