Telecommuting (Fwd: GartnerGroup Forecasts That by 2000 Only Half of All)...
--- Begin Message --- GartnerGroup Forecasts That by 2000 Only Half of All First-Time Remote-Access
Pilot Programs Will Succeed
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 28, 1998--
Despite Higher IT Budget Costs of 63% to 157%, Remote Access
Is Increasing and Offers Competitive Advantages
Gartner Group Inc. (NASDAQ: GART) said today that only 50 percent of all
first-time remote-access pilot programs undertaken by organizations through
2000 will succeed.
Despite the risk of failures, GartnerGroup predicts that more than 137
million business users worldwide will be involved in some form of remote work
by 2003, and these remote workers (i.e., employees who work from home or off-
site) will incur information technology (IT) budget costs that are 63 percent
to 157 percent greater than those of their in-office counterparts.
Risks and higher costs notwithstanding, remote access creates
opportunities for greater competitive advantages and improved productivity
that enterprises cannot ignore if they want to survive in the next millennium.
John Girard, vice president and research director at GartnerGroup,
presented these findings during his keynote presentation, "Remote Access and
Virtual Corporations: Winning Strategy or Money Pit?" at GartnerGroup's
"Remote Access: Building and Managing the Workplace of the Future" conference
in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The conference runs from April 28 to 30.
"The fundamental laws, regulations and assumptions about employment have
yet to change in ways that address this coming mass exodus from the office,"
Mr. Girard said. "Basic employment laws still define work as being performed
in managed locations by groups of employees who can be directly supervised for
all or a large part of their work time. Organizations must adequately address
issues of supervision and morale, legal liability, occupational safety,
productivity metrics, security and cost."
"Remote access is not a reversible trend," he stressed. "Organizations
must anticipate growing remote-access requirements and modify their business
processes and IT budgets to compensate for new work paradigms and to take
advantage of the increasingly competitive benefits of virtual work styles as
well as opportunities to reduce pollution."
Since IT costs for supporting remote workers are higher than for
supporting in-office workers, Mr. Girard recommends that IS organizations
reconcile the high costs of remote access - which include equipment, support
and network charges - with justifications based on business unit goals,
improved productivity and hard-dollar savings in non-IT areas, such as
facilities management.
"There's a fallacy of assuming that remote access can be justified based
on cost savings - although, to some extent, new costs can be lowered through
incorporating efficient policies," he said. "In the future, when remote access
becomes mainstream, the major benefit will be having the right employees in
the right place so that they can capitalize on business opportunities as they
arise."
About GartnerGroup's Remote Access Conference GartnerGroup's first-ever
Remote Access Conference is being held concurrently with the seventh annual
International Virus Prevention Conference, which is sponsored by the
International Computer Security Association (formerly, the National Computer
Security Association). The Remote Access conference is the first of its kind
to explore not just the technology behind remote access, but also the costs
and business process changes needed to make the transition from commuting to
telecommuting.
About GartnerGroup
As the world's leading authority on IT, GartnerGroup provides clients
with a wide range of products and services in the areas of IT advisory
services, measurement, research, decision support, analysis, consulting and
training. Founded in 1979, with headquarters in Stamford, Conn., GartnerGroup
is at the center of a global community of more than 11,086 client
organizations served by analysts in 80 locations worldwide. GartnerGroup's
unique capabilities and resources help bring clarity to the direction of the
world's hottest and most volatile industry. Additional information about the
company is available on the World Wide Web at www.gartner.com
CONTACT:
GartnerGroup, Stamford, Conn.
Carol Wallace, 203/316-3575
E-mail: carol -dot- wallace -at- gartner -dot- com
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