Germany is the European country where home-based teleworking accounts for the major part of teleworking in general.
Among the largest banking institutions in Germany, the Dresdner Bank group employs 46 425 people serving 5.9 million customers.
The bank offers female staff the possibility of working from home during their maternity leave (on an alternating system). The Dresdner Bank has deliberately opted for this alternating system whereby the employees in question work from home for most of the time but return regularly to the office for work meetings and discussions with their superiors or colleagues.
The teleworkers specialise in data processing and the development of information systems and computer applications. In addition, one of them practises teleworking as a flexible form of work organisation in her capacity of stockbroker.
Home-based teleworking in the group started with a specific demand on th part of the female personnel interested in the poissibility of continuing working during their maternity leave. This can last up to 3 years in Germany, while the professional activity of women expecting children is limited to 19 hours per week.
In the case of part-time work of 54 hours per day, the time spent in commuting may amounnt to as much as 2 hours. The chance of working from home rather than travelling to the office constitutes a rational alternative.
Two factors lay behind behind the teleworking feasibility study:<
· a demand on the part of employees who wished to keepi working during their maternity leave
· interest on the part of the bank in retaining the know-how of its personnel.
To satisfy these reauirments, the bank initiated a programme in mid-1992 for the creation of 10 telework positions.
The personnel concerned are qualified professionals who have been working in the bank for several years. They are thus not simply people who are well integrated into the company but employees possessing largely proven skills and experience.
Other criteria considered in creating these posts were:
· willingness and desire on the part of the employee for working mainly from home during maternity leave (teleworker-based)
· readiness of the teleworker's superior to encourage this choice (management-based)
· an established relationship of total confidence between superior and subordinate
· conformity (major factor) of the employee's personal and professional qualities with the set profile and the amount of experience acquired in the areas concerned
· the relocatable nature of the tasks.
The teleworking project was launched at the request of the employees and designed by project managers belonging to the group's organisation division. Complying with the wishes of the personnel, only volunteers were authorised to practise teleworking.
The development of this particular teleworking model was achieved on the basis of close collaboration between the Management and the employees. The implementation of the project was preceded by a series of work sessions during which the individual objectives and motivation of the employees were expressed. The guidelines resulting from these discussions were then put to the vote, together with the project planning schedule and timetable.
Personnel representatives taking part in these meetings were assured by the employees that teleworking was a form of work that offered many advantages and that they wanted to be able to opt for this type of work organisation. It was on this basis that an agreement was concluded with the company.
All employees of the bank occupying the position of teleworker enjoy security of employment. They work up to 19 hours a week for the duration of their maternity leave in accordance with the terms of a legal contract and on the basis of fixed salary schedules.
The legal basis for conditions governing teleworking is defined in an annexe convention on teleworking and in a part-time work contract. All the texts were drafted by the personnel department.
The bank takes complete charge of equipping the workplace in the home of the employee, who thus incurs no expense whatever.
The bank has adopted the principle that home-based teleworkers should have the same equipment at home as at their workstation on the bank's premises.
During the preparatory phase, a specialist in work safety advised the volunteers on the ergonomic aspect of the workstation, the aim being to facilitate the adaptation of the workstation to suit each individual home, while ensuring that the individual requirements of the employees were taken into consideration.
The workstations were fitted with a PC, a printer and a unit combining the functions of telephone, fax and answering machine. The PCs are connected to the bank's LAN via an ISDN network. The teleworker thus has access to the entire range of applications, which in the case of teleworking are confined to software development. Having said this, the teleworkers are barred from access to actual banking applications (transactions).
The general rule is that the teleworker is only allowed to use software supplied by the bank. The equipment is reserved for the work done by the employee. In addition, the telephone subscription is in the name of the bank and the use of the phone is strictly for professional purposes only. Lastly, each teleworker employed by the bank signs a confidentiality and data security agreement.
As mentioned earlier, the teleworkers were carefully prepared for carrying out their telework.
Those concerned were already able to master the techniques employed, so this aspect of the training caused no problem in that they were specialists in data processing and software development.
