Slouching toward telecommuting: IT's newest challenge

It was simply happenstance but this headline crossed the wire just as I was boring a colleague with another doom-and-gloom update on the skyrocketing price of energy.

"Fortune 500 Visionaries Speak at Woodside Private Home Theatre for Discussion on Smart Energy & Grids."

Telecommuting's best argument

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Turns out that Scott McNealy and Jim Rogers of Duke Energy are headlining the event next week along with CEO Echelon Ken Oshman to celebrate what's being billed as "20 Years of LonWorks Technology."

For anyone unfamiliar with Echelon, the company's embedded control technology fosters "smart energy" applications in homes and businesses. If we're going to figure out how to thrive in a future annotated by increasingly expensive energy costs, tech companies like Echelon will take the lead. Couldn't happen fast enough, because the near term is looking bleak. The price of crude pushed past the $126 a barrel line Friday for the first time. For what it's worth, Goldman Sachs predicts that oil prices may hit $150 or even $200 a barrel in the next six months to two years.

All this is making IBM's Mike Rhodin look more prescient by the day.

A couple of months ago, Rhodin, the general manager of IBM's Lotus group, gave a speech at the VoiceCon conference where he talked about the emergence of the "virtual workplace," in which employers increasingly let their people telecommute. (Here's a link to the press release where IBM summarized his remarks.)

Larry Dignan over at ZDNet rhetorically asks whether IT managers are ready for that shift, noting that the "jury's still out." "Companies weren't ready for mass telecommuting back when avian flu was a hot topic. And it's doubtful that they are ready now."

That may be true, but IT, circa 2008, is better equipped than it was in 1998 to handle the infrastructure demands of a more dispersed workforce. And if it isn't 100 percent ready for a big crush in demand, there's no time like the present to get moving. But CTOs are waiting for the directive to come from the office of the CEO. That day can't be far off. With gasoline prices in many places hovering around $4 a gallon, the writing's on the wall.

[Penguinisto]

I suspect we're pretty much ready to do it here. Could use a heftier telecoms setup, but otherwise the only folks that really have to hang around are production, hardware engineering, and of course the IT folks.

[jemiller0]

I telecommute one day a week. I'd like to increase that to more. I'm a programmer and can do everything I need to using Comcast high-speed Internet and Remote Desktop. It's a waste of time and energy having to drive to work and it's screwing up the planet, not to mention making the rich oil execs richer.

[MadLyb]

I would say IT is more prepared than Business is. There is huge reluctance to allow folks to work outside the office for more than the occasional day.

[Penguinisto]

It would depend on more than a few factors, and not everyone is cut out to be self-disciplined enough to actually do their work from home. Other folks actually need the separate environment (so the kids and/or spouse doesn't bust in and bug them every five minutes to grab something, do some small chore, whatever). I can very easily see many spouses jumping at the opportunity to make the telecommuter take on more/all housework ("but you're there all day anyway!"), babysit, etc., Pretty much most folks wouldn't realize that the telecommuter is actually doing work for that given time period.

[k2dave]

That reluctance may quickly fade away when companies can allow people to work at home instead of a pay raise to cover the extra cost of commuting.

[echelonsupporter]

Any chance you are going to be at the Echelon event next week? If you are, hopefully you'll give us an idea of what McNealy, Jim Rogers and Ken Oshman had to say. One of best ways to solve the energy issues we face is by being more efficient. Companies like Echelon are creating products to help us do just that.

[summershoe]

When I first visited Italy in 2004 gas was already $8/gallon. Right now it's around $10/gallon in the UK and nobody is yelling and screaming for telecommuting. This story is as out-of-touch with with world-wide economics as most of the rest of U.S. news. News reports about the terrible pain $4/gallon gas is causing sell much better than reports about how our energy costs still give us a huge advantage over most developed nations.

[johnalphonse-22167694933540745]

most developed nations have already enacted alternatives to home heating oil, which is really where the hurt is. the cost argument is a joke relative to the amount of emphasis we put on it in the US when referring to gas and autos. you can park your car: try parking your house in the middle of winter. buying hundreds of gallons of oil is where th price is felt. the whole thing is misleading focusing on autos because a 15-gallon tank only costs you a few dollars more and you run around trying to save 3 cents a gallon using more gas / money than you will save! self-perpetuating propaganda...

Cnet is really feeling like slant news when you look at its headlines. smarten up Cnet or you are going in the same basket as fox, NYT MSNBC, NBC and any other false (at least corporately biased) representation of information. we can see between the headlines...

[boethius70]

I am fortunate enough to be able to telecommute every day of the week, only going into the office when I feel like it - and, unlike what someone else mentioned - I am part of the IT group. Most engineering, development, etc. staff work remotely in the IT group, though much of the company in other groups still work in offices. Yes there is hands and eyes and data center ops staff that must stay in the office. Anyway, my experience so far is generally positive--and I love not having to fill up my tank once a week--but there are some definite downsides. I don't feel like I have much of an opportunity to connect to my co-workers, to share and collaborate, probably because I wasn't part of the IT group before telecommuting really arrived in force. It takes longer to get oriented to the job, longer to feel a part of the team, and longer to get certain tasks done because you can't just stop by a desk. Yes you can call, email, and IM, but it's not the same as "face time." Certain tasks take forever because you have to rely on remote staff to get the job done. All said I feel hugely fortunate that I do get to work remotely - most people in IT do not - but it is not a completely perfect arrangement. I do feel on some level it's inevitable that the quality and efficiency of work sometimes suffers, but perhaps it's a necessary trade-off to get the benefits.

[A_Ullman]

Telecommuting has failed to reach widespread adoption for non-technical reasons. Management doesn?t trust employees to put in a full days work with distractions in the home and unreliable broadband. Employees would rather have a real office so they can separate home life from work life.

The answer is Telecommuting 2.0. With Telecommuting 2.0, rather than working out of their home, workers telecommute from Remote Office Hosting Centers. ROHCs lease offices to employees from multiple companies in a shared ?Center? that is located near where people live.

Remote Office Hosting Centers (ROHCs) are responsible for providing professional grade internet access, phone system, workspace, mailstop and a card scanner security system ? which logs employee attendance.

ROHCs provide the best of traditional offices and home offices without the problems of either ? no commuting, but a real office and infrastructure.