Managing Expectations

Soft management issues such as this remain a challenge for companies that allow telecommuting. When HP announced earlier this year that it was going to reduce the opportunity for telecommuting among its IT workers and bring people together to work in centralized locations, it was condemned for what many people saw as a backwards step. A CIO (US) blog led by Thomas Wailgum, however, drew the following anonymous posting: "Instead of always just thinking 'me', you may want to look at telecommuting from the perspective of workforce development. How do you grow your workforce when there is no one around to do the mentoring? Unfortunately I know a number of folks who've never grown up and because of lax management just can't be depended upon to take it upon themselves to be productive," the blog stated.

HP's Hood believes it is imperative that an agreement is created between employer and telecommuter to set out exactly what is expected from each party so that there are fewer grounds for complaint on either side.

IT staff meanwhile have to be far more productive because of the additional demands of remote access: maintaining good systems hygiene as far as virus scans, backup, patches, usage policies and education programs are concerned. They are also squeezed when it comes to scheduling maintenance on a system that is used around the clock.

Similarly remote users demand support around the clock. Clayton Utz is heading towards always-on support. "We run 8.00am to 6.00pm and we have people who then take a laptop and mobile home for support. We are just trialling a 7.00am to 2.00pm shift. But I suspect it won't be long until we have to have 24x7 support," Clarke says.

"Ultimately we will see a redefinition of the workplace," Hood says. "Sitting in rows doing transactions is slipping away. Offices now are there to define who we are, the spirit of the company - the buzz. Our role is to create those things that can't take place anywhere else."

Hood's role is to orchestrate the technical solutions, environment, change management and workplace services that people require to do their jobs, wherever that may be. Both he and HP's CIO, Randy Mott, report into the company's finance group. Hood acknowledges that providing remote access to some CIOs is all about cost. "But this is part of a total infrastructure that will eventually lead to reduced costs and higher achievement."

SIDEBAR: Stellar Service at Stella

During his tenure as CIO for hospitality chain Stella Resorts, Geoff Lazberger always kept in mind the needs of his users - both employees and visitors - when he overhauled the information systems of the group. His challenge was to provide divisionalized information systems to support each resort (some of which required only a property management system, while others needed access to the corporate backbone), access for local and remote users, and a robust corporate information system that had aggregated up-to-date information detailing the performance and activities of all the resorts.

Wireless networks for guests have been installed in many resorts, which offer conference services to support conference delegates. Lazberger also made wireless access available to those employees who could prove a business case for having remote access through a VPN to the Stella systems.

To get remote access to the system would-be users had to approach their business unit manager, who then would put forward a business case to Lazberger. It was part of the risk management process because, as Lazberger says, "providing wireless access from home introduces a threat point between their home and our network".

"Security certainly is the trade-off when providing remote access. There is no point in making security so tight that you can't operate, but you don't want such low security that you are compromised. It's the CIO's job to weigh that up."

Educating system users about the need to protect information security was a particular challenge for the company because it employs a high number of transient workers in its resorts. These workers Lazberger says were inclined to have "low levels of sensitivity" to IT due process.