In the initial phases, as the system had been designed together with the employees, it was ensured that their ideas on the innovation and theeir expectations of this work method had been taken into consideration.
During the experimental stage of the project, a regular exchange between the project manager and the teleworkers enabled problems to be dealt with as they cropped and changes to be made to the system to strengthen it. It was observed that when a problem arose, it was not uncommon for the employees to consult one another by telephone for mutual help in finding a solution.
There has been no change in the content nor in the tasks: the teleworkers carry out the same specialised work as before.
In regard to working conditions, no changes for the worse have been observed. On the contrary, the disappearance of disturbances due especially to repeated phone calls in the office has made for improved concentration at home.
Changes occurring in the length of time worked have nothing to do with teleworking but are bound up with the rules laid down for working hours during maternity leave. In Germany, working time for employees in this situation is limited by law to 19 hours per week.
The normal length of the working day in the bank and the laws governing working time have to be respected. In this context, employees are completely free to spread their working hours at home as they think fit and they submit hand-written reports on their work schedules.
Teleworkers agree with their superiors on an individual basis how their working time is to be divided between the office and the teleworking site. The normal practice is for the teleworker to spend a full day at the company's premises once every two weeks for work sessions or co-ordination meetings.
There is agreement between the views of these female teleworkers and the experience of their superiors on the fact that teleworking enhances productivity.
All those concerned testify to the improvement in work performance bound up with the employees' high degree of motivation. Their superiors confirm that relocation has raised no obstacle affecting collaboration with the teleworkers. The management has observed the performance of these workers with satisfaction and has been unable to note any decrease in productivity.
Some fears were expressed prior to the launch of the project that teleworking would call for stronger co-ordination and command measures, but experience has not borne out these fears.
In regard to management style, no significant changes have been observed by those at the top. The fact is that a system of management by objective and verification of work performance was already being practised prior to the teleworking experiment.
From the bank's point of view, teleworking is an excellent means of retaining the services of qualified employees. This applies in particular to professions where technological change is swift and where too long a break in activity can cause re-insertion difficulties (as is the case at the end of a 3-year maternity leave).
Among female teleworkers, being able to better reconcile their family and professional life is seen as a highly positive factor. The greatest advantage put forward by these young mothers concerns the care of their children. Although they are unable to do this while they carry out their professional actities, teleworking makes it possible to organise the care in a far more flexible manner. Nevertheless, except in one case only, it transpires that female teleworkers need the services of a third person or outside institution for looking after their children so as to be able to work undisturbed.
The savings in time by not having to commute is also regarded by employees as a positive point. The time formerly spent on travelling, which could amount to up to 2 hours, can now be devoted to child care.
The elimination of travelling times and commuting costs means less fatigue and greater financial benefits for employees.
As already mentioned, teleworking has not brought about any change in contractual conditions or salaries. Neither have there appeared any negative effects due to teleworking on the professional career or domestic life of employees.
The experience of the female stockbroker described above clearly shows the positive aspect. Having considered teleworking primarily as a temporary solution on the arrival of her first child and wishing to return to work at the office as soon as possible, she found the experience of teleworking so advantageous that she decided not only to continue along the same lines but also to have a second child.
The organisation and co-ordination of the conditions in which the teleworkers conduct their activities are largely based on project management methods and personal choice.
The introduction of teleworking called for absolutely no change in these co-ordination and organisation measures. The employees carry out the tasks they can accomplish alone at home and exchange results with their colleagues and superiors.
Communication between workstations and the head office is effected by telephone, fax or the e-mail system accessible to all relocated or centralised workplaces.
The supervision and management of employees are effected by means of personal contact and sometimes telephone contact. Management and control are directed towards the results of the work and the objectives to be reached. A similar situation existed before teleworking was introduced, which thus obviated the need to make any changes in management methods.
As previously mentioned, the experiment that has been positively experienced by the employees is aimed at reconciling the demands of family life more effectively with the requirements of working life.
The fear expressed by some of the teleworkers involved that teleworking would cut down harmfully on their social relations has not been justified. Just as before, they feel they are accepted by their colleagues as full members of the personnel. It is also their colleagues who keep them up to date on happenings in the company.
