GigaOM » Virtual Office

Flatter orgs: An inevitable result of collaboration tech?

Jessica Stillman — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:00:55 +0000

From provision of office space to recruitment and retention, the ubiquity of fast, secure internet connectivity has changed plenty about how business gets done these days. But what, if anything, will stay the same?

In the middle of a lengthy article in the MIT Technology Review about productivity gains expected from the increased prevalence of the virtual office, Andrew McAfee offers a few interesting tidbits about what aspects of traditional working life will likely remain basically unchanged going into the coming decade. He writes that

while the physical office is changing, certain connotations of the word “office” are not. I can think of at least two — “hierarchical organization” and “place for human interaction” — and there’s no indication that these are becoming any less important. Even the most progressive high-tech companies retain many of the organizational trappings of their industrial-age predecessors: full-time managers, org charts, job descriptions, and so on. And since humans remain social animals, conventional gathering places will remain important in business…

McAfee’s idea that hierarchy and org charts are here to stay stirs up an interesting debate about whether the content of those org charts will nonetheless change due to evolving tech tools. Some feel that new collaboration tools will inevitably lead to flatter structure. On WebWorkerDaily, for example, Andy McLoughlin has argued that:

Cloud collaboration tools remove these barriers and enable everyone to connect and work with everyone else. Information can be easily shared, knowledge “gate keepers” are removed, people can see who is contributing to projects (and who isn’t) and traditional business hierarchies start to crumble. Everyone from the managers in an organization to interns can benefit from the flat structure that web-based collaboration tools are starting to nurture.

In this vision, the org chart may continue to be dutifully drawn up but going forward it will be less and less relevant to how business actually gets done, no longer really constraining or describing who works with whom.

Are you with McAfee or McLoughlin – are collaboration tools bound to flatten organizations or are traditional hierarchies here to stay?

Image courtesy of Flickr user Nils Geylen.

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8×8 Virtual Office Solo: A Business Phone Service for Individuals

Charles Hamilton — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:05:09 +0000

If you have a one-person office and are looking for an affordable telecommunications package, 8×8′s new Virtual Office Solo may be worth a look. It’s similar to the Virtual Office Pro product that I liked when I wrote about it a few months ago, but at $50 per month, the Pro version includes more features than most individuals would need.

As with its Pro cousin, Virtual Office Solo includes a dedicated business phone number (or you can port your existing number). Calls may be sent and received through any Windows or Mac web browser with Java 10.0 or higher; no additional software downloads or added plug-ins are required. Existing contacts can be imported from Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Facebook and Twitter.

When you’re away from your desk, or at certain times of day, calls can be forwarded to a mobile or home phone. The system includes voicemail, call waiting, music on hold, caller ID, three-way calling and the ability to record calls for storage as digital audio files.

Virtual Office Solo also includes some features that go beyond services like Google Voice, including unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada, web conferencing with video for up to 15 simultaneous participants, and Internet faxing. The system also includes free mobile apps that enable users to place and receive calls through iOS and Android devices while displaying their Virtual Office Solo phone number as the Caller ID.

What Solo doesn’t have is extensions and the “phone tree” or auto-attendant features of a full PBX, so it isn’t suited for multi-person enterprises. It also doesn’t have voice-to-text message transcriptions, and is not compatible with VoIP desk phones; you’ll need the more expensive Pro version to get all of these features.

Virtual Office Solo is similar in many ways to other phone services, like Google Voice, VoxOx and Grasshopper. Its feature set is perhaps closest to Grasshopper’s, but at $7.99 per month, 8×8′s service has more options and is less expensive. The product can be ordered online from the 8×8 website and activated immediately.

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Cisco Launches Virtual Office to Make Telecommuting Safer

Celeste LeCompte — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:00:21 +0000

Cisco launched its Cisco Virtual Office this morning, touting a package of hardware and services aimed at the growing number of companies that allow their employees to work remotely. The set-up includes the new Cisco 881w Series Internet Services Router and an IP phone for each employee, as well as back-end equipment for headquarters, all of which are designed to enforce company IT security policies at home.

The technology is tapping into what has become a fast-growing market. In August, a WorldAtWork survey noted that spiking gas prices have helped fuel employee interest in working from home. And companies have worked to keep up with their demands: 42 percent of U.S. companies offer telecommuting programs, up from 30 percent last year. (Maybe that’s why the latest stats from the Federal Highway Administration show that June was the eighth month in a row in which Americans drove less — 4.7 percent less than in June 2007, or 12.2 billion fewer miles.)

