Telework, the Network of Space and Continuity of Operations (COOP)
Knowing the benefits of telework is one thing, but implementing it is quite another. According to the same report, ?the federal government has made little progress on telework despite fifteen years of pilot programs, presidential directives, legislative mandates and even the threat to cut funding for substandard efforts.? Why is this?
One oft-cited inhibitor is the need for managers to ?see their people,? which leads them to resist letting employees to work from remote locations. While some managers operate this way, there is an even larger barrier: money. Or, more accurately, the lack of it. It costs money to implement telework. Teleworkers require technology tools such as cell phones, laptops, and broadband communication, plus training to work productively in remote locations.
While some organizations are willing to invest in the technologies and management practices needed to support mobility, many maintain a prehistoric real estate strategy. They assign employees a dedicated desk at the ?downtown office,? plus one at the telework center, and they reimburse for home office expenses. This effectively triples their office infrastructure costs!
However, many agencies are working in a distributed and mobile environment. Think about the Department of Defense. The armed services rely upon mobility and distributed teams. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and other law enforcement organizations follow the same model ? they often get their work done remotely, in the field. The same goes for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and other federal audit functions that must conduct their work at their customer?s locations and not at their desks.
Network of Space
There is a way to find the funding needed to implement telework initiatives. The key is understanding that most workers are most productive, and are already working, in a ?Network of Space.?
Telework traditionally conjures up images of workers working from home. In reality, the home office is simply one node in the ?Network of Space.? Other nodes are found at diverse locations where employees can work productively: customer sites, remote offices, telework centers, and hotels, as well as the worker?s assigned office in an office building and the worker?s home.
By its very nature, the Network of Space reduces the need for dedicated office space for each worker. Instead, teleworkers share workspace resources, whether at a telework center or the main office. By redefining some workspaces as dedicated to teleworkers and eliminating redundant space, organizations can save an enormous amount in real estate costs ? typically enough to generate a tangible return on investment that?s high enough to justify funding the move to telework.
Deloitte
For example, in a June 2005 report published by the International Telework Advisory Council?s (ITAC?s) Telework Advisory Group for WorldatWork ? www.workingfromanywhere.org) entitled ?Exploring Telework as a Business Continuity Strategy: A Guide to Getting Started,? Deloitte reports savings of $62 million annually in its New York City office and $70 million annually in its Chicago office. The savings came from implementation of a shared workspace environment for employees who usually work remotely and schedule shared desk space when they need to be in the office. BearingPoint, Inc
BearingPoint, Inc. reports the elimination of over 4,000 workspaces after finding that the average desk at BearingPoint was vacant about 60 percent of the time. BearingPoint saved over $50 million per year by implementing a desk sharing arrangement for its highly mobile telework force. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)
The ITAC report highlights the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) which reports lower rental costs of $100,000 in Washington, $100,000 in Atlanta, and $150,000 in Dallas due to teleworkers making use of shared workspace rather than dedicated workspaces. TIGTA also reports, serendipitously, that telework provided the impetus for its business continuity plan to evolve. By utilizing telework, TIGTA ensures that the office is no longer a single point of failure. Having an agile infrastructure means the agency can get back to business faster when a disaster occurs. U.S. General Services Administration
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) also supports this concept. It finances sixteen telework centers in the Washington, D.C., area that provide all the office facilities needed for government workers to be highly productive. In fact, because the centers are located near where people live, teleworkers spend less time commuting, get to work earlier, and spend more time ?on the job.? The result: Costs go down, productivity goes up, and continuity of operations is assured.
There is a direct link between telework, the Network of Space, and business continuity planning. (For purposes of this article business continuity is used synonymously with the public sector?s Continuity of Operations Plan.) Telework, by its nature, disperses the workforce and minimizes the impact of a location failure. Shared space means that the organization can achieve substantial cost savings by reducing the number of workspaces it needs to serve the mobile workforce, resulting in more than enough to fund a viable business continuity plan.
Business Continuity Defined
For years, organizations have been concerned with, and planned for, ?disaster recovery.? Disaster recovery refers to the recovery of information systems. Most organizations have a disaster recovery plan. However, over the past decade, organizations have concluded that recovery of information systems is only one part of what it takes to keep an organization in operation. The emphasis has shifted to a broader ?business recovery? that restores critical business functions following an interruption. Implicit in many of the plans is the assumption that the organization can withstand a specified amount of ?downtime? in order to regroup and relocate staff to a new location where access to recovered information systems is available.
However, many organizations cannot afford any downtime, giving rise to the concept of ?business continuity.? As part of their business continuity plans, many organizations are looking at managing their real estate portfolio as an interconnected network of workspaces and buildings rather than treating them as isolated, individual units. When business continuity is the focus, it quickly becomes apparent that employees with a telework capability are a major asset for any organization.
