Addressing the needs of the Tele-worker:

Estimates vary, but approximately 45 million Americans work from home at least one day a week. The trend is increasing for a several reasons including:

- Technological advancement (PCs, broadband)
- Mobile and information intensive workforce
- Energy prices and commuting concerns (congestion)
- Environmental issues (greenhouse gasses)
- Productivity and availability (more hours working, easy to reach employees)
- Family and personal issues (work/life balance)
- Business continuity and disaster recovery (H1N1 virus, Katrina, 9/11 etc)
- Wider geographic footprint (business expansion, talent availability)

Exploring the opportunity for tele-work requires a disciplined approach along multiple dimensions, including the requirements/needs of the position, skills/abilities of the worker, and the work environment. So, obviously, an assembly line worker building cars cannot work from a remote location, however, a design engineer drafting plans for the next car can probably work from anywhere. Similarly, terminal access at a nuclear power plant or for the CIA at Langley VA are perhaps best suited for onsite work, given significant risks and security precautions involved. However, for the vast majority of workers, from home based agents and project managers to lawyers and tax professionals, there is a significant opportunity to work remotely when direct client work is not required.

This trend presents a business market opportunity for communication providers to leverage their networks, to provide remote access and home based connectivity for tele-workers for large businesses - specifically Fortune 500 companies - that have thousands of workers well suited for tele-work. Growth in the telecommuting business for providers can come from a push or pull type marketing approach. For employers (push), emphasizing the value for them in terms of productivity and efficiency by letting their employees work remotely. For employees (pull) - often ahead of their employers in technology adoption - convincing their employers of their need to work remotely and their ability to do so efficiently because of their established connectivity (Internet, Phone etc). Creating the market demand is the first step toward seizing this opportunity; just as important is to execute on plans (deliver the solutions to enable remote work environment), and to continuously innovate to address the growing and changing needs of consumers (faster Internet, dedicated Ethernet, Private Line service, billing, etc).

The basic needs of almost all telecommuters are remote access (typically Internet) and communications (via Phone); however, the underlying applications and specific services vary widely by users and by firms. For instance, a user sometimes uses company-provided laptops to access company services via a secure tunnel using the public internet (VPN), alternatively, they could use their own PC and either recreate the office application environment on their home PC, or use a virtualization type software (gotomypc.com, etc.) to access their company equipment.

As telecom and MSO providers seek to expand their communication services to address the remote worker, they need to build plans that address the need of the business as well as the needs of the consumer. In terms of product marketing, that requires satisfying more than one customer for the same product. Satisfying the need of a business includes location, content, speed (bandwidth), security, and availability. However, for a homeowner this could include existing services (TV), aesthetics (cables and lawns), costs (purchase decisions will change based on who is footing the bill), and privacy (will they want their employer to potentially have access to their home via the net). To address these sometimes conflicting objectives, providers cannot build a one size fits all model - for instance, how do you provide service out of franchise (partnerships, alliances, wholesale purchasing) and in doing so do you dilute the message? Software and hardware requirements, along with QoS and security concerns for companies vary widely; while network based approaches could address some of this, more important is a tiered pricing structure and supporting SLA to enable the purchase.

As technology changes so do the needs of businesses, access today is largely relegated to e-mail, data access and voice communication; however, the trend in remote access is also creating a technology based solution to offset the lack of physical and social interaction. Increasingly, providers need to examine their product pipeline and network capabilities to deliver on the next generation of remote requirements, including convergence, tele-presence, and unified communication. Telecommuting is now evolving to mobile commuting – specifically multi modal devices (wireless laptops, smart phones) and multi location access (client sites, airports). For providers this means examining their core competencies and developing solutions beyond last mile solutions – such as a wireless component, VPN connectivity, IP network, security and premium support. The changing dynamics of the computing industry has moved from a client/server model to a cloud computing environment, requiring intelligence in the network – and providers focusing on extracting the value in their network to address the needs of the remote worker will be able to capture the lion’s share of the market.

Of course, what the tele-workers do at home may be (slightly)different from the office, see the video below. Ok so this video is Gary Brolsma (aka numa numa guy) who created an Internet phenomenon by posting this webcam recorded video of himself online. But you get the picture.