Office automation (OA) can be approached from two sides. For administrative services, OA is the introduction of tools developed originally in data processing (DP) to the office. From DP's angle, OA is the extension of "normal" methods to every‑wider fields of application. Because few of us have expertise in both spheres, a good deal of money is spent on external consultants who help bridge the gap between DP and OA.

Here are some guidelines to help both DP and OA staff extract every penny of value from their investment in consultants.

How much consulting gets done in industry as a whole? Globally, several tens of thousands of individuals and thousands of firms bill several billion dollars a year for services in general management, financial management, marketing, production, data processing, personnel, and small‑business administration. You can get information on sources of consulting by

! contacting your hardware and software vendor representatives and describing the sort of problem you are concerned about;

! speaking to members of your professional associations, including local and international computer users' groups for references to well‑thought‑of firms;

! contacting trade associations.

Scope

When the client and consultant are discussing OA problems and how the consultant could help, both parties must be conscious that a consultant always has two allegiances: to the manager hiring her and to the firm employing the manager. You must define the scope of the consulting assignment so that the consultant can in fact legitimately tackle the task. For example, it would be pointless for a local OA manager to request assistance in deciding whether to implement satellite‑link teleconferencing nation‑wide within a corporation. Such a project would be beyond the manager's scope.

Sometimes consultants are asked by managers to produce support for a pre‑defined set of conclusions as part of an internal political battle; consultants should be chary of accepting such assignments without making it clear that their report may very well disagree with preconceptions.

As you evaluate potential consultants, look for those who can state their understanding of your problems clearly. I am fond of the phrase, "Let me see if I have understood" because it's a chance to test my perceptions against those of the client. When you have chosen your consultant, prepare an action plan that defines what you both plan to do, by when and how you will know when to stop.

All consulting is aimed at change: either fixing what doesn't work or improving what already does or inventing a new solution for a problem foreseen. By writing down what will constitute sufficient change, you ensure that your external consultant does not become an unwanted permanent member of your corporate family. A consultant is not a permanent employee of your department. A reasonable expectation is that with time, the frequency of consultant visits will decline for any specific project. As part of the assignment, consultants normally expect to work closely with members of the client organization to impart their knowledge and methods.

Consulting fundamentally involves teaching. I once met a consultant who did minicomputer performance analysis. I asked him what tools he taught his clients to use in analyzing system performance; he answered, "Tools? I don't teach any tools. Listen, if a client is going to spend thousands of dollars on a performance monitor, I'd rather he spend it on me." Clients must ask their consultant exactly how their firm will become less dependent on external help by paying for consulting time.

A professional consultant will clearly identify the limits of her knowledge. Faced with requests for help in areas beyond his competence, the consultant will point out that alternative sources of information would be more cost‑effective. One test you can apply to judge the professionalism of a prospective consultant is to ask her to identify the limits of her professional competence.

Ethics

To conclude, I quote the ILO on a code of ethics for consultants (2, p.50):

The codes of professional conduct are basic instruments used by the consultants' associations to establish the profession and protect its integrity.... Thus members of the associations engage themselves

! to place the client's interest ahead of their own;

! to keep information about the client confidential and take no advantage of its knowledge;

! to accept no commissions in connection with the supply of services to the client;

! to hold no directorship or controlling interest in any business competitor of the client without disclosing it;

! not to invite an employee of a client to consider or apply for suggested alternative employment;

! not to calculate remuneration on any other basis than a fixed fee agreed in advance, which may be on a time rate;

! to inform clients of any relationship and interest that might influence the consultant's judgement;

! to accept no assignment which exceeds the scope of their competence;

! not to work when their judgement might be impaired by illness, misfortune or any other cause;

! to refrain from seeking business by public advertising or by payment of commission for the introduction to clients.

For good measure, you can find the Code of Ethics of the (ISC)2, the certifying authority for Certified Information Systems Security Professionals, at https://www.isc2.org/cgi/content.cgi?category=12

The Expert in the Next Office

"Marcie, can you spare a minute?" Marcie groans inwardly. This is the sixth time this morning someone has come in from a neighboring office to ask her for "a minute". Each occasion lasted about a quarter of an hour. The questions all concerned LOTUS 1‑2‑3, on which Marcie is the acknowledged expert.

However, Marcie is actually the Assistant to the Director of Finance, not a Technical Support specialist from the Information Center in Data Processing. Every time she's interrupted by a call for help from people in Accounting, Shipping, Engineering, and even occasionally from Data Processing, she falls further behind in her assigned work. She likes helping people, but lately she's had to stay late after the nominal end of her work day simply to make up for the time she has used acting as informal technical support to her neighbors.

Marcie may have a bad time of it unless something changes in her organization. She may be fired by her boss because her productivity drops too low according to her job description. She may burn out and quit because of overwork and criticism. Or she may cause resentment among her colleagues and neighbors by declining to help them or by complaining to her own boss and causing a ruckus. Alternatively, she may have a good time and manage to meet all the demands on her quite successfully until the DP department begins to feel threatened and someone either complains to the higher‑ups or begins spreading nasty comments about poor, helpful Marcie.

Being the expert in the next office is tough on the expert.

Looking at this situation from a management point of view, there are problems for the recipients of all this free aid. The longer they can persist in getting apparently free help from their unofficial benefactor, the longer they can avoid letting upper management know they need help with their office automation tools. Then when the bubble bursts and the expert becomes unavailable, managers are confronted with a sudden demand for unplanned resources. In some organizations, unexpected staffing requirements are difficult to satisfy. Managers have a hard time explaining how it is that they were unable to predict the need and budget for it.

TINSTAAFL

Engineers often say, "There is no such thing as a free lunch" (abbreviated TINSTAAFL) to imply that no benefit is without cost.

From a technical support perspective, even the most gifted unofficial expert is necessarily an amateur. True, there are many users whose technical knowledge of their tools exceeds that of their own technical support staff. But professional technical support consists of far more than just technical knowledge. Almost no amateur expert will

! have colleagues to discuss the problem with on a technical level;

! have backup personnel so she can provide faster service to requesters;

! search the appropriate technical manuals with the user experiencing a problem;

! have access to all the periodical information provided by manufacturers;

! document the problems carefully so as to avoid having to solve them all over again later;

! have access to phone‑in consulting services;

! determine the cause of the problem and ensure that the problem does not recur; and

! broadcast information about the problem, its workaround, and its fix to unaffected users who may benefit from the information.

Summary

In conclusion, it is more sensible for employees to help themselves and each other by letting management know they need technical support. When someone asks you for technical help, by all means help them‑‑but let your manager know immediately that there's a support problem. When you have a technical problem yourself, by all means ask your expert neighbor for help‑‑but tell your own manager that it was an exceptional case and that you'd much rather have a permanent technical support team to work with.

