Word: virtually
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...deadly confrontation yet in what Western journalists have called Algeria's ``hidden war,'' the violent campaign begun three years ago by Islamist factions against the military-dominated government that they accuse of stealing their legitimate power. The events at Serkadji prove just how much the conflict has become a virtual civil...
Welcome to the virtual office, a glimpse into the information age, which promises to change the way business does business. Some 3 million employees of U.S. companies already telecommute, performing all or part of their work away from their offices, and their numbers are increasing some 20% every year. The trend is likely to accelerate with the arrival of newer, more user- friendly technology designed specifically for mobile employees -- or ``road warriors,'' as they are called. The impact could be profound, and not necessarily all for the good. For one thing, managers and workers will have to make difficult psychological...
...transition at Chiat/Day, which announced plans in January to merge with TBWA International, was abrupt: just six months to transform the workplace from conventional to virtual. Now, employees who choose to go to the office on any given day stop at a ``concierge's desk'' in the lobby to pick up laptop computers and portable phones, which can be programmed with any employee's extension. The workers then head for any one of a dozen or so living room-like settings in a large, red-carpeted open area, plug into nearby modem jacks and get cracking. For the occasional meetings...
Though perhaps not with the flair of Chiat/Day, other big companies are also experimenting with the virtual office. IBM, at which mobility is mandatory for more than 13,000 sales, marketing, technology and administrative staff members, has outfitted these employees with PCs, printers and fax-modems, enabling them to work away from its central offices. The computer giant's Denver operation, for example, was able to reduce its office space from nine floors to four, and it projects savings of $6 million over five years...
Converting to the virtual office can be costly, however. At the CKS Group, a Cupertino, California, advertising agency, about a quarter of the agency's 160 employees work elsewhere, using the cellular phones, pagers and PDAs (personal digital assistants) supplied by CKS to help them keep in touch. Not only does the firm pay half the purchase price for a staff member's home computer, but new technology is costing CKS an additional $10,000 to $15,000 per employee each year. CKS president Mark Kvammi estimates that technology expenditures amount to about $2 million every year. And the technology...