Unions in favor of mobility

May 02 2006

Posted by Gordon as General Management, Virtual Office

A survey by the Department of Trade and Industry has determined that majority of labour unions across the United Kingdom are in favor of some form of mobility arrangements in the workplace. Such arrangements include work-at-home, field-work, or other telecommuting set-ups. Companies’ uptake of telecommuting arrangements with employees has been up the past few years because of better availability and lower prices of laptop computers, and dropping prices of Internet connectivity. Residential broadband connections, and even free wireless Internet in public places enable employees to work on their inputs and outputs from outside of the office, and then submit these ...

Offshoring and international economics (the technology dimension)

Apr 30 2006

Posted by Gordon as General Management, Virtual Office

Call centers in Eastern Europe? Program coding tasks in India? Transcription and bookkeeping in Southeast Asia? These are all offshoots of the current trends in offshoring today, where almost anything can be outsourced anywhere in the world, from products created at less cost to services done at lower labor prices. What else has made all this possible but technology? Efficient shipping and logistics systems, such as those of big-name logistics companies have made possible just-in-time delivery of supplies and raw materials. High-capacity broadband networks have enabled people to send and receive large amounts of data—including voice, documents, and other information—over a ...

IM: Why Not?

Apr 25 2006

Posted by Gordon as General Management, Virtual Office

Many businesses are opting out of the instant messaging game early on. Even with the reported benefits of IM among companies—which may include increased productivity due to faster communications, and faster turnaround times of business processes. Some companies even use instant messaging for customer service, either through dedicated online chat support, or via staff or employees getting in touch with clients via IM (for the more tech-oriented companies, that is). However, some companies, particularly those on the more traditional side, are opting out of this trend, even going to the extent of banning their employees outright from using instant messaging ...

Instant Messaging as a tool for business communications: pros and cons

Apr 23 2006

Posted by Gordon as General Management, Virtual Office

Instant messaging, or IM, has been touted as the new email, and we see favorable adoption across businesses of all types, whether they be from the Information Technology sectors, to more traditional business settings. Management and staff are enjoying the benefits of quick business communication and even virtual conferencing via IM. Advantages include the following: Online indicators. Unlike email, where you have to wait until your correspondent gets online, reads, and responds to your message, IM clients usually have online indicators, which tell you whether your colleague is available or not. Message broadcast and conferencing. IM clients have message broadcast ...

Instant Messaging: the New Email (part 2)?

Apr 22 2006

Posted by Gordon as E-Commerce, General Management, Virtual Office

Companies are appreciating the immediacy of communication via Instant Messaging or IM. While this technology was first thought of as more for personal uses—such as kids chatting with friends, or long-distance lovers chatting and video-conferencing—the business implications have been quick to sink in. Managers could talk to staff in immediacy, whether the latter is in the same building or in another country. Virtual conferences can be held, where more people can join in on the discussion. And IM allows for multiple conversations at the same time, so one can be talking to a client or a colleague, while checking ...

.EU domains selling like hotcakes

Apr 12 2006

Posted by Gordon as E-Commerce, Virtual Office

The sale of .EU top-level Internet domains was opened to the public last April 7th (open to European citizens and businesses), and since then the domains have been selling like hotcakes. According to Eunid, the non-profit registry that oversees the operation of the domain space, more than 1.3 million .EU domains have been registered as of Monday, with 700,000 being registered on the first day alone. German users led the pack, owning about half of all .EU domains so far, with about 400,000 domains registered . Brits followed close behind, with 270,000 plus. The rush to purchase domains is brought ...

On Flexibility

Apr 10 2006

Posted by Gordon as General Management, Virtual Office

Recent studies have shown that workers across Europe (except the UK) generally have lower working hours and less tasks than British and American counterparts. However, in most cases, Europeans are least likely to expect flexibility in the workplace, whereas in America and the UK, flexible work schemes like telecommuting and flex-time are common company policies. Practices like these have a big effect on the productivity of companies and the economies at large. And most especially, these have an effect on the productivity and income of individual employees. Employees generally get less income than if they were allowed to work ...

Improving Service Level Agreements

Apr 01 2006

Posted by Gordon as Business Concepts, General Management, Virtual Office

Service Level Agreements, or SLAs, are contracts entered into by a company with another for outsourced services. The service provider, usually IT-services firms, are usually tasked with preparing and finalizing the SLA. However, this leads to problems when the company procuring services is not literate with regard to the service being offered. So what are good ways to deal with SLAs such that both parties’ expectations are well met? For one, an SLA must be adequately reviewed for accuracy and precision in wording, by both parties. The wording should be adequately expounded such that it is understood in layman’s terms. ...

50% mobile by 2009

Mar 28 2006

Posted by Gordon as Virtual Office

According to a survey, 50% of workers in the UK would be mobile by the year 2009. This means by that time, most of us would either be at home working in our jammies or doing our business deals in cafes and pubs. And technology is at the forefront of this new virtual office phenomenon. The onset of mobile telephones and laptop computers signaled the start of a new era for the professional. Gone are the days when an employee had to be to the office everyday from nine to five to earn a day’s living. Now, in most ...

BlackBerry to go 3G

Mar 24 2006

Posted by Gordon as General Management, Virtual Office

Great news to business people and mobile workers: the popular BlackBerry is about to go 3G. Research-in-Motion, creator of the BlackBerry technology and BlackBerry mobile devices, has announced it is partnering with Vodafone of UK to offer 3G services along with its push-email technology. Mobile workers are sure to be glad with this news. With 3G BlackBerries, not only could you send and receive email messages while on-the-go, you could now video-conference with your correspondents with similar 3G devices, and transfer all sorts of data at broadband speeds. BlackBerry’s 3G-enabled phone is reported to be quad-band, meaning, it will support ...

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Daryl of Dunder Mifflin

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