Redundancy

Redundancy is feared and loathed in most offices and data processing environments. Redundancy is defined as "superabundance; superfluity; having a quality in excess."

In some offices, "redundancy" is a synonym for loss of a job, as in "My position was made redundant." Sometimes upper management perceives redundancy as padding or featherbedding‑‑having too many people doing the same thing. In database design as in filing, information is stored in the fewest possible places.

However, more careful analysis reveals that redundancy is essential for a healthy organization. Redundancy lets a manager stay home when she's sick and lets a word processing operator continue his work when the disc drive gets sick. Redundancy provides the elasticity that lets office and computer operations proceed normally despite the ups and downs of human and machine existence.

I propose a Redundancy Rule for successful office automation:

ELIMINATE UNIQUE RESOURCES.

Consider two aspects of modern work: equipment and people. No one would accept working in an office with exactly one pen. Even if only one person needed the pencil at a time, one would be unwilling to tolerate the risk of breaking the unique writing instrument. One would expect to stock a backup pen or at least a good temporary replacement like a pencil.

Managers must plan for such replacements and backups as part of the operating costs of their office. The hardware acquisition budget should include reasonable provision for "redundant" equipment. For example, I recommended to one of my clients that they choose an local area network with at least two identical file servers (the processor coordinating access to central disks and printers) rather than a competing configuration that had a single server. Should one server break down, the other one could meet network needs temporarily, albeit at lower service levels. Downtime would be lower; system flexibility would be higher.

The Redundancy Rule implies that one should do backups. Without backups, information on a single disc is a unique resource. The Rule implies that one should invest in uninterruptible power supplies for word processors (WPs) and microcomputers but not necessarily for printers. Information in the WP and micro memory may be unique (if one can print from memory without first saving to disc) but anything we send to a printer can be regenerated. The Rule implies that given a choice between buying two different automated systems or buying two identical systems, one should get the twin systems to be able to cannibalize one of them in an emergency. The Rule implies that if the volume of equipment purchases justifies it, one should invest in a floater unit which can serve for training purposes until it's needed to help someone out of trouble when an operational unit breaks down.

Organizations

What about people? Some people believe that the Redundancy Rule is dangerous to their careers. I once met a programmer who admitted that he didn't want to document his source code "too well" because then his employer could dispense with his services. The irony was that this fool lost his job anyway. A computer systems foul-up flooded the market with defective products and the company went bankrupt. Keeping unique information to oneself is bad, bad, bad. From the employer's point of view, having an indispensable employee is unwise, indeed dangerous. What happens when Slavia the Spreadsheet Superwoman is ill or on holiday or resigns? Who will produce the company newsletter when Miklos the Desktop Publishing Marvel stomps out of the office in a fury?

From the employee's point of view, being indispensable is trouble indeed. Wang Mei the Network Nabob works overtime‑‑maybe even unpaid overtime‑‑when the network goes down. Siva the Laserprinter Lion cannot move out of his present job because no one has been trained to replace him if he's promoted. The Unique Resource has no one in the office with whom to discuss technical problems; where is the pleasure of exchanging ideas, the challenge of organizing and articulating ideas in teaching?

A Unique Resource is in a rut.

In conclusion, everyone benefits by avoiding unique resources. Cause a little redundancy‑‑it will calm things down in rough times and liven things up in calm times.

Floaters

Many offices would benefit from having a spare microcomputer ("micro") available for use but unassigned to any one person. Such a micro is called a floater. Floaters are useful to replace broken equipment if a service contract does not specify a replacement unit. When office automation (OA) is effectively implemented, OA tools are no longer optional; they are required for staff to function. For example, if everyone uses electronic mail (email), there is little substitute for having access to the email system. Furthermore, in an efficient office, no other user has much slack in her use of her assigned equipment. Non‑functional micros mean lower productivity and even potential friction over sharing remaining equipment.

Floater units can prevent these consequences. Floaters can serve when unexpected work arises if the work can be partitioned. For example, if a sales office suddenly has to respond to a Request for Proposal (RFP) in a hurry, the sales force could assign a section of the RFP to a salesperson who doesn't normally have an assigned micro. The floater could speed production in this emergency.

Floaters are useful when a micro is needed for a less‑frequent tasks that require a special peripheral. For example, if month end graphics take a whole day to produce, a floater could be attached to a plotter and left to plot without inconveniencing the operator of the micro usually attached to that peripheral.

Similarly, some larger offices use one of their micros as a teaching tool. A video interface can be installed on most micros, permitting trainers to hook them up to a video projection unit or to the newer overhead transparency projection units. Video projection units resemble large‑screen projection TV sets; they have curved screens about five feet square and projection units requiring calibration for proper focus. They cost many thousands of dollars. Overhead transparency projection units are about the size of a standard 8.5 x 11" notebook, weigh about a pound, and fit on any overhead projector. Both devices allow an audience to see whatever is on the micro linked to the projection unit.

The problem is that unless the modified micro is a floater, someone has just lost her workstation. If that person is part of the course, there may be less difficulty than if she is expected to continue working. But even if she is taking the course, usually someone else has to cover for at least part of her work; alternatively, the "student" ends up having to work overtime after the course to make up for "lost" time. In both cases, it can be difficult to move the micro hooked up to a projection unit from the teaching environment back to the workplace. A floater unit prevents this problem.

There are many opportunities for increased office productivity by allowing or even encouraging work at home. Creative work, especially, is sometimes difficult in an office. Workdays often seem like a series of interruptions when one is trying to devise a plan or write a complex document. In contrast, many people are at their creative best either early in the morning or late at night. Unless your office is a step away, it's hard to get those ideas into practice at those hours. Once one is used to working with one's favorite OA tools (word processing, spreadsheets, graphics), it's hard to be as productive with a plain piece of paper. As for typewriters, how many of you habitual word processing users have had the experience trying to write on your old college electric typewriter? It's a horror.

A floater unit can be taken home for special purposes without disrupting normal work. In contrast, it's usually unthinkable to take one's assigned workstation out of the office. Having a floater to work on at home even has benefits on family life. Think of the charming scene as Mom looks up with a smile to help Johnny with his homework, then bends back to her corporate financial model.

This chapter was written in a roadside rest area in Nicodemus, Kansas, on an HP Portable Plus‑‑one of the two floater units I use in my office.

Portables in the Office

With the advent of the powerful new portable computers, office automation managers should consider adding at least one portable to their toolkit. A previous chapter described the advantages of "floater" units: those microcomputers ("micros") not assigned to any specific person. A portable computer is an ideal floater unit.