The close links built up while they were working at head office have been maintained.
Teleworking offers those involved the possibility of continuing to be regarded and recognised as active, qualified working women, while permitting them to assume the role of mother. This was strongly put forward as a positive point by the workers concerned. The acceptance of their role as described above was of special importance among their colleagues and within the family circle.
The Würtemburg insurance groupis among the leaders in this sector in Germany. Its range oforpoducts embraces life insurance, pension insurance, insurance against loss and damage, accident insurance, insurance covering the protection of rights and reinsurance.
It serves 2.5 million clients and runs 6.5 million contracts. In addition to its head office in Stuttgart, Würtembourg insurance is represented not only in numerous towns in Germany through agencies and branches but also abroad in Europe? It has a total of over 5 000 Employees and close on 21 000 representatives.
Within this insurance company, it is once again the alternating system of teleworking that has been adopted. The teleworkers carry out their tasks at home and pay periodical visits to the office for meetings and for collecting work documents. As in the former case study, it is also female employees on maternity leave who are involved.
Unlike the previous example, though, the telework offer was deliberately confined to the period of maternity leave. It is explicitly provided for that employees working from home during their maternity leave are expected return to their office once the period of leave has expired to resume work on a full-time basis.
The processing of new offers and management of insurance contracts are among the tasks mainly subject to teleworking. Because of the high degree of automation (the files are computerised), all the procedures are computerised. Employees may obtain access to all protected information they require and to all available procedures such as those for handling new offers ranging from the preliminary study up to the insurance policy itself. They have the possibility of handling all files at home on their own.
The need to have qualified people available for carrying out specialised tasks was behind the installation of teleworking posts within the company. This need for qualified personnel made itself felt at the time when commercial activities were extended to the new länder after reunification in Germany. Around this particular period, several experienced employees in charge of handling new offers went off on maternity leave. The remaining personnel in this sector was inadequate for coping with the considerably increased volume of work.
In this context, the personnel department joined forces with the department concerned and the works committee to study the possibility of using the services of employees temporarily free from duty (women on maternity leave). Those concerned were asked whether they would agree to continue working part-time from home during their period of leave. Having generated interest among these employees, the proposal was quickly put into practice.
The design and installation of the first telework stations took place in September 1991. The project was speedily implemented in a practical manner in view of the urgent need for manpower. A pilot experiment was set up with four telework posts. The results were deemed positive and were followed by the installation of 15 workstations in January 1992.
This type of teleworking is available to all employees on maternity leave. It is freely offered by the department heads, who are the only ones qualified to decide whether it is necessary for the company and whether the tasks concerned can suitably be relocated. In addition, great importance is attached to the fact that teleworking applies only to employees who are experienced, qualified and well integrated into the company. Once these criteria have been fulfilled, the setting up of a teleworking post can be authorised and prepared in agreement with the personnel concerned and the insurance file processing department.
The contractual rules and social rights covered by full-time employment contracts apply equally in the case of part-time employment contracts. An amendment to the work contract specifies a limited time for teleworking and part-time activity. The teleworking agreement provides for the right for either party to terminate the contract with a week's notice.
Employees are guaranteed a return to their job on the company's premises after a maximum absence of four and a half years (over and above the legal duration of 3 years' maternity leave, the company offers the possibility of a one-year extension).
The works committee has been involved in the project from the very start and excellent co-operation has been established between Management and representatives of the personnel. With the conviction that teleworking was a working method of benefit to all, the works committee supported the project and its implementation and signed a global agreement with the company's management governing teleworking activities.
Re-insertion of the employee in her former job on the company's premises, in other words, limiting her teleworking activity to the duration of her maternity leave, is looked on by the works committee as a highly important feature of the system.
This example constitutes a rare case of effective collaboration between the management and the works committee of a business firm.
The employees work at home in a specially arranged teleworking area and are free to decide on the location of this area. For example, the company does not check the employee's home to find out whether there is a separate room for teleworking. Furniture and other equipment are provided by the company and guaranteed to meet ergonomic requirements.
