The Telecommuting Connection

Rarely do you see the government leading new trends. Telecommuting is the exception, and there's movement on Capitol Hill to expand eligibility to even more federal workers. Since 2000, certain federal employees have had the option of working from home. Initially, the idea was to reduce fuel consumption and remove cars from congested highways, as well as help workers balance their careers and home lives. This was highly altruistic, considering it was at a time when gasoline was still around $1.50 per gallon, the United States had rejected moves to curb global greenhouse gas emissions and most people thought Al Gore was a crank for preaching about the global warming threat.

Lawrence M. Walsh

is editor of VARBusiness and GovernmentVAR. He also writes the

Tidal Waves

blog.

According to a survey conducted by CDW-G, more than half of federal employees are eligible for telecommuting, while only 16 percent of private-sector workers receive the same privilege. Initiatives by some federal lawmakers would extend the program to all federal employees with the exception of those with national security positions and jobs that require them to work at a government facility.

Managers aren't universally embracing the idea. According to the CDW-G survey, one-third of federal managers have an unfavorable view of telecommuting. They fear lost productivity, difficulties in project management and strained lines of communications. While most federal employees welcome the idea of working from home, they're concerned about losing personal interaction with peers and the impact on their careers.

Telecommuting isn't always an ideal arrangement, and it's greatly different for organizations that have a distributed workforce. Remote offices typically have the same infrastructure--IT support, security, storage, telecom--as the headquarters. And, from a managerial perspective, you don't always get to see what people are working on or how productive they are until a project is complete.

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Nevertheless, the government has discovered other reasons for telecommuting, aside from those tied to environment-consciousness. In the wake of 9/11, government and private-sector organizations are more aware of the risk of having data centers and workforces concentrated in single locations. Telecommuting takes distributed organizations to the next level, ensuring survivability in the event of a man-made or natural disaster. As the CDW-G survey found, 75 percent of federal employees could continue working if their office was closed because of a storm, while only 33 percent of private-sector workers said they could.

The government's expansion of telecommuting privileges spells great opportunity for the channel. Telecommuters need notebooks, phones, printers, distributed data center support and security. Solution providers that deliver integrated, out-of-the-box home offices will cash in on the trend.