First, some terminology. There are several size and power classes of portable micros:

! floor‑mounts, whose processor units stand beside a desk and weigh 20 or 30 pounds;

! desktops, about 20 pounds; cables link the components;

! transportables, which look like sewing machine cases, have few external cables to worry about, and weigh 15 to 20 pounds;

! portables, weighing some 15 pounds; some are the size and shape of a breadbox;

! lap‑top portables, weighing from seven to 15 pounds;

! note‑book portables, usually weighing four to seven pounds; typically 8.5" x 11" x 1.5";

! palm‑top micros, weighing about a pound or less and roughly 4" x 6" x 0.5".

Moving floor‑mount and desktop micros is not recommended. The components are big, awkwardly shaped, wired together with many cables, and not designed to be moved. Even with special carrying cases, it takes a determined and strong person to carry the screen and a disc drive very far.

Transportables are much easier to move around. These devices fold up neatly; they have no dangling cables to catch on corners. They have small screens, but some may be plugged into larger monitors. If they must be transported, they are rugged enough to withstand the normal shocks of car rides, for example.

Portables‑‑the breadbox size‑‑are also a good choice for the office, with the added advantage that they are easy to take home. Most portables run on wall current, although some have a few hours of battery life for occasional spontaneous use. Such portables may fit under an airline seat, but they are awkward to use on a plane because of their size.

Laptops and notebooks

Laptops and notebooks may be the ideal choice as floaters. They range in size from the binder sized to the briefcase‑sized. These self‑contained units take up little room on a desk, and the smaller ones can be used in an airplane seat. A portable with hard disc can run about four hours on a battery charge

A minor warning for those interested in using laptop micros during air travel: they are difficult to use in the economy section of the plane. The screens are typically to tall to fit comfortably in the cheap seats. Notebook computers are easier to use.

Tiny computers

Several companies make palmtop MS‑DOS compatible computers. These units typically use read‑only memory (ROM) cards for different applications. They are useful for occasional note‑taking and to organize lists of contacts. Some run spreadsheets, making them useful for such applications as expense account summaries or specialized financial models. However, their keyboards are so tiny that they are all but unusable by anyone who is used to touch‑typing. Hunt‑and‑peck typists may not be inconvenienced much.

Seeing is believing

Evaluate the display of any portable you consider buying. Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) can be hard on the eyes for those unused to them; supertwist LCDs are better. Palmtop computers have 8 or 16‑line, 40‑character‑wide screens; the rest all have at least 80 column by 24 line displays. Some systems have high‑resolution screens (e.g., VGA compatible monochrome and even color screens).

Some portables use plasma displays‑‑glowing letters on a dark background (or the inverse). Most people find plasma screens easy to read, but they use more power. The original Toshiba 3100, for example, had no battery pack available (partly because of the screen and partly because of the hard disc). Most portables can be hooked up to an external monitor, increasing their usability as desktop units when the user is at the workstation for long periods.

Data storage capacity

Data storage is an important issue when evaluating portable micros. Some systems use solid‑state memory (RAM and ROM), which are not much affected by vibration and shock (although the user‑installed chips can work loose if improperly seated in their boards). Main memory capacities on portable computers generally match the range available on more static models.

Most portables use 3.5" floppies (1.44 MB) and a hard disc (20 MB and up).

Linkage

Finally, consider communications capabilities. Many systems have internal modems available as well as having serial ports capable of up to 19,200 baud operation. Internal 1200/2400 and even 9,600 baud modems are available for most portables. Small 2,400 baud modems the size of a pack of cigarettes are also available. Portable computers usually come supplied with Centronix parallel output ports for standard printers.

Tiny computers usually provide serial ports for linkage to larger systems; some permit peripheral sharing (e.g., printing directly on a larger system's printer).

· size: transportable? briefcase? laptop? notebook?

· power source: AC or AD/DC?

· screen: LCD or plasma? fixed or detachable?

· mass storage: RAM/ROM or discs? floppy or hard?

· compatibility with IBM‑PC?

· communications ports: serial? speed? modem? parallel?

Appropriate Technology

In the mid‑1970s, I lived in a tiny town at an altitude of one mile near the continental divide of Africa and a few degrees south of the equator. Butare is the University town for Rwanda, a country south of Uganda, west of Tanzania, east of Zaïre and north of Burundi. Electrical power was shut off for several hours a day because of petrol shortages and because of mechanical failure in the ancient generators installed during the colonial administration, decades before. We used to light lanterns without interrupting our dinner conversation when the lights flickered warningly‑‑that's how normal it was to lose power.

Butare is about 90 miles from the capital, Kigali. In North America or Europe, we'd expect that to be a one‑ to two‑hour drive. In Rwanda in the mid‑1970s, the voyage to Kigali was a four‑ to five‑hour ordeal. In the dry seasons, the clay road was a 90 mile washboard. In the rainy seasons, it became a gigantic mud‑wrestling pit. In all seasons, the road was full of brightly‑dressed pedestrians carrying earthen pots on their heads, babies on their backs, and herding cows, goats, and chickens along the edges.

To telephone anyone, we had to go to the PTT‑‑Postes, Telephone et Telegraphe. The PTT had telephones which often worked; very few of the buildings in the town had their own phones. Sometimes, we could actually hear voices above the crackling static that pervaded the phone lines. Often, we'd give up and try again another time.

People in the developing world could use office automation (OA) techniques just as fully as people in technologically advanced countries. The problem is that the infrastructure for effective implementation of microcomputers, word processors, and electronic mail is missing. The infrastructure we take for granted‑‑electricity, roads, phone lines‑‑is still being installed in much of the world. So how does one run a microcomputer, deliver replacement parts, or tie into a network in the absence of the infrastructure?

Approaches to development

One of the approaches to development assumes that the Third World must recapitulate the history of technologically advanced nations. Developing nations should lay down asphalt roads, install telephone poles, and build generating plants. Only then should they try to implement more sophisticated tools such as OA. Another approach suggests that not all the technology developed in the First World is suitable for the Third World. Some techniques are more appropriate than others. But what should one do to implement OA technology when not all the pieces are in place for supporting it?

I think one answer lies in a paradox: far from sending primitive systems to the Third World, we should be looking at some of the most advanced technology‑‑but with an eye to its appropriateness.

Context defines value

Consider word processing (WP). Should the University of Rwanda spend money on typewriters, word processors or on microcomputers and printers? Typewriters last along time, are resistant to breakage, and don't require power. However, typewriters are used not only for correspondence and reports, but are crucial for home‑grown printing. In the Third World, typewriters are used to prepare the masters used for spirit duplicators‑‑the mechanical predecessors to photocopying machines. When I was a professor at the University, a good deal of time was wasted by the nuisance of correcting typographical errors on those masters. One would have to apply a pink plastic liquid, let it dry, and type over again. The results were often a smudged copy. So in those circumstances, there would be a premium for being able to print the masters correctly the first time. Word processing equipment becomes even more useful than in an office in Montreal.