While we applaud the energy savings from teleworking (commuting makes up as much as 98 percent of an employee’s carbon footprint, according to Sun Microsystems), there are some downsides to the telework trend for employers. Earlier this year, Cisco released results from a study that found remote workers are increasingly cavalier about security issues, as the lines between home and work uses of technology have become more blurred. (Gartner released similar caveats in October 2006.)

Fred Kost, Cisco’s director of security solutions, points out that many employees who are trying out telecommuting for the first time are developing workarounds that amount to bad habits: taking private corporate data out of the office on mobile devices, or coming up with inventive ways to access data remotely that can leave their office computers, networks and confidential information open to viruses — or prying eyes.

The Cisco Virtual Office tries to avoid security lapses by having the employees’ router “call home” to the office and download the company’s pre-configured security settings. Employees can then dive into work without their employer worrying about the potenially “polluted” home environment, says Kost. The router lets employees separate personal Internet use from their work devices thanks to “split tunnelling”; for other devices or family members on the same Internet connection, the router won’t protect against malware on MySpace or police what kind of online video anyone’s watching.

Companies can purchase the Cisco Virtual Office system for about $700 per employee — that’s averaged out over 200 to 300 users, according to a Cisco spokesperson, and Kost says a system’s lifespan is likely three to five years. While that might sound like a pricey investment in a remote workforce, consider this: Companies estimate that they need between 100 and 150 square feet of space per full-time, in-office employee. At an average annual per-square-foot cost of just above $22 in Phoenix, about $30 in Seattle, and $97 in Midtown Manhattan (the highest in the nation), real estate costs per employee can run between $3,300 and $14,550 a year. If the technology helps companies cut back on their real estate footprints, it could be a financial blessing for them.

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Qwaq Not All It's Cracked Up to Be

Aliza Sherman — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:00:54 +0000

Call me skeptical. Call me cynical. Call me shortsighted. But I just can’t see what the new company Qwaq offers that is different or better than what is already out there. Here’s how the company describes its offering:

Qwaq, Inc. creates virtual spaces for real work. The company’s product, Qwaq Forums, is the leading secure virtual workspace application for the enterprise, and enables collaboration in ways that weren’t possible before. Designed for enterprises and groups with distributed teams, Qwaq Forums significantly increases productivity by bringing critical resources together in virtual spaces, and allowing people to work together as if they were in the same physical location.

Can someone say “Second Life?” or any other virtual world or virtual world application already out there?

I have a 30-day trial access to Qwaq, have logged into the Welcome Forum and followed the 3 minute tutorial that explained about:

moving around,
my avatar, and
documents.

I’m thinking – hey, there’s nothing to it. Simple and easy is a good thing, right?

Then as I experimented with building my own office – one with a modern, warm “decor” – I began thinking that…there’s nothing to it. Basically, you can “build” a space such as a campus, a conference room (blue for boys, rose for girls?), a gallery, a modern office (cool or warm colors), a personal office and several other configurations. Breaking it down, this is how Qwaq felt to me:

1. Moving around: I can use either my keyboard or arrows to move my avatar and view around. This is basically the same set of controls for Second Life and other virtual world environments out there, so nothing revolutionary here. Moving around as a new user is just as quirky and clunky and takes time to get used to the flow.

2. My avatar: Ugly. I look like colored boxes stacked on top of each other. It is almost embarrassing how primitive the avatars in Qwaq look. I saw a promo image of a more “custom” avatar and it consists of the photo of a person’s face on the top box that represents the avatar’s head. How can you seriously interact with a business colleague when they look like a box with their photo pasted on it?

3. Documents: This may be where Qwaq has a slight leg up over Second Life and more or less of an advantage over other virtual world environments depending on their document integration tools. On Qwaq, I simply drag a document into my virtual office space, and it appears on the office wall about a minute later, either fully readable or editable, depending on the file type.

Qwaq offers true document integration in a virtual space whereas Second Life users, for example, still struggle to find the right tools to handle a PowerPoint presentation versus a collaborative document or whiteboard. They do include voice capabilities, and although I haven’t tried it, I’m venturing to guess it is much more stable than Second Life’s voice feature.

They also have a useful feature: a 3-D pointer that works similar to a real-life laser pointer so collaborators can draw attention to something.

Despite the cool pointer, I can’t help but think that Qwaq is a watered down version of the more elegant, graphically enhanced and feature rich environments of virtual worlds. Even a cartoonish world like There.com at least has avatars that appear to be people rather than cardboard boxes. And any meeting space in Second Life that is well-designed makes Qwaq’s virtual spaces look like…cardboard boxes.

