Telecommuting is a phenomenon that has clearly changed the way business has been conducted though out the years. Whether it is good or bad for business can be debated, but its impact is irrefutable.
When one looks at the overall impact it has one most businesses throughout the world, the overall conclusion, despite the minuses, is overwhelmingly positive.
Telecommuting is defined as work arrangement in which employees work away from a company’s standard workplace and often communicate with the office through the computer. Based on the definition, it is clear that telecommuting would not be a sustainable form of conducting business without computers. There is a direct a correlation between the strides made in computer technology and the increase of businesses using telecommuting as part of their day to day operations. Virtual private networks, goupware, conference calling, videoconferencing, and Voice over IP (VOIP) are current computer technologies that have facilitated telecommuting, especially in the last decade.
Historically, some form of rudimentary telecommuting existed starting in the 1970s. The technology consisted of linking satellite offices to downtown mainframes by computer terminals using telephone terminals as a network bridge. With the development of personal computers, laptops, as well other “computer age” technologies, the use of computers became a necessity for all business to grow and compete in the era of globalization.
The benefits of telecommuting make a huge difference in terms of cutting down on expenditures for most businesses. Decreasing the amount of office and parking space needed in any given office location cuts down on a large portion of real estate investment or office lease costs most businesses have to make. For example, IBM consolidated 400,000 square feet of office space into a 100,000 square-foot facility at Cranford, New Jersey. This information is from June Langhoff's "Telecom...