Electricity

How can we overcome power difficulties? By using portable equipment. Recently, typewriter manufacturers such as Smith Corona have been advertising portable WP units for about U$500. These battery‑operated units would buffer their users against power fluctuations and interruptions. Their integrated printers seem simple enough not to require frequent servicing. They have 100 Kb floppy diskettes (why only 100 Kb? I recently encountered a 10 Mb 5.25" floppy drive) which might be used not only for backup and storage but also as a means of transferring files from one machine to another.

Another pervasive need is computing power. Just like people anywhere else, Third World managers desperately need to be able to keep track of numerical information, such as student performance, agricultural yields, medical records, and finances. In fact, because so much of Third World life hangs on the edge of disaster, one could make the argument that effective decision support is even more important than in the First World. I suggest that serious consideration be given to portable microcomputers as the computer of choice for developing nations.

A wide variety of portables is now available. However, I maintain that the ROM/RAM‑based portables such as the obsolete HP Portable Plus (the "110+") are the best for work in a developing country. These systems depend on large amounts of read‑only memory (ROM) and random‑access memory (RAM) rather than on hard disks and floppy drives. External disks are available for the 110+, either battery operated and linked via the Interface Loop (HP‑ IL) or as standard Interface Bus units (HP‑ IB) linked through an HPIL/HP‑B converter. HP will support up to 2 Mb RAM; With new non‑HP memory boards, the 110+ can be upgraded to 4 Mb. ROMs available from Personalized Software (publishers of the Portable Paper can provide megabytes of utility software. The 110+ thus becomes a powerful tool for a variety of applications but keeps its unique virtue of being a sealed unit with no moving parts (except the keyboard and the screen hinges). Faced with operating conditions including a fine red dust which seeps into everything, I would bet on the 110+ rather than on units with diskette drives. Faced with the jouncing ride to Kigali, I would bet on RAM memory rather than on a hard disk. Too bad the HP110+ was not fully compatible with MS‑DOS.

Through the HP‑IL, several 110+ computers can be linked; file exchange and peripheral sharing are painless and effective. Indeed, the linkage can even include HP41C calculators, which can be used as remote data entry devices for alphanumeric information. One potential application in OA is to massage locally‑collected information and produce summary statistics. The summaries could then be loaded onto HP41C magnetic cards and delivered to a central station for integration into reports.

The battery‑operated HP Thinkjet with HP‑ IL interface is perhaps ideal for field conditions. The entire print head is replaced with every ink cartridge, and in my experience, the printer doesn't seem to break down.

The 110+ will run for about 16 to 20 hours of continuous work, although in practice, by using the timeout feature, one can extend this period to several days of ordinary work. The Thinkjet is good for only a few hours of use on one charge. It may be necessary to use non‑battery operated disk drives and printers. In such cases, or to run conventional systems, Third World managers and technocrats should investigate uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). For a few hundred dollars, one can install 0.6 KVA systems capable of running a complete microcomputer system for a 20 minutes to an hour and a half. For a few thousand dollars, a 5 KVA system will run several micros for several hours.

Modems and mail

What about telecommunications? If the telephones are so awful, how can one send information between centers? One approach is the new variable‑speed modems with extensive error‑correction. These modems adapt their speed to line quality; the more noise, the slower they run. Such modems could take advantage of occasional quiet periods to speed up transfer rates. Local area networks based on coaxial cables may be easier to install and maintain than telephone switching equipment, since the coding and decoding can be done by microcomputer equipment. For communications across the country, I wonder if Third World nations wouldn't do better to study satellite linkages instead of trying to lay telephone cables. Such linkages require relatively simple receiver dishes and are less likely to be damaged than miles of cable.

Electronic mail carried over such networks might have major advantages over regular paper mail. Certainly the speed of transmission would be far greater than overland delivery. Furthermore, it might be much harder to censor such mail than written materials; with the unfortunate prevalence of totalitarian regimes throughout the Third World, such features as encryption and automatic backup might be even more useful than in more open societies.

Retrospect

In 1977, a group of professors at the University of Rwanda organized a symposium entitled, "Microcomputers for the Third World." We were referring to programmable calculators. Even so, our colleagues were amazed at how powerful these simple tools could be in solving their practical problems. How much more excited they would be to see the progress in appropriate technology today. I hope that international aid agencies pay attention to helping Third World nations obtain and use equipment that fits their needs rather than imposing solutions appropriate for a far different environment.

First world

Does any of this bear on running an office in North America or Europe? Indirectly, it does: we must remind ourselves that tools can be judged only in a context. Asking, "Which is the better computer?" is meaningless unless one answers the question, "For what purposes?"

Electronic Mail for Plain Folks

By now, most people have probably used, seen, or at least heard about electronic mail (email). These products, running on local area networks (LANs), minicomputers and mainframes, serve companies with as few as a few dozen employees on up to those with thousands. Email systems have an impressive repertoire of functions. For instance, one can usually

! receive and send messages from and to email users logged on to one computer or many in the network;

! prepare messages offline and send the ASCII (plain text) files or binary files such as LOTUS worksheets, MS‑WORD documents, and programs;

! file information according to any label one wishes in "folders" which can themselves contain other labels;

! define and use mailing lists to save time when sending the same messages to multiple users;

! specify options for delivery such as URGENT, delayed, and receipt-required.

! There are sometimes other useful features which are not strictly part of the email functions, such as an electronic appointment calendar that certain associates may be permitted to consult when planning meetings.

! Email systems have the following general advantages:

! fast delivery (seconds to minutes, regardless of distance);

! faster message reply turnaround time;

! guaranteed delivery on first try or store‑and‑forward until successfully delivered;

! audit trail of message transactions;

! optional hard‑copy message delivery;

! more cost‑effective and efficient compared to couriers and intra‑ company mail.

I always explain why email is useful by saying that it permits "fast asynchronous communication" among people. Email is like the familiar telephone answering machine; some communication can get through even if both people aren't on the line at the same time. Letters, telegrams, and "mailgrams" (telegrams delivered by the postal system) allow asynchronous communication, but they're not very fast‑‑they work on the scale of days, not minutes. In contrast, I can get a twenty page document from my desktop computer in Montreal to that of a client in Alberta in less than ten minutes using a public email system. The cost? About CDN$5 (U$4) including the system's fees for our connect time.

Alternatives

How can one send electronic messages to people who have no computer links, no modems, or even (gasp) no microcomputers?

TELEX I (formerly TELEX) and TELEX II (formerly TWX) provide email service to about two million subscribers around the world. In recent years, these systems have been interconnected so that subscribers to one can reach anyone on both networks. These services are good for short messages, but the relatively slow transmissions mean that more than a page or two can be expensive. The same twenty page report that cost CDN$5 to email would cost about CDN$50 to send by TELEX.

