Teleworking and Virtual Teams:
Embracing ICT to Work Flexibly & Competitively

by Sali Earls

While still seen by many companies as a perk, working from home has increasingly become an option for forward-looking companies. Teleworking has been an alternative for some time, and particularly so when the Flexible Working directive came into being in 2003.

Virtual teams are a relatively new concept, but effective use of information and communication technologies can allow entire organisations to work at different locations making companies more flexible and responsive, while reducing time to market.

Achieving this requires employers to develop the right range of policies and procedures, in accordance with the law and the needs of business, together with the right technology to enable teleworking or virtual teams to succeed, and be a benefit to business.

Hardware

Laptops and mobile phones are standard kit for working remotely or on the move, but additional hardware can be used to bring about increased productivity and real time, flexible working.

• PDAs
  For staff who spend time travelling, PDAs offer a great addition to the hardware toolkit. Most PDAs now run versions of PC software meaning that documents can be worked on on the move, and they are increasingly available with wireless cards or Bluetooth allowing greater connectivity.

• 3G Phones
  While the take up in 3G has not been great so far, there are tangible benefits for business. Like broadband internet connections, 3G is always connected to the web, data transfer rates are much improved over WAP phones, being as fast in many cases as home broadband connections. On the negative side, 3G phones are expensive, with high handset costs and monthly tariffs, but as with all new technologies, costs will come down over time.

As a general rule, the employer is responsible for providing, installing and maintaining the equipment necessary for regular telework, unless the employee agrees to use their own. Recent legislation has made computer hardware tax allowable bringing financial benefits to the employer, and the Government's Home Computing Initiative provides low cost computer equipment directly to employees.

Technology

Use of broadband internet at a reasonable cost means that virtual teamworking can be effective for business. It is vital to have self-motivated and self-disciplined staff to make this way of working possible, but with those in place, technology is the key to the success of telework and virtual teamworking.

• Real-Time Communications
  When businesses move to this way of working, employees relinquish the social interaction with colleagues, and the professional support they may offer. Embracing real-time communications, while it does not make up for the face to face interaction, can address this problem, bringing about immediate benefits for the company.

  Used widely for informal chatting amongst the consumer market, Instant Messaging can be a great advantage to business, particularly to gain quick responses. Several free products are available, but in response to documented security risks, some business related IM products, notably from Lotus and Microsoft, have recently come to market.

  Online meeting tools are also available where colleagues can dial in via telephone to hear a teleconference, while viewing a presentation or whiteboard on the internet. Many of the products available, from organisations such as Microsoft, and WebEx support additional services including IM and video conferencing.

  Telephone conference calls have been available for many years, but the introduction of Voice over IP, enabling calls to be made across computer networks rather than traditionally is a new and exciting technology.

• Email
  Email is a pervasive technology, and the benefits to business are well documented. Collaborative products like MS Exchange and Lotus Notes add the additional functionality of group scheduling, calendar function, shared contact lists. These solutions can be an expensive option, with ongoing costs to cover training, system administration, etc, but if the size of your organisation makes this necessary, there are significant benefits.

• Intranet
  Your company intranet can be turned into a meeting place or project file for your team. Content can be updated regularly via FTP application, or content management system, and additional functionality can be added to include discussion forums or bulletin boards to discuss projects or other business.

• VPN
  Virtual Private Networks are a secure way to give remote access to your network using the internet and encrypted technology. They can be used to give team members from different organisations an area for collaboration, for example your project team can share resources with a customer team.

  While an extranet site can give more control over the information accessed, VPNs have the additional benefit of being able to be accessed using a range of technologies. SMS gateways can be set up to extend Instant Messaging to mobile phone users, and VoIP used via VPN allows team members to log onto their phone line from anywhere.

  VPNs are ideal for businesses with several offices or a virtual team, and also for who actively collaborate with partners on projects. In addition, they offer greater data security using powerful encryption.

Creating an environment that embraces telework or virtual teams is about motivating and sustaining a staff community who work together, but may never actually meet.

To do this takes great leadership, the successful analysis of technological requirements in terms of business need, utilising solutions that integrate with existing systems, and developing an environment of open communication via online resources to be shared by the team.

Virtual teams and teleworkers can enable business to work with greater flexibility and responsiveness, while saving money on overheads such as office rental. Putting ICT at the heart of the business means less downtime for your staff, and offers a smooth and productive workflow for your organisation.

Useful links:

Department of Trade & Industry
A link to the People section of the Best Practice website, offering a toolkit of practical business advice.
www.dti.gov.uk

Health & Safety
Health and safety legislation applies whether employees are working in the office or remotely, but this is qualified by the principle of "so far as is reasonably practicable". Check the website to ensure that your company is complying.
www.hse.gov.uk

Data Protection
Employers are responsible for taking appropriate measures to ensure protection of data that is used and processed by the workers for professional purposes. Therefore appropriate security measures must be in place, such as locking of home office, passwords on PC and a way of dealing with secure document waste. Find out more about the Act and how if may apply to your organisation.
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Flexible Working
Teleworking is voluntary for both employer and employee, however under the law, parents with disabled children or children under the age of 6 have the right to request flexible working, to include teleworking, and employers must give serious consideration to such requests. Find out more on the DTI website.
www.dti.gov.uk