The FT yesterday had a report which perfectly illustrates the global ebb and flow of transactional work that can be easily done anywhere thanks to technology.

The report tells of several Indian Call Centre outsourcers who are now looking for shifting their location of operations from being entirely in India to elsewhere. In particular it reported that it is cheaper to hire Hispanic Americans than Indians. The sluggish US economy, increasing use of US homebased call centre staff and rising Indian salaries as well as the growing influence of labour protectionism in the States is said to be the drivers.

However, the phenomenon is not confined to the US alone. Wipro, the Bangalore-based IT outsourcing company, started to recruit workers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa during the global economic downturn. Wipro Technologies, forecasts that half of the company’s overseas workforce will be non-Indians in two years, from the current 39 per cent. 

What we see here for outsourced call centres is what may well happen with many other business processes and we should note that cost per transaction will inevitably rule in the long term. The lesson surely for us in the UK and Europe is that we need to ensure our processes and customer service are of the highest standards and couple these with the lowest infrastructure cost of operation we can derive, even if it means more home working. Otherwise we may yet see call centre wages drop to a globally low commodity base in a few years time.

Today we hear of the government’s plans to reduce the subsidies on rail travel and the consequent prospect of rail journeys increasing by 1% more than inflation. With current inflation rising to 5% on RPI, commuters face the prospect of 6% increases next year in season tickets to the capital.

Surely the attraction of being able to work one or two days a week from home has increasing benefits to staff, benefits to businesses who can improve the efficiency of their property utilisation and benfits to congestion and carbon footprint.

So how long will it be before agile work policies emerge that further encourage changes in where work can be done?

It amazes me that such an obvious strategic issue is not at the forefront of every business strategy and considered at the board level of every business that relies on mass commuting.

Perhaps at long last we may see a new dawn.

Graham

I might not be a Generation Y, but I do like to think that what I do each day has a use and is meaningful. I also like to think that I can achieve what I am doing without wasting time and energy transporting myself rather than my ideas.

I do work from home quite a bit and the nature of the work involves quite a bit or reading, thinking and writing; but I don’t work alone. Most of the projects we work on in AWA involve a number of people, both AWA’ers and clients.

So how do we achieve this? Well, for us, we use a lot of email, Skype for instant messaging and telephone calls and for sharing screen shots of reports, spreadsheets and presentations.

Indeed this latter facility is great. Over a couple of Skype meetings a complete client presentation was collaboratively developed from scratch. No need for travel and done at almost zero cost apart from our time.

Now why is it that small companies such as ours can use off the shelf technologies that are here and now whereas large corporates present all sorts of blockages to their staff to use such tools in the office? I use business and private social networking, technical online conferences and webcasts to keep up to date and to ask for help on some technicality or to test an idea.

I do appreciate that there are security issues that a large corporate needs to be more sensitive to, but I do believe that much is to do with the mindset that exists in controlling IT.

It is surely time for IT and business management to be as operationally innovative as the technology they employ.

Graham Jervis

We are surely now at a stage in technological history where we need to re-assess what an office is, and what it needs to look like? Much of what was required, no more than a few years ago, is no longer needed by most users…

Let’s take the ‘workstation’ to pieces…right here and now, and see how much we can throw out…? Call it a ‘spring clean’ maybe?

The desktop phone…do we need it? No – virtually everyone has a mobile. The myth that it will kill your braincells has been trounced. And then there is VoIP. Many of us can make calls direct over the internet, at zero cost…

OK, so the desk phone is gone….

The desktop PC…do we need it? No – everyone wants, or has, a laptop. That means they can work anywhere – within the office, different settings, as well as outside, with customers, at home, etc…

OK, so the desktop PC is gone…(OK, for all but the most intensive users, like traders, IT specialists, programmers etc)

For most office-based people, what’s left?? The screen… OK, useful – if I want to work all day on a spreadsheet, or trading function, or whatever. But who sits at a desk, using the screen, all day?? Not many….? So the FM needs one bank of desks with large screens available to connect to? That’s it….

OK, so now the screen has gone too…

So now we have laptop, mobile phone (or VoIP headset) and a desk….

But if you were in your ideal workplace, would it be a desk? Mine would be a large sofa, or ergonomically designed “deck chair” on a patio, with a coffee machine and the radio on…..

If you’re in the office, do you need a desk, or just somewhere to sit for different tasks. You need to make a phone call, or online meeting – go into a ‘booth’. You need a meeting, walk over to the ‘break-out’ area. Confidential? – book a room. Just working on a report – sit on the sofa, with a laptop….hey, where is the desk in any of those scenarios?