Telework and the Network of Space
The deployment of broadband communications, the emergence of laptop computers, and the convenience of cell phones are examples of technologies that allow people to work and communicate effectively, no matter where they are physically located.
Teleworkers are ?mobile workers? and can be found working at hotels, airports, vendor sites, customer sites, branch offices, coffee shops, as well as from home. Recent research shows that off-site workers use lots of different worksites. According to ITAC?s 2005 commissioned research from The Dieringer Research Group, 45.1 million employees conducted some work at home, 24.3 million from a customer or client?s office, 20.6 million from their car, and 17.1 million from their hotel. This portfolio of work locations defines a Network of Space that individuals work within. A typical Network of Space is shown as Figure 1.
Figure 1: Network of Space
This diagram of the Network of Space paradigm shows the ?Home Office? or a ?Branch Office? to be as productive an environment as the ?Assigned Workplace.? The Network of Space is a collection of interconnected ?work nodes? that allow the worker to be productive and work whenever and wherever they need to work.
Much like the Internet, the Network of Space is designed so that no single point of failure can disable the entire network. Providing unmatched operational flexibility, work nodes can be added or removed from the system by accessing the organizational Virtual Private Network. In a very real sense, the worker no longer goes to work - the work comes to the worker.
Because teleworkers will access nodes such as a branch office or telework center on an episodic basis, they will need a system to ensure that they have a workspace available. Thus, to reap the full advantages of telework, organizations need to think differently about their real estate portfolios and the technologies that tie their facilities and their teleworkers together.
How Telework Relates to Business Continuity Planning
Executives face unprecedented change and challenges. Market opportunities appear and disappear in moments. Personnel need to be redeployed rapidly to new project teams. Besides these ?normal? concerns, executive must plan for catastrophes that can test an organization?s resiliency in an instant. Facilities can be disrupted by natural causes, such as fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, mudslide, or manmade disasters, such as sabotage, terrorist attack, or accidents.
ITAC found in its business continuity and telework report that the cost per hour of downtime is $78,000, with the average incident resulting in 4.2 hours of downtime. An oft-cited study conducted by the University of Texas Center for Research on Information Systems found that nearly half the companies that lose their data through disaster never re-open, and ninety percent are out of business within two years.
Traditional real estate plans, which typically involve large facilities under long-term leases, are unable to respond smoothly in a time of crisis. Instead they become paralyzed for the duration of the interruption. Many leading companies are turning to telework and the Network of Space as the answer.
The Network of Space is a new way of thinking about real estate. Instead of a single concentrated facility or campus, the Network of Space consists of smaller, geographically disbursed facilities or mobile locations. Instead of a portfolio of owned or leased space, the Network of Space includes temporary office suites, telework centers, virtual offices, and home offices. Instead of dedicated space, the Network of Space provides teleworkers with location options where they can reserve and use ?touchdown? workspaces for a scheduled period of time.
With the use of advanced information and telecommunication technologies, the facilities and locations that make up the Network of Space can be consolidated into a single, seamless operational structure.
Technologies Needed
To be effective, the elements of the Network of Space need to be "tied together" into a single seamless operating entity. This is accomplished through the use of selected technologies. In particular, as organizations embrace the Network of Space concept, there will be a need to implement several innovative technologies:
Challenge for Government Agencies
To reduce disaster damage and return more quickly to normal operations, government organizations need to plan ahead. The worst disaster of all is not preparing your team to function effectively in the aftermath of an interruption. This means educating, equipping and empowering employees to work effectively and productively, whether they are away from the office or within the office. When disaster strikes, it may shut down a facility but it need not shut down the workforce.
Conclusion
Teleworkers work wherever and whenever they need to work. They are not ?working at home? or ?on the road? but on a ?work node? within a Network of Space, each equipped with the technology needed to be productive. Today`s public workplace environment requires new ways of thinking about real estate and its place within the organization. Government agencies should encourage teleworking and establish a Network of Space.
Government organizations cannot afford to have business continuity fail, as their very existence is at stake. Teleworking and the Network of Space provide unparalleled operational stability and flexibility. These qualities enable organizations to adapt to catastrophic situations and economic challenges.
After 15 years of pilot programs, presidential directives and legislative mandates, the time for telework is now.
By John H. Vivadelli
Knowing the benefits of telework is one thing, but implementing it is quite another. According to the same report, ?the federal government has made little progress on telework despite fifteen years of pilot programs, presidential directives, legislative mandates and even the threat to cut funding for substandard efforts.? Why is this?