If I’m going to be doing collaborative work with my clients or team members in a virtual space, I would much prefer that space to have some degree of aesthetics in addition to functionality. Otherwise, I might as well just use 2-D collaborative Web-based tools because they simply…work.

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Lenovo X300: “an exercise in balance”

Kevin C. Tofel — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:16:41 +0000

No doubt you’ve already read a few reviews of the Lenovo X300 notebook, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to point out one more because it’s from Sal Cangeloso over at Geek.com. James and I both have the pleasure of knowing Sal; he’s a fantastic device reviewer who provides a judicious viewpoint and that’s why I enjoyed his review. Sal hits upon one of the main themes of the X300 in a way that I think our readers will appreciate:

“The ThinkPad X300 is an exercise in balance. It’s designers were tasked with balancing performance and usability with size and weight and they did an excellent job. Sacrifices were made, like the dropped expansion slot and the lack of a card reader, but on the whole the system is extremely impressive. “

Other reviewers have looked at the X300 by comparing it to other devices, which is the obvious and easy way to go. But Sal’s thought above echoes a central theme that we’ve hit here time and time again: mobile technology is about compromise. It’s a great read so if you’re considering the X300, you’ll want to hit it. Nice job, Sal. Now if we could just get Lenovo to include a small screwdriver with every purchase, I think we’d see a few more sales. ;)

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No More NBC Shows on iTunes?

Liz Gannes — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 07:47:51 +0000

NBC Universal is saying it won’t renew an agreement to sell its television shows on Apple’s iTunes, according to the New York Times.

NBC is iTunes’ No. 1 supplier of digital video to Apple’s online store, with 40 percent of total downloads. The situation has a sad irony to it, in that my favorite NBC show, The Office, was said to be saved from being canceled last year due to its unexpected popularity on iTunes. I’d been planning to download it from iTunes like I had the last two seasons, but I guess I’ll have to make other plans.

Luckily, there are increasing numbers of legal outlets to find full episodes of NBC shows online — including the yet-to-launch project NBC is involved with, now called Hulu. Die-hard fans won’t have to look too hard to find another way. But it’s silly that the content isn’t available where people like to enjoy it.

NBC is reportedly demanding more flexibility in bundling its programming together, and talks with Apple are said to be continuing, so it’s possible the iTunes situation could turn around. The original deal doesn’t expire until December, so at least the 1,500 hours of current offerings (and possibly the new fall episodes?) will be available till then.

NBC’s move follows a similar one in July by Universal Music Group to drop its long-term arrangement to sell music on Apple’s terms.

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NetFlix Watch Now Reviewed.

Om Malik — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:39:24 +0000

Jackson West over on NewTeeVee takes Netflix Watch Now for a spin, and comes back with an almost thumbs up. “It feels almost identical to browing the ‘free on-demand’ section on Comcast at my parents’ house,” he says. Sort of what I thought, except Comcast seems to be better. Horror of Horrors!

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Crank up your remote control

James Kendrick — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 15:46:20 +0000

It’s Friday and where else would we start but with a hand cranked universal remote control. You know you should be exercising instead of sitting in your easy chair watching TV and now you can do that and still get a good workout. The Clone RC 601 is a full universal remote control that can learn to control all your gadgets like your TV, DVD, SAT, VCR, TAPE & Audio. Best of all it’s run by cranking it once a week to provide all the power it needs. So go ahead, crank it up. 20 GBP.

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Gary’s on the clock

Om Malik — Sun, 15 Aug 2004 16:06:00 +0000

Finally the noose is beginning to tighten around Global (Double) Crossing promoter, Gary Winnick. The New York Times has a brilliant article in today’s edition about how Gary is now fighting with the same dudes who financed his scam. I love this quote by Judge Gerald Lynch overseeing the case: “I am prepared to look at this case as, with all respect to the people involved, a bunch of crooks getting sued by a bunch of bankers who are too dumb to stop throwing money down the toilet.” The article basically highlights the Horatio Alger type rise, fall and rise of Winnick, that fat kid from Long Island. Susan Kalla, a telecom analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey, sums up my feelings when she says, “I believe this guy has set American business culture back greatly. He wasted billions and billions of dollars that could have been spent on far more useful purposes. He’s set innovation in the industry back by a decade because he, and others like him, beat investors down so badly.” The article is a great read, even if a rehash of the old stories. If you read Broadbandits, then you are quite aware of the scope of the fraud. Anyway if you have not read Broadbandits, buy a copy.

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