In fact, if you have a desk, and you do the things above, your ‘normal’ workstation sits there all day, jacket on chair, screen probably switched on, Docking station plugged in, etc…what a waste! 

So what IS the contemporary office? Its but a large room, or rooms, for a bunch of people to get together and swap information, and get things done. It is just a room – doesn’t need desks, desktop phones, PCs….just places to get together, and do stuff…..

I know that retirement ages are increasing but don’t be alarmed. You won’t be working in 2000 years time but by the year 2020 many people beyond current retirement age will be supplementing pensions and in demand by business. The current coalition government intend to scrap the Default Retirement Age (DRA) and it is highly likely that the right to request flexible working will be extended as the Tories want to see it cover all parents with children under 18 while the Lib Dems want all staff to have the right.

A recent report called Visions of Britain 2020, by Friends Provident and the Future Foundation, predicts that workers aged between 55 and 70, who may currently feel marginalised in the employment market, will be in a much stronger position in 2020, while inexperienced graduates will need to become ever more entrepreneurial to find work.

There are currently over 5 million older workers in employment but by 2020 this will have risen to over 7 million. Most expert also agree that UK  business will see a skill shortage by 2020 and the lack of talent and increasing values being put on experience will strongly favour the older worker.

But there is also another consequence of the growing number of aged – the emergence of a third group of people which the report terms as the “sandwich generation” – a generation of employees who have responsibilities not only for children but for aging parents.

This will also force employers to consider how flexible working arrangements can assist in enabling employees to balance these additional needs.

Graham Jervis

At a time when public attention is being focussed by government on the need to address the deficit, a recent survey “The State of Total Rewards Integration” by WorldatWork and Mercer of 741 multinational corporations shows that 59% claim that work-life initiatives are a part of their total reward package.

Flexible working schedules, extra holiday and sabbaticals, wellness programmes etc now form part of the total package despite many corporations seeing lower business revenues in the last 12 months. Most organisations in the survey believe that they need to address the work-life requirements in order to retain high performers and to attract the best skilled people.

So will staff in the public sector trade some of their salary for low cost work-life balance benefits? Will the public sector be able to gain a double benefit from agile working by reducing occupancy costs and by offering better work-life balance opportunities instead of salary rises? It will require a very well articulated engagement with staff in order to be successful.

 Graham Jervis

We at AWA have been taking a view of what the future holds for our economy, jobs and workplaces. Fresh upon challenging presentations by Mark Wood (ex CEO of Prudential) and Graeme Leach, Chief Economist, Institute of Directors, this week at our first session of the 2020 Vision Programme comes the news that IBM are considering changing the entire face of their employment in the next 7 years.

ComputerWeekly.com reports a conversation between Tim Ringo, head of IBM human capital management, and Personnel Today in which he says that IBM is considering the option of replacing some 299,000 permanent jobs in the company by much fewer short term contracts employed for the duration of specific projects. This would leave IBM with just 100,000 permanent positions and significant change its need for supporting infrastructure.

Sourcing jobs and carrying out projects through the internet is not new and for many involved in IT developments such as Linux show that it is possible to create and deliver great products and services this way. The continual competitive pressure upon costs and the presence of these newer business models will mean that staff costs and inflexible costs of infrastructure such as buildings will have to be dramatically reduced.

But there will be conflicting pressures. European employment law will prove difficult to square. Mark Lewis, partner and head of outsourcing at law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, said that “”If you make someone redundant you are saying that their position is no longer required. But then you are going to sub-contract the work back to you.”

However, there is possibly a way around this is if there is an economic, technical or organisational reason for making them redundant, he said.

IBM have since denied that they have plans in place to do this; but it is interesting that they should be willing to expose their thinking unless they are testing public and commercial reaction.

So, are we seeing the serious start of a potential major change in which service businesses are carried out?

What IBM and IT suppliers can do, many other service companies can do also. The savings could be immense and have a great benefits in terms of corporate flexibility as well as having a fundamental change in workplace strategies.

Graham Jervis

I am grateful to Paul Allsopp for drawing my attention to a number of articles about the way in which businesses have reacted to the disruption to air travel caused by the volcano. I thought that some of the points were worthwhile collating here.