FAX

An alternative to TELEX is the facsimile machine. A typical "Group 3" device is about the size and cost of a photocopier; it communicates with another facsimile unit over regular phone lines on a station‑to-station basis. Benefits of facsimile include

! easy installation: plug into power and a telephone jack;

! flexible input: typed or handwritten, photographs or sketches;

! robust communication: tolerates more line noise without retransmission than other email systems;

! simple use: put the paper in the hopper and press the button;

! automatic operation: will redial until successful without operator intervention.

FAX boards which fit inside microcomputers allow documents to be sent via fax as if they were being printed to a printer. With the right software, it is possible to send a fax including all enhancements (e.g., bold, underlining, special fonts and so on) and graphics (diagrams, digitized photographs) without having to create a paper version locally.

Even facsimile is available without having to buy one's own equipment. ITT, MCI International, Graphnet, and RCA Q‑FAX are examples of commercial facsimile services that can provide facsimile transmission of documents handed in at a service center. Customers may also transmit documents to such a service from their own facsimile terminals or via computer link and telex.

Finally, one can send a fax from any microcomputer by using a VAN.

VANs provide public email for all the subscribers who wish to use their services. Some VANs (e.g., CompuServe) charge for messages purely by how long it takes to create and receive the data (charging by "connect‑time"). Others (e.g., Bell Canada's iNet2000) charge by the amount of data sent and received (charging by traffic).

Editing functions are available for those working on dumb terminals. However, for anyone using a microcomputer or word processor to communicate by email, it's much more economical and efficient to edit the text locally ("offline") before transmitting it to the email service. With connect time at CDN $0.25/minute for INET, even a fast typist can generate expensive charges for a simple message, especially if there are online corrections to make.

The more popular VANs have software available that helps automate the communications process, making it easier to work offline‑‑and without racking up communications charges while composing and reading mail.

VANs also provide FAX capability; one can send ("upload") a message and have it converted into FAX codes for immediate or delayed delivery to a recipient.

Archaic recipients

For recipients who have no electronic address or FAX, public email services are also linked to several national postal systems. For instance, one can send anyone at all a message printed on a laser printer and packaged in a fancy colorful envelope that is sure to catch their eye. In Canada, this service is called ENVOYPOST.

The neatly printed, attractive message is delivered the same day or the next working day. Special delivery and registered mail are available at extra cost. An ENVOYPOST message costs about CDN$3. For Canadian addresses, we're allowed up to four pages of text; for US addresses, we can send one page per message.

Exactly the same dialogue can be used to COMPOSE ENVOYCOURIER, which prints the message at a participating office of PUROLATOR, the international courier company. These documents are then hand‑delivered to the recipient. The cost is about CDN $10 per message with same‑ or next‑day delivery.

These services are probably available in one form or another anywhere in the developed world. I suggest you contact the organizations mentioned in this article if you are in Canada or the US; elsewhere, try your P.T.T. (Post, Telephone, Telegraph) services. Good luck.

And send me a message if you join the plain‑folks email services.

Computerized Telephone Usage Monitoring

Large companies have used call detail accounting reports (CDAR) for years to study and control telephone usage‑especially long‑distance calls. Another term used is station message detail recording (SDMR). Such systems have become available to smaller companies with the advent of call‑ accounting service bureaus and mini‑ and micro-based computer software. Industry estimates commonly cite savings of about 30% on total long‑distance telephone costs once CDAR systems are implemented. This column summarizes some of the features of CDAR; the notes include names and addresses of a few vendors that readers may wish to contact for further information.

The long domination of telephone services by the Bell Telephone Company in the United States (and Bell Canada up north) caused many corporations to forgo internal control of telephone services and costs. We tend to assume that Ma Bell's reports are all we can get. All of us are familiar with the kind of report we receive from our local phone companies: they typically show the date, time, number called, length of call, and cost. Such information is useful but incomplete. There is usually no information about local calls. Even for long distance calls, two useful pieces of information are missing:

which employee called a line or extension; and

which project or client the call may be related to.

Knowing who placed which call may be useful in tracking down unusual use of the phones. For instance, a pattern showing a two‑hour phone call to the opposite coast of the continent every Friday after normal business hours might suggest a discreet, polite enquiry about possible personal calls on company equipment.

On another level, proper summary information about the areas called by employees may identify geographical regions where the density or importance of clients and suppliers might justify investing in‑‑or at least investigating‑‑special telephone services to reduce long‑distance phone costs.

In‑house

Many firms have special purpose telephone lines such as wide‑area telephone service (WATS) or non‑switched leased lines connecting major telephone switches within the corporation (tie lines). Such organizations usually have computerized branch exchanges (CBXs) which automatically assign long‑distance calls to the least expensive communications channel. However, in smaller offices, although the lines are available, individual employees decide when to use them. Computerized phone usage monitoring can help improve call distribution to minimize costs. Specific employees who consistently ignore WATS and tie lines can thus be identified and their behavior corrected.

Even when employee use of specialized communications lines is optimal, there may be usage bottlenecks. These will show up in the phone records as periods of unusually high use of alternate, more expensive services. They may also be visible as periods with long waiting lists (queues) for those special services. Appropriate actions in such cases may include ordering additional outbound lines on the existing services or purchasing new WATS or tie lines.

The Automobile Association of America (AAA) uses information from a CDAR unit to track inbound as well as outbound calls. The details have permitted efficient scheduling and hiring to handle the massive volume of calls (up to 3000 per day). Some organizations bill clients for services; e.g., consulting firms. For them, it can be profitable to attribute a project or client code to calls‑‑even local calls. Automatic reports for each project eliminate the need for staff to pore over their telephone bills to figure out whom they called and why. The time saved may pay for the CDAR system within weeks. Precise statistics on time and duration of client calls may even encourage more precise employee time management and reporting. It's hard to claim that one was working on project A when the phone records indicate a half‑hour call related to project B in the middle of the reported period.

In recent years regulatory decisions have reduced the Bell System's monopoly, allowing other companies to link their equipment directly into the networks. These regulatory changes permit users to intercept communications signals between the phone sets and the phone company's central switching equipment. It is thus possible to record information independently about calls placed or received in computer files for later analysis. Once we have the ability to record the phone company's information, it's easy to add user‑specific information such as billing or client codes. The additional information can then be massaged by computer programs to produce reports in any way required by the user.

Example

Several thousand Canadian firms, including mine, subscribe to Call‑Net Communication's CDAR service. Here's how it works:

! A microprocessor‑equipped black box intercepts all outgoing call from one of our touch‑tone phones.

! The black box generates a dial tone; however, it does not access the Bell system immediately.