One oft-cited inhibitor is the need for managers to ?see their people,? which leads them to resist letting employees to work from remote locations. While some managers operate this way, there is an even larger barrier: money. Or, more accurately, the lack of it. It costs money to implement telework. Teleworkers require technology tools such as cell phones, laptops, and broadband communication, plus training to work productively in remote locations.
While some organizations are willing to invest in the technologies and management practices needed to support mobility, many maintain a prehistoric real estate strategy. They assign employees a dedicated desk at the ?downtown office,? plus one at the telework center, and they reimburse for home office expenses. This effectively triples their office infrastructure costs!
However, many agencies are working in a distributed and mobile environment. Think about the Department of Defense. The armed services rely upon mobility and distributed teams. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and other law enforcement organizations follow the same model ? they often get their work done remotely, in the field. The same goes for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and other federal audit functions that must conduct their work at their customer?s locations and not at their desks.
Network of Space
There is a way to find the funding needed to implement telework initiatives. The key is understanding that most workers are most productive, and are already working, in a ?Network of Space.?
Telework traditionally conjures up images of workers working from home. In reality, the home office is simply one node in the ?Network of Space.? Other nodes are found at diverse locations where employees can work productively: customer sites, remote offices, telework centers, and hotels, as well as the worker?s assigned office in an office building and the worker?s home.
By its very nature, the Network of Space reduces the need for dedicated office space for each worker. Instead, teleworkers share workspace resources, whether at a telework center or the main office. By redefining some workspaces as dedicated to teleworkers and eliminating redundant space, organizations can save an enormous amount in real estate costs ? typically enough to generate a tangible return on investment that?s high enough to justify funding the move to telework.
Deloitte
For example, in a June 2005 report published by the International Telework Advisory Council?s (ITAC?s) Telework Advisory Group for WorldatWork ? www.workingfromanywhere.org) entitled ?Exploring Telework as a Business Continuity Strategy: A Guide to Getting Started,? Deloitte reports savings of $62 million annually in its New York City office and $70 million annually in its Chicago office. The savings came from implementation of a shared workspace environment for employees who usually work remotely and schedule shared desk space when they need to be in the office. BearingPoint, Inc
BearingPoint, Inc. reports the elimination of over 4,000 workspaces after finding that the average desk at BearingPoint was vacant about 60 percent of the time. BearingPoint saved over $50 million per year by implementing a desk sharing arrangement for its highly mobile telework force. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)
The ITAC report highlights the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) which reports lower rental costs of $100,000 in Washington, $100,000 in Atlanta, and $150,000 in Dallas due to teleworkers making use of shared workspace rather than dedicated workspaces. TIGTA also reports, serendipitously, that telework provided the impetus for its business continuity plan to evolve. By utilizing telework, TIGTA ensures that the office is no longer a single point of failure. Having an agile infrastructure means the agency can get back to business faster when a disaster occurs. U.S. General Services Administration
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) also supports this concept. It finances sixteen telework centers in the Washington, D.C., area that provide all the office facilities needed for government workers to be highly productive. In fact, because the centers are located near where people live, teleworkers spend less time commuting, get to work earlier, and spend more time ?on the job.? The result: Costs go down, productivity goes up, and continuity of operations is assured.
There is a direct link between telework, the Network of Space, and business continuity planning. (For purposes of this article business continuity is used synonymously with the public sector?s Continuity of Operations Plan.) Telework, by its nature, disperses the workforce and minimizes the impact of a location failure. Shared space means that the organization can achieve substantial cost savings by reducing the number of workspaces it needs to serve the mobile workforce, resulting in more than enough to fund a viable business continuity plan.
Business Continuity Defined
For years, organizations have been concerned with, and planned for, ?disaster recovery.? Disaster recovery refers to the recovery of information systems. Most organizations have a disaster recovery plan. However, over the past decade, organizations have concluded that recovery of information systems is only one part of what it takes to keep an organization in operation. The emphasis has shifted to a broader ?business recovery? that restores critical business functions following an interruption. Implicit in many of the plans is the assumption that the organization can withstand a specified amount of ?downtime? in order to regroup and relocate staff to a new location where access to recovered information systems is available.
However, many organizations cannot afford any downtime, giving rise to the concept of ?business continuity.? As part of their business continuity plans, many organizations are looking at managing their real estate portfolio as an interconnected network of workspaces and buildings rather than treating them as isolated, individual units. When business continuity is the focus, it quickly becomes apparent that employees with a telework capability are a major asset for any organization.
Telework and the Network of Space
The deployment of broadband communications, the emergence of laptop computers, and the convenience of cell phones are examples of technologies that allow people to work and communicate effectively, no matter where they are physically located.