Suppliers have seen an almost immediate increase in demand for both audio and video conferencing from major organisations who were unable to meet with international clients and whose senior management were stranded around the world. BT claim that they had a 35% increase in demand for teleconferencing, 80% of which was for audio and the remaining 20% for video. Deutsche Telekom responded by providing local businesses with access to their own teleconferencing suites and Skype reported a high demand for their services over the period. In one case, a couple stranded in Dubai decided to televise their wedding vows over a Skype video conference to guests gathered for their wedding ceremony in England. (Ref.1)

It is interesting how one executive described how they dealt with the problems (Ref 2)

“The volcanic ash issue has significantly affected organisations like ours, where a key part of our value proposition is bringing the best of our firm globally to the client. We do a significant amount of travel – and have a number of people (myself included) “stranded”. We’ve put several key actions in place:

• We’re thinking creatively about travel alternatives, chartering a plane to Barcelona for key European partners stranded in the US
• We’ve block booked videoconference facilities in major geographies, enabling us to conduct a higher proportion of client meetings virtually
• Teams of people are travelling together, sharing long driving distances
• We’re communicating as much as possible, asking people in each region to get in touch every three hours with status reports and options for travel
• We have a dedicated group working on long-term contingency planning – answering the question “what if things don’t improve in a week, or a month… or longer?”)
• The potential impact is significant. Delaying client assignments means delayed revenues, and the risk of mismanaging client expectations”

The teleconference industry expects that the recent events will greatly increase the interest in teleconference provision within international companies.

1. Ref: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/technology/20video.html?scp=1&sq=videoconferencing&st=cse

2. Ref: http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2010/04/20/55290/volcano-update-seven-things-employers-should-be-doing.html

Graham Jervis

In a week that has seen air travel completely stopped in Europe and total confusion about how decisions are made over the adverse effects of natural events this blog is directed at the impact of mobile technology at a much more local level.

Gartner have recently published their views on developing technologies that will enhance the use of mobile devices in business as we come out of recession. Many are directed to consumer uses but some have a potential impact upon the way in which we could all work and use our offices. The following developments seem to me worth thinking about if we, as FM’s and Real Estate managers, are seeking to develop our future workplace strategic plans.

1. M2M (machine to machine) technologies enable applications which include meter reading, security/surveillance, automotive systems, vending and point of sale, remote monitoring, and track and trace. Many network service providers increased their commitment to machine to machine (M2M) in 2009, so a good range of both national and multinational M2M service options will be available in mature markets during 2010 and 2011.This should enable greater integration and automation for building services support, lower costs and improve value.
2. Enhanced Location Awareness. By the end of 2011, over 75 percent of mobile devices shipped will include a GPS. GPS will be the primary, but not the only, means of establishing handset location. Wi-Fi and cell ID systems will remain important in situations where GPS is unavailable or unreliable. There are obvious privacy issues that need to be sensitively addressed but such location awareness can have important benefits in dealing with emergency situations and in understanding the way in which business mobility impacts upon use of physical assets.
3. Cellular broadband. During 2010 and 2011, the availability of multimegabit wireless broadband performance will continue to grow as mobile networks enhance their broadband performance. Continuous improvements in wireless broadband performance will increase the range of applications that no longer require fixed networking. Embedded cellular networking will become a standard feature of many corporate laptops and greatly reduce the reliance on physical networking within the office.
4. The Mobile Web. By 2011, over 85 percent of handsets shipped globally will include some form of browser. In mature markets, such as Western Europe and Japan, approximately 60 percent of handsets shipped will be smartphones with sophisticated browsing capability. The ability for service suppliers to interact directly with clients corporate web enabled systems will grow as the new devices replace older types.
5. Bluetooth 3 and 4. Two new Bluetooth versions will emerge by 2011: Bluetooth 3 will allow faster data transmission, and Bluetooth 4 will introduce a new low-energy (LE) mode that will enable communication with external peripherals and sensors. Gartner believes that Bluetooth 3 will facilitate corporate and consumer functions demanding large bandwidth (e.g., downloading images and videos from handsets). Bluetooth LE will enable a range of new sensor-based business models in industries such as fitness, healthcare and environmental control and will be used by handset and PC peripherals to enable new functions, such as PCs that autolock when users move away from them – another means of measuring workstation use.

These are encouraging developments that further weaken workers ties to a physical workstation and speed the response of mobile workers to deal with problems. However, they are no substitute for having a clear vision of the way in which mobility is to work in your business and for those organisations that develop such clear visions and strategies they will enable them to grasp the early advantages they offer.

Graham Jervis

Desktop Virtualisation is a technology that soon will enable many people to work at any desk anywhere, and use all their usual applications in the same way as they would do if they were to remain at the same desk each day. The impact will be great in terms of increasing desk utilisation and offer real benefits in terms of churn and lower accommodation costs as well as providing a robust menas of addressing business continuity.

http://www.fm-world.co.uk/features/feature-articles/desk-hopping/

What are your experience and views?

Graham Jervis