! When we dial a number, the microprocessor analyzes whether it's a local number or long distance; if long‑distance, it determines if it's a toll-free number (such as 800‑ calls or 555‑1212 information) or a billable one.

! Then it either dials the BELL system directly (for local or toll-free numbers) or dials the Call‑Net switching system.

! Call‑Net's computerized exchange uses Call‑Net leased lines (trunks to send our phone message to the nearest out‑dial switch in the CallNet grid.

! Then the Call‑Net receiving station dials out, often as a local call to our target phone number.

So far, it's hard to see what the fuss is about: fine, fine, we dial a number and some other system dials it for us; so what? The trick is that Call‑Net can program its microprocessor to accept additional touch‑tone digits following the phone number. The microprocessor recognizes which three‑ digit codes are valid area codes and can tell when we dial international twelve‑digit codes. When we dial long distance calls, the Call‑Net box beeps at us and we must enter our own code sequence. For instance, we use three‑digit codes to tell if a call is billable or not, and if so, to which client for which project. Code 1‑0‑0, for example, might be the ACME WIDGET CORP. PROJECT EVALUATION, and so on. Another company might choose to have 1‑0‑0 mean Accounting/Joe/Research. The meaning of the code is entirely the customer's business, not CallNet's. The black box sends this code along with the phone number to the Call‑Net central computerized exchange, allowing the CDAR service to print periodic, detailed reports on exactly which phone call was for which project.

Reports

At the end of each billing period, we receive three reports:

! calls in chronological order for each accounting code, including total cost and time;

! calls in order of decreasing cost;

! a summary of total number of calls, average duration, and cost for all the codes.

Since the reports are generated by simple computer programs, a client can request special conditions and reports from the vendor; e.g., one might report only those calls costing more than a certain limit, or have a report showing all the calls for a specific employee.

Call‑Net is a Canadian company. For US firms, Account‑A‑Call Corporation (AAC) provides all the features described above and more. This firm also sells proprietary software (PC POLLER) which runs on PCs to poll remote memory devices (such as AAC's TADPOLL hardware) attached to private branch exchanges (PBXs). The data collected from these memory devices can then be analyzed by AAT's CALL MANAGER software running on the Vectra to generate the reports described above. These solutions thus provide the functions of Call‑Net and AAT in‑house.

Summary

In summary, call‑accounting technology and services provide a painless way to increase office efficiency by rationalizing phone usage in today's automated office.

Computer Contamination

Time bombs,", "Trojan horses," and "viruses" are man‑made bugs that afflict computers and give nightmares to the people who run them. They can choke networks with dead‑end tasks, spew out false information, erase files, and even destroy equipment. Since office automation is a branch of computing, we should all be aware of what's happening and how to protect ourselves.

A computer virus is a piece of software that causes its own duplication without permission of its host. Such pieces usually insert themselves into other programs, such as the operating system, and then propagate into other systems by 'infecting' floppy disks. Some viruses announce themselves whimsically by flashing an unexpected message on screen: e.g., "Something Wonderful is About to Happen!". Anything unexpected like that while you're running a word processing program is enough to cause an anxiety attack. Viruses can be hidden in useful programs, which are then called 'Trojan Horses.' In a bitter jest, one vandal infected a 'vaccine' program originally designed to combat viruses and spread the modified program via a bulletin board system.

Programs which cause unexpected events at a particular time or after being run a certain number of times are called 'Time Bombs.' One such program destroyed many files in universities around the world. A computer terrorist organization that sounds like something out of a James Bond movie (The Chaos Computer Club) claimed that they infected NASA's computer system during the five‑months they had access to government files in 1987. These weirdos said they planted a virus hidden in a Trojan Horse and that they would soon set it off.

Now, what are we to do about all this fuss in our plain, ordinary work in office automation? Does it matter?

I think so. I think that we should protect our organizations and ourselves with increased caution when using contributed programs and even when accepting disks from outside or unknown sources.

Guidelines

Some guidelines for programs from bulletin boards:

1. By preference, use contributed software that includes the author's name and address; write to her and verify that she really did write and contribute the version listed on the bulletin board.

2. Don't install programs of questionable origin on your hard disk; indeed, shut down your hard disk (if your system allows that) when you test the new programs.

3. If possible, find someone with an older copy of the same version of the utility or program you want to use; examine the number of bytes in both programs. If the version numbers are the same but the byte counts differ, be wary. Talk to your data processing staff to explore the question before using the program freely.

And for diskettes from unknown or dubious sources:

4. Use utility programs such as the Norton Utilities to list all files, including the 'Hidden' ones. Question anything you don't recognize.

5. Copy the files you want from the source diskette to another one. Make a careful note of how many bytes in all are required for the fileset you want to copy and also of how many bytes are free on a new target diskette; then compare byte counts on the copy and on the source. There should be no extra space used on the target.

Summary

In summary, don't assume that a free program is clean. It may be a very dirty trick indeed. Be reasonable in testing your 'gift horse' in a secure environment and don't let it loose into your production environment until you are confident it's clean.

The Wireless Office

Office automation is moving toward greater integration of formerly standalone workstations with central systems such as the HP 3000 or micro‑based file servers.

Today, OA administrators must learn to grapple with problems that once were the domain of data processing system managers. For instance:

"Josie, could you move my HP 150 from my old desk on the fourth floor to the opposite side of the building on the eighth floor? Oh, and could you have it done by this afternoon? I have an important report to finish for the president."

Sound familiar? It should. At a conference in 1988, a participant reported a study showing that in a particular company, 70 percent of employees had been physically relocated in their building in a six‑month period.

What happens in your office if you move computer equipment from one place to another?

It depends on your connectivity. If you have no connections among your workstations, there is no problem at all, assuming you can get electrical power at the new location.

Coaxial cable (used for local area networks, or LANs) imposes strict limitations on how far away from the LAN cable you can site your terminals or computers.

Even ordinary (RS‑232C, asynchronous) wiring has its problems. Some organizations are lucky enough to have had the foresight and the opportunity to include their data communications lines in the same cables and conduits as their phone lines. At very little extra cost, they used telephone cables with six, eight, or twelve wires instead of four. Since an ordinary phone needs only two wires (a "twisted pair") and a direct‑connect serial port for a mainframe or minicomputer will accept three pin connections, it's possible to use the thicker cables to feed both phones and terminals. Certain local area networks (LANs) run over twisted pair as well.

Typically, such an installation has two "phone jacks" at each desk: one is actually for the phone and the other feeds to a panel from which the systems manager can link to their HP3000 ports. This arrangement means that it takes a few minutes to service equipment in any area of the building without having to install extra wires.