Teleworkers are ?mobile workers? and can be found working at hotels, airports, vendor sites, customer sites, branch offices, coffee shops, as well as from home. Recent research shows that off-site workers use lots of different worksites. According to ITAC?s 2005 commissioned research from The Dieringer Research Group, 45.1 million employees conducted some work at home, 24.3 million from a customer or client?s office, 20.6 million from their car, and 17.1 million from their hotel. This portfolio of work locations defines a Network of Space that individuals work within. A typical Network of Space is shown as Figure 1.
Figure 1: Network of Space
This diagram of the Network of Space paradigm shows the ?Home Office? or a ?Branch Office? to be as productive an environment as the ?Assigned Workplace.? The Network of Space is a collection of interconnected ?work nodes? that allow the worker to be productive and work whenever and wherever they need to work.
Much like the Internet, the Network of Space is designed so that no single point of failure can disable the entire network. Providing unmatched operational flexibility, work nodes can be added or removed from the system by accessing the organizational Virtual Private Network. In a very real sense, the worker no longer goes to work - the work comes to the worker.
Because teleworkers will access nodes such as a branch office or telework center on an episodic basis, they will need a system to ensure that they have a workspace available. Thus, to reap the full advantages of telework, organizations need to think differently about their real estate portfolios and the technologies that tie their facilities and their teleworkers together.
How Telework Relates to Business Continuity Planning
Executives face unprecedented change and challenges. Market opportunities appear and disappear in moments. Personnel need to be redeployed rapidly to new project teams. Besides these ?normal? concerns, executive must plan for catastrophes that can test an organization?s resiliency in an instant. Facilities can be disrupted by natural causes, such as fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, mudslide, or manmade disasters, such as sabotage, terrorist attack, or accidents.
ITAC found in its business continuity and telework report that the cost per hour of downtime is $78,000, with the average incident resulting in 4.2 hours of downtime. An oft-cited study conducted by the University of Texas Center for Research on Information Systems found that nearly half the companies that lose their data through disaster never re-open, and ninety percent are out of business within two years.
Traditional real estate plans, which typically involve large facilities under long-term leases, are unable to respond smoothly in a time of crisis. Instead they become paralyzed for the duration of the interruption. Many leading companies are turning to telework and the Network of Space as the answer.
The Network of Space is a new way of thinking about real estate. Instead of a single concentrated facility or campus, the Network of Space consists of smaller, geographically disbursed facilities or mobile locations. Instead of a portfolio of owned or leased space, the Network of Space includes temporary office suites, telework centers, virtual offices, and home offices. Instead of dedicated space, the Network of Space provides teleworkers with location options where they can reserve and use ?touchdown? workspaces for a scheduled period of time.
With the use of advanced information and telecommunication technologies, the facilities and locations that make up the Network of Space can be consolidated into a single, seamless operational structure.
Technologies Needed
To be effective, the elements of the Network of Space need to be "tied together" into a single seamless operating entity. This is accomplished through the use of selected technologies. In particular, as organizations embrace the Network of Space concept, there will be a need to implement several innovative technologies:
- Resource Reservation System. The Network of Space is a resource structure that is shared by many teleworkers. To allocate and manage these resources effectively, a resource reservation system is needed to ensure that teleworkers will have a workspace available to where they want to work for the length of time they desire to work.
- Teleworker Presence Verification System. A second component is verification that the teleworker has arrived and is, in fact, using the workspace that he/she has reserved. This capability provides for the return of a workspace to the pool of available workspaces if the teleworker has not ?checked in.? By tracking reservations and verifying presence, the system can determine the actual utilization for every workspace within the Network of Space. This allows executives to determine the right amount of workspaces needed at each work node to accommodate the teleworkers.
- Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP`s Internet-architecture is designed for redundancy and flexibility. The phone is a node on the network and can be programmed to interact with the scheduling reservation system. The reservation system can route the teleworkers phone extension to the appropriate phone unit. The phone unit also can be used to make reservations and verify presence.
Challenge for Government Agencies
To reduce disaster damage and return more quickly to normal operations, government organizations need to plan ahead. The worst disaster of all is not preparing your team to function effectively in the aftermath of an interruption. This means educating, equipping and empowering employees to work effectively and productively, whether they are away from the office or within the office. When disaster strikes, it may shut down a facility but it need not shut down the workforce.
Conclusion
Teleworkers work wherever and whenever they need to work. They are not ?working at home? or ?on the road? but on a ?work node? within a Network of Space, each equipped with the technology needed to be productive. Today`s public workplace environment requires new ways of thinking about real estate and its place within the organization. Government agencies should encourage teleworking and establish a Network of Space.
Government organizations cannot afford to have business continuity fail, as their very existence is at stake. Teleworking and the Network of Space provide unparalleled operational stability and flexibility. These qualities enable organizations to adapt to catastrophic situations and economic challenges.
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