Now that we our lives are global, more and more businesses are seeing the benefits of having a virtual office. These benefits consist of reduced operational cost, happier staff and increased production. We work remotely and we are proud of it. A lot of companies would disagree that hiring consultants who work remotely is a good idea. They complain its too complicated or there will be a communications breakdown. The truth is remote work is growing faster than large corporations can keep up with.
The concept of remote operations really started with call centers back in the 1990s. A lot of which were based in India. Call centers started to prove that entire operations for one organization could be hosted outside of their home country. This would enable corporations to reduce labor costs and work with other countries who can add value and services that might be too expensive in the home country.
Corporations are always under the corporate stress of office politics. In a lot of cases office politics is the number one reason why a corporation stops growing and cannot complete projects without employee corporate sabotage. Remote work and outsourcing allows corporations to hire outside help who can look at a project from a completely different perspective and without office politics or corporate biasing or with expertise that is not found in their own office.
What makes remote operations even more possible today is faster internet speeds, more powerful computers, the expansion of smart phones with 4G/LTE coverage around the world and easy access to VOIP, Skype and screen sharing tools. Most of these tools today are free and every day more competition makes these tools better while keeping them free.
So what can be accomplished working remotely. Well lets talk about some projects that could be accomplished working remotely. Designers and engineers from around the world can design complicated machinery such as airplane parts and car parts. Marketing ideas can be communicated through digital media. Web meetings can bring entire design teams together to work on one project as if they are all working in the same office. In terms of the design phase for new projects there is virtually nothing that cannot be done remotely. Managers can even manage entire office facilities remotely and in some cases manufacturing machinery is being monitored and managed from a remote location.
Remote work is in its infancy. It will continue to grow and we are working along side millions who are working remotely today. We promote all aspects of remote work and can give corporations hundreds of reasons why it reduces costs, increases productivity and opens up corporations to opportunities and savings that never could be accomplished with the daily commuter.