The difficulties occur in buildings where wiring goes through walls or through ceiling conduits. Even if there is room in the conduits, it takes a long time (hours, sometimes) to pull a new cable‑‑often hundreds of feet or more‑‑from the central computer to a new terminal emplacement. If the conduits are full, it can be impossible. If there are no conduits, one may have to drill through concrete or metal walls. Sometimes months pass before the building permits can be secured to do such a thing; there goes any hope of quick response to changing requirements.

Wireless connections

Some years ago, when I visited the HP research and development labs, I saw prototypes of an infrared‑based wireless communications system. Recently, such linkages have been used to send data to portable printers from hand‑held computers/calculators. But, this technique has not been commercially available for communications among computers or terminals.

At the same conference mentioned previously, a vendor described a novel wireless solution to difficult communications problems: radio transmission. According to Robert D. Clark of RYLUN COMMUNICATIONS, cabling costs have been increasing despite the decreasing cost of DP and OA equipment, with the result that the price per workstation has remained constant over the last few years. The cost of cabling relocations is estimated at a billion dollars a year in the United States and about $100 million a year in Canada. Even worse than the cable expense is the cost in time and money for network planning, approvals, installation, relocation, maintenance, and upgrades. An attractive solution is wireless networking.

ARLAN (formerly called Radionet) is a local area network based on principles developed in the 1950s and extensively used by the military. With extremely low‑power transmitters, the system allows microcomputers, terminals, word processing stations, and mini or mainframe computers to communicate within buildings and between buildings. The units have been tested successfully for up to six miles line‑of‑sight (with no intervening obstructions). As a side benefit, the units make it difficult or impossible to intercept the data stream; that is, it is not easy to tap into the "line" to read information illegally. The manufacturer claims the system is impervious to interference from office equipment; you can turn the photocopier on and off without harming your link to the main computer.

Typical applications for a radio‑based network:

· buildings where cable ducts are already filled to capacity;

· older structures where cabling is too expensive (e.g., massive walls, no ducts);

· nursing stations or bedside patient monitoring;

· computers or terminals in any room at will (e.g., boardroom presentations or one‑time installations);

· portable classrooms: e.g., at trade shows, universities;

· disaster recovery centers to eliminate the need for expensive double wiring.

The equipment costs about $3,600 (U.S.) or $4,400 (Canada) per linkage (that is, for a unit at the workstation and at the host site), so don't rush out and buy a bunch without studying your situation carefully with your system manager. Multi‑port units are available; they lower costs to about $300 (U.S.) per link at the host end ($350 Canada) for a 32‑port unit.

Look for further developments of this interesting new technology. Tell your system manager about it.

2. In Canada: RYLUN COMMUNICATIONS Inc., Data transmission and switching products, 205 Riviera Drive, Unit 14, Markham, Ontario L3R 1L6 (416) 479‑3222

3. For information on U.S. distributors, TELESYSTEMS SLW Inc., 25 Dyas Road, Suite 104, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 1V7 (416) 441‑9785

Obsolescence

Have you ever heard someone lamenting the obsolescence of his computer? "Oh woe," says a president, "I bought a wonderful computer three years ago and now people laugh at me for using such a clunker." In the HP world, one sometimes hears people railing against HP for having "orphaned" the HP 150; it's a dead machine, someone wails; it will never be upgraded.

There are two meanings for the word "obsolete":

a) No longer in use or in fashion;

b) No longer used or useful, because of outmoded design or construction, or because of hard wear.

Some computer users believe that because a computer or terminal is obsolete in the first sense‑‑no longer in fashion‑‑it must be obsolete in the second sense‑‑no longer useful. The feeling is unfortunate, because old equipment may be used productively long after the computer industry has moved on to newer, faster, lighter, smaller, less expensive, or more attractive designs.

What determines whether one should sell, trade in, or junk "obsolete" equipment?

If the equipment still works for your purposes, keep it.

The HP 150, for example, was described as "still one of the most cost‑effective word‑processing terminals available". The speaker uses HPWORD/3000, which runs partly on the HP3000 and partly on the HP 150. Newer computers run more software than the HP 150; however, for use with HPWORD, the older computers are fine. There would be no advantage to upgrading.

You should upgrade if you can save money by so doing.

A few years ago, the monthly support costs for a new disc drive were roughly the same as those of an old disc drive (the HP7925) with 30 percent of the capacity. Given the trade‑in allowance for three old drives, it turned out that the new drive would be paid for in about four years simply on the basis of the savings in maintenance costs. The improved speed and reliability were bonuses.

If equipment is no longer suitable for some applications, see if it can satisfy another application.

Many HP3000 shops still have the nearly indestructible HP264x terminals here and there in their offices. The terminals are much larger than the current crop, their keyboards are designed differently, and they cannot easily display the now‑familiar two‑line function key labels. For many applications, these terminals just don't work well any more. However, there may be someone in your office doing head‑down data entry (rapid, continuous input of numerical or alphanumerical information without looking at the screen). These people may be perfectly happy with the HP264x terminals. After all, data‑entry clerks don't change from one keyboard to another, so the slightly different keyboard layout wouldn't matter. They don't look at the screen much, so unlabelled function keys would not bother them so much either. There might be a problem with HP264x terminals whose maximum speed is 2400 baud, but sometimes even that wouldn't matter‑‑e.g., if system response time were very good and data entry did not require changing entry forms.

Give old equipment away to charitable institutions.

Depending on tax laws in your area, you may be able to obtain a business tax credit for donations of obsolete equipment to charitable organizations. Such donations might include giving functioning equipment to social service groups (Centraid, Red Cross, Oxfam, Greenpeace, etc.), and functioning or broken equipment to universities, community colleges, and schools.

Even broken terminals can be useful in physics and electronic labs, since units can be cannibalized to fix other equipment or used in teaching demonstrations.

Put old equipment at home.

Another worthy use for old terminals and micros is to put them into employees' homes with a modem. With modem prices so low these days (2400 baud units cost around $100), a modest expenditure can help people avoid midnight emergency trips to the computer center. For example, many programmers would benefit from a home terminal to fix problems during nighttime or holiday production runs. Some minicomputers can even be restarted after a system failure from a remote terminal (assuming due preparations are made before leaving the site and precautions taken against breaching security).

Modems and telecommunications packages such as Reflection and Advance‑Link (and many others) permit radically different computers to share text files. Even though an HP125, a Vectra, and the HP3000 may use different word processing packages, they can convert their document files into plain text (ASCII); plain text lacks enhancements such as boldface or italics. This plain text can then be read into any other word processing package, to be manipulated further as required. Thus a secretary with a very large document to enter into a word processing package might make arrangements to work at home one day on an old computer. After entering the text, the secretary could transmit the file to the main computer by modem, print it for review, and edit it on the host. The next day, the secretary could finish the document at the office by adding enhancements and pagination.

Such a technique is part of telecommuting. Telecommuting may make life and work much easier for many people who commute long distances.

