Remote Office Collaboration Software White Paper

Use remote office collaboration software to save money

Let your employees work from home

Remote office collaboration software is a great way to save money while keeping your employees happy and reducing their impact on the environment. If you think about it a large number of employees at almost every office really do not have to be physically there. Provided you can communicate with them in a similar way as in a normal office setting, they can work from home. Employers historically have been reluctant to have employees telecommute due to perceived communication issues and difficulty in managing employee performance. With the advent of high speed Internet and remote office collaboration software this concern is becoming less and less relevant.

The main idea behind remote office collaboration software is to allow employees to communicate with each other much like they would face to face or in a meeting except that they are not physically there. Instead employees communicate with each other through their computers using web cameras, headsets and special software. Often there will be a way to see another person’s computer screen and even sketch on a group whiteboard. Some products will also include things like secure remote file sharing, a calendar and a time clock. Even if these features are not included in the collaboration software they can easily be setup separately.

Remote office collaboration software usually uses what is know as a client/server model. That is, you have two components the server software that runs on a special server computer and the client software that runs on every employee’s machine. The clients communicate to the server software over an Internet connection. The server will maintain shared data such as connection logs and user passwords. The client software will generate and receive the audio/video feeds and talk to the server when it needs to access shared information. For example, when a person wants to see someone else the client has to ask the server who is currently available to talk to.

A traditional office setting has some costly negative qualities that actually can be alleviated by having people work from home. Stress is one of them. Stress is bad for your employees and bad for your bottom line. Too much stress makes employees ill. When employees are ill they miss work affecting your company’s productivity. Workplace stress is not the only problem. A large percentage of employees experience high levels of stress on the way to and from work. The majority of employees are on the road at the same time that results in deadlocked rush hour traffic. During rush hour you are more likely to see aggressive driving such as tailgating and being cut off. Such breaches of driving etiquette increase your stress level. In the daily commute there are other dangers like traffic accidents. People rushing to and from work often distracted by cell phones and Blackberries make for more traffic accidents.

Illnesses are spread in public places including office settings. Virus-borne illnesses like influenza (the flu, the common cold) and bacteria causing illnesses including strep throat and what is commonly known as “stomach flu” are most commonly spread by hand to hand contact. Think about how many hands you shake in the course of a day.

Remote office collaboration software gives you all the benefits of a traditional office environment without the aforementioned problems. Happy healthy employees don’t miss as much work and are more productive. Studies show that employees are much happier when they are allowed to work from home. A familiar environment helps to reduce the stress associated with their work. There is also no stressful pollution-inducing drive to work. When employees don’t have to commute to work that extra time can be used to spend more time with their family or otherwise enjoy life. Plus they are less likely to be in an accident. When employees are not physically interacting with others they are not contracting or passing on illness.

Providing a telecommuting option can help attract quality talent. Since employees tend to prefer working from home, offering the ability to work from home is a plus. Certain employees, stay at home parents, for example will often be willing to work for less pay if they can work from their home. When employees telecommute it is far easier hiring from a much larger geographical area. You can now hire employees from other cities, states or even countries.

Telecommuting can also limit job turnover. Instead of an employee having to resign due to a spouse getting a job in another city, that employee can now work from home. If an employee needs to stay a home due to a long-term illness, disability or to care for a family member they can possibly work at least part-time at home.

When workers need to attend to a personal matter they will usually take an entire day off. If they are allowed to work from home they are more likely to work the same hours they would at the office while dealing with personal matters that would have kept them away from a traditional office.

Another important consideration of having employees work from home is the distributive aspect. The Internet was designed to continue functioning even if several entire cities were destroyed. Similarly when your company is composed of tiny micro-offices spread out over a large area your company will be more resilient to power outages fires and other natural disasters.

Of course there are drawbacks to using remote office collaboration software. Many people will miss the direct human contact they are accustomed to from a traditional office setting. Managers see problems with communicating with their employees and managing their performance. Current remote collaboration software is quite bandwidth hungry. Until the speed of the Internet improves this sort of software would be a drain on the Net if everyone started using it.

Right now remote collaboration software can deal with many of these issues. This type of software often will have logs that record when the employee is using the software and even what other applications they are using while the collaboration software is running. Communication can be improved by having the employee keeps notes of what they did during the day.

To managers, perhaps the biggest negative aspect to work-at-home employees is the fact that the managers cannot as easily monitor their employees to ensure they are productive and not wasting time playing video games or watching TV. Some programs have features to view the person via their web cam and even see their computer desktop screen.

In the near future the remaining problems will be dealt with. Virtual reality affords the chance to take remote collaboration software to the next level. With body suit sensors and perhaps direct brain connections, employees will not be able to tell the difference between the virtual office and the real thing. The ability to massively improve the Internet exists now, requiring only the appropriate resources to make it happen.

Remote office collaboration software is the future of the working environment. Though not perfect employers can take advantage of remote collaboration software now to save money and improve productivity with select employees or in some cases their entire staff. At any rate, employers can start by allowing eligible employees to work at least one day a week at home.

CyberMatrix has a solution for remote office collaboration. CyberMatrix Office is a virtual office collaboration program. Click here for more information.