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RSS feedsAs floods and fuel shortages brought the UK's transport network to a standstill in recent weeks, many people welcomed the opportunity of a few free days off. Others, however, sat down at their home computers and did a full day's work.
The UK's teleworking revolution has been silent and pervasive, with the quietest group of all being those working in virtual teams. For a small but growing band, the idea of working offsite on projects is not just a perk, it's a way of life.
Teleworking technologies aren't rocket science. Email, the web and IRC enable collaborative, virtual working at a fairly sophisticated level, even over standard dial-up links.
Digitally enhanced telephone networks offer facilities such as conference calling and call diversion throughout most of the UK. Tasks can be delegated, files can be shared, information can be disseminated, meetings can be held.
As the increased bandwidth of ISDN, ADSL and cable becomes more common, so will more collaborative applications such as desktop videoconferencing and real-time, simultaneous file sharing.
It's no surprise that the next step in the teleworking revolution has been the creation of virtual teams. If individuals can work remotely, then why not whole groups of workers?
A flexible workforce
At first glance, the benefits seem considerable for all concerned. Companies gain the flexibility to put together teams of skilled workers irrespective of the geographical locations of individual members. Organisations with multiple offices can make best use of workers' skills across the disparate locations.
With a proportion of home-based workers, companies can save on overheads such as office space and electricity bills. Better still, if they use virtual contract workers, they can bring in people to work on projects on an 'as needed' basis.
Workers gain more autonomy over how and where they work. Contractors can work simultaneously on different projects for different teams, irrespective of the geographical locations of their various employers.
If it was really that one-sided, we'd all be doing it. In truth, virtual teamworking is only possible for those in the knowledge-based industries, particularly those on the technical side of IT and networking.
Here, virtual working technologies are all-pervasive and many workers are quite happy sitting in front of a screen all day, with only email and IRC chat to keep them company. Even then, many employees still prefer to work in an office.
Virtual teams present other significant challenges. First of all, organisations that believe they can lay off all their full-time staff and rely solely on a pool of 'virtual' contractors are generally living in cloud-cuckoo-land.
Virtual team at Unisys
Unisys uses a virtual team to manage its Cisco specialists across Europe - some working in regional offices, others at client sites, others at home - but they are all full-time Unisys employees.
Steve Smith, head of the team, says: "Big clients get nervous if you're using people that you don't have any real responsibility for. If you just pull a few people together for a project you can't always guarantee the quality. We do employ contractors on occasion, but it's much better if you have a core of people you can call on."
It is becoming easier for organisations to put together virtual teams of contractors for specific projects while retaining control over the quality of those workers. Companies such as Elance and Smarterwork are already acting as online agencies for virtual workers, providing additional services including vetting the skills of those offering their services.
Elance chairman and chief executive Eric Roach says: "The first way to determine quality is by the online portfolios posted by the participants, showing resumes and samples of their work. We also list all their credentials - and have rigorous systems to check those are genuine."
Social isolation
Another reason limiting the spread of virtual teamworking is that it just doesn't suit everyone. First, there's the problem of social isolation.
"The lack of face-to-face team meetings can be a downside," says Unisys's Smith. "If a person isn't a good communicator they become isolated. Occasionally you have to move people out of these teams because they just fade away and you never hear from them."
Some companies find the concept completely unworkable for this reason. Kate Gard, of web design agency Design Net, says: "It is difficult to communicate effectively as a team, working from home. Getting to know each other as friends and colleagues is vital to our business, and find it difficult to comprehend how some companies work in this isolated manner."
Scott Blake is security programme manager at US-based risk management company BindView. He manages a virtual team of security experts spread throughout the US (and one man in London) looking for vulnerabilities in software.
"To really have a good working relationship with someone you have to have met them," he says. "I've only ever hired one employee without them first meeting the rest of the team, and there was a very noticeable difference in the degree of productivity and collaboration."
A lack of self-discipline
Others do not have the self-discipline to manage themselves effectively. "Quite a few security researchers are very young - the stereotypical hacker kid," says Blake.
"I have a pretty strong policy, based on past experience, that I won't let those people work virtually because they need more direction. Virtual teams work best with professional people who are fairly senior, because as a manager you don't have a clear idea of what people are doing on a day-to-day basis."
Fraser Paterson is practice manager for ebusiness architecture at solutions and services company Getronics UK. He manages virtual teams across the company's intranet and agrees that virtual workers need to be highly self-disciplined.
"Small, focused teams with a clear objective are the biggest beneficiaries. It's based on common understanding and trust. Everybody needs to understand their role and that if they don't fulfil it they let other people down," he says.
Paterson, Blake and Smith all point out that there are ways around such management and human interaction problems, and all believe the benefits of virtual teams mean it's worth persevering to overcome such obstacles.
Clearly, so do many others. Elance's website has been up and running for about a year, and already $40m worth of work has passed through the site.
Roach says: "We are huge supporters of this ability to construct virtual teams that come together to solve a problem and then disband."
He says that some people start a project by first picking a project manager, who will then go out and find all the necessary resources to fill the demands of the given project.
"However, we had a guy designing a site that was a little bit like Napster and Amazon mixed together, called Pyke.com. First, he tried to get the work done locally, but it would have cost over $100,000."
Elance split it into separate projects. A group in Italy did the logo design work, the site design in Yugoslavia, building of the user interface in Kiev, the database engine in India, the business plans were written in Canada and some other stuff was done in the US. The whole project cost about $12,000.
Contractors' fears
While the prospect of these kind of savings will have many managers eagerly anticipating the arrival of the virtual organisation, such significant cost differentials worry many Western IT professionals - particularly contractors who fear competition from workers in poorer parts of the world will force them out of business.
Roach says: "I think that's an issue and I don't want to belittle it. In a global economy, we all have to find our place. But we're too quick to only look at this from the perspective of someone in the West. Companies, such as Elance, are empowering workers in poorer countries to sell their services all over the world.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle facing the widespread adoption of virtual team working is the seismic shift that will be needed in the UK's working culture. The technology may be here, and improving, but virtual teams are likely to remain elite groups within organisations that are by and large structured in the traditional fashion.
Virtual teams may be beneficial for certain organisations, certain projects and certain people, and we're going to see more and more of them as these benefits become clear.
But until technology can give us the same feeling of social cohesion that many people feel in the workplace and without having to learn a new way of communicating, virtual teams will not usurp traditional team working.
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See also:
Napster, the website, was built as a central host for users wishing to swap MP3 music files. It has sparked an almighty legal battle over its legitamacy and has changed the way people obtain music. 01 May 2001All IT Management
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