Telecommuting

Suppose you were offered the opportunity to work on your job at home instead of your office. What should you think about while considering such a suggestion?

Telecommuting "means performing job‑related work at a site away from the office, then electronically transferring the results to the office or to another location.1" This working style is also known as remote work, home office work, telework, location‑independent tasks, and industrial homework.

Cross & Raizman1 published an interesting book on telecommuting. This chapter is based partly on their ideas, on additional questions raised by a published research study (2), and on a critical review of workat‑home (including but not limited to telecommuting) by a British study group (3). A computerized online bibliographical database supplied additional references.

Features

Many people around the world already work at home for their employers (house spouses are explicitly excluded from most of the following discussion). By 1986, 13 million people in the United States worked at home at least some of the time. In 1984, 36% of the 7,757,000 US workers with home computers used them for job‑related purposes4.

What kinds of companies and jobs lend themselves to telecommuting1? Successful implementers include insurance companies, banks, computer firms, software labs, stockbrokers, researchers, managers, reservations clerks, telemarketing employees, trainers writing courses, financial analysts.

Jobs appropriate for telecommuting tend to require

· little space and special equipment;

· little face‑to‑face contact;

· long periods of time for autonomous work;

· project‑oriented work;

· adequate communications channels and information transfer.

The employees who succeed in telecommuting tend to be those who are already

· highly motivated and skilled;

· committed to their employer;

· volunteers for the project;

· more productive than average at the office;

· less gregarious than average;

· more independent;

· better than average at time‑management and organization.

The managers of successful telecommuting programs tend to be

· familiar with the techniques;

· experienced in remote work;

· secure in their supervisory abilities;

· confident of their staff.

Benefits

Proponents list the benefits of telecommuting as follows:

· emphasis on objectives instead of employee appearance;

· longer hours of service to clients;

· lower employee stress;

· elimination of costly office services such as cafeterias and day‑care facilities;

· opportunities for specialists, the handicapped, the homebound, or people living in remote areas to work on interesting tasks;

· increased mutual respect, trust, and loyalty as employees demonstrate their productivity and managers demonstrate their confidence in their staff;

· reduced time spent in social interactions;

· callers need not know employee's location if call‑forwarding, conference calls are used;

· increased physical liberty: appearance, dress, and working style are unobserved by supervisor, colleagues, and clients;

· greater efficiency can liberate more time for private life;

· escape from the currently popular open‑office environment, which some employees dislike.

Because the national and international telecommunications networks can make access almost as easy from distances of thousands of kilometers as from next door, telecommuting has implications employment in data‑processing‑intensive activities . For example, work can shift to areas with lower salaries. A Boulder, Colorado firm currently takes money out of subscription envelopes and sends the forms by air to Ireland, where data entry clerks use the Colorado mainframe to enter data.

David Fleming, director of the California state government's telecommuting pilot project, pointed out that telecommuting offers one member of two‑income family to keep an existing job even after relocation5. The same point was raised in a discussion of a midwestern company which saved $130,000 in staff turnover costs when it used telecommuting to retain 12 valued employees after relocating their offices.

Examples

Examples of telecommuting include:

· Aetna Life and Casualty Company: relocated some computer programmers to an office in a suburb; used teleconferencing to work with clients; now expanding to a multi‑site, national system.

· Blue Cross/Blue Shield (South Carolina): hospitals and 200 doctors' offices file insurance information on patients directly into a central computer; "cottage coders" and "keyers" do 40‑60% more work than in the office because of fewer interruptions; employees are paid for each report processed (errors result in deductions).

· Fort Collins, Colorado: 3% of city workers telecommute; have the same equipment at home as at the office.

· CDC: homework program gives 26 handicapped people around the US opportunity for gainful employment; they work with mainframes in Minnesota.

· The California state government plans to permit a growing number of employees to work at home part of the time. This telecommuting project is a response to a law which took effect on July 1, 1988. The new law requires employers to offer employees ways of working at home5. The employees in the project include lawyers, engineers and program analysts‑‑"those who write or number crunch as part of their jobs."

· Another large employer, Pacific Bell, with 17,000 management level employees, began its own pilot project in 1985 with 100 employees. Between 500 and 1000 managers are now officially enrolled.

Hewlett‑Packard and other companies use a related technique, teleconferencing. HP's product announcements are often preceded by teleconferences for sales and technical staff at which employees from around the world can put questions to top managers. Boeing has committees which meet by networking three or more conference room; and American Airlines has a daily teleconference to brief management from coast to coast on the state of the corporation. All of us have seen this technology in action on our TV screens when news people interview celebrities through two‑ way voice/image links. Look for more on teleconferencing in another column next year.

Other observers also see telecommuting in a less rosy light. Yes, employees may hope for increased flexibility(2):

"One of the attractions of homeworking is thought to be the autonomy the homeworker has in deciding when and for how long she will work and at what pace. The time and effort control exercised over the assembly line worker and all those who clock in and out of work is contrasted with a person working in her own home, with no supervisor or timekeeper. In the abstract such a contrast appears to give the homeworker a freedom and flexibility denied the factory or office worker. It is a critical component of positive evaluations of remunerated work at home, and a major reason why homeworking is assumed to be a boon for women who need to adjust their paid work around family responsibilities (p.120)."

However, the authors continue, "...this picture is quite misleading." Many people were unable to refuse work or set their rate of production, for fear of losing their "contract". Many worked late hours (e.g., until 2 am) to meet demands of their employers. Husbands and other family members imposed their demands on home workers with little concern for their job. Flexible demands by the employer may result in disruption of home workers' lives.

A corporate lawyer commented that telecommuting might place unbearable pressures on junior partners in law firms or on rising executives in large corporations(6). As it is, these people often work late at the office on crash projects or briefs; what will happen, he asks, when they can work at home until all hours on those projects? Is there not a risk of having 'invisible' work imposed on these people by the possibility of labor at home?

"Reducing unnecessary social interactions" is mentioned positively by some authorities1. However, people differ in their goals at work. Although many people are indeed highly goal‑oriented, others might find the concept of "reducing unnecessary social interactions" disturbing.

Research

Many managers have trouble with the idea of independent work without constant supervision. David Fleming found some managers so frightened of their perceived decrease in power that they did not want employees trained in telecommuting techniques6. Such fears might lead to increased rather than decreased stress for employees.

A social scientist studied sixteen people in five midwestern companies in the United States: WP operators, editors, text developers, programming developers, programmer/analysts, and program designers3.

He collected information before and during the telecommuting experiments (3 and 6 months after start) by using questionnaires and interviews. His findings:

· Communications decreased in all directions (lateral, upward, and downward) for those who worked at home full time; they increased for those who worked at home part time;

· Job satisfaction decreased with time;