The employee receives a fixed monthly sum of 150 DM to cover the costs of telephone and electrical installations. The company is responsible for telecommunication and technical maintenance charges.
The company's female teleworkers are all experienced staff, mostly old-established employees with a perfect command of the computer applications and techniques made available to them at their workplace. They are also in the habit of carrying out their tasks independently. All this means that no specific training in teleworking appears to be called for.
At the present time, this type of teleworking concerns the entire field of special processing in the insurance sector. In other words, it embraces the majority of the company's personnel.
The high degree of automation of work procedures in the field of specialised processing and a heavy shortage of experienced specialists were the decisive factors in the present case. It is for this reason that no changes were made to the work content or the actual tasks. All employees remained within their field of competence.
The change in working hours that took place was not so much due to teleworking as to the legislation governing activities carried on during maternity leave. During this period, employees are subject to the laws governing working hours (never to exceed 19 hours per week).
The employees organise their working hours as they wish but are nevertheless compelled to adapt these to the period of availability of the central computers which extends from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m at the latest.
Those in charge of the programme have been able to observe a increase in productivity among the teleworkers. This seems to be bound up with the fact that in the office they are frequently interrupted by the telephone, whereas this does not happen so often at home . They are able to concentrate on their work to a greater degree and are thus more productive.
Their superiors express satisfaction with the performance and results achieved by their relocated personnel.
Both employees and their superiors regard the experiment as positive. .
The teleworkers pay weekly visits to the office to renew their contacts with their colleagues and superiors. They bring in the completed work and collect new files. Great importance is attached to these visits by all parties concerned as they help to preserve the personal contact and prevent any feeling of isolation.
As this form of teleworking within the insurance company is limited to a fixed time, fears as to the possible harmful effects on the personnel's training and career appear to be groundless.
There have been no changes in salaries. There are well-established rules governing earnings (50% of …… with telephone costs paid for by the company) and remuneration (50% of the full-time salary).
Impact on work organisation and supervision
Thanks to the high level of experience of the teleworkers, there has been no need to make any special arrangements for dealing with their relations with colleagues and superiors. The procedures are firmly established and there is complete data security. Having worked for a long period in the company, the employees are well trained in task procedures. Hierarchical relations are characterised by mutual confidence among employees and their superiors.
Moreover, the management of the personnel is based on fixed objectives and result monitoring. Distribution of work is effected in accordance with the number of cases to be processed. In the initial phase of the teleworking experiment, an average number of files to be dealt with weekly had been calculated and it was on the basis of this figure that the work was divided up to take account of the part-time nature of the teleworkers' duties. On the other hand, they have to deal with 60% of mail received and not sorted, for they no longer lose time on the telephone. The weekly work volume assigned fluctuates between 40 and 45 files per teleworker.
The files are delivered either by relatives who also work for the company or by the teleworker during her weekly visit to the office. These visits provide an opportunity for formal work-oriented conversations and for informal contacts with colleagues and superiors. When they need information, the teleworkers either call their colleagues on the phone or obtain what they need via e-mail.
No problems of isolation due to teleworking on an alternating basis have been observed. Nevertheless, teleworkers appreciate their weekly visit to the office, which gives them an opportunity to renew their contacts.
Even among employees without children, the teleworking concept is considered in a favourable light. It gives them more freedom in deciding whether or not to start a family. Work demands no longer appear as an obstacle that could thwart the desire to have a child.
Teleworking is regarded as an effective means of reconciling family and professional life. The families themselves also have a positive attitude towards teleworking. In some cases, the husband is also employed by the company and participates directly in the transmission of files by delivering those completed at home and taking new files back home to his wife.
The special advantage that employees see in this type of teleworking concerns their subsequent return to the office on a full-time basis. This re-integration is easily organised as their level of training and information is kept up to date through teleworking. Also regarded as positive features are the freedom and flexibility of working hours and the reduction in time and money spent in commuting between office and home. Most employees want to resume full-time work at the office at the end of their maternity leave, although some of them envisage continuing with their teleworking activities.
With headquarters in Stuttgart and branches in Karlsruhe, Berlin and Hanover, Allianzlebensversicherung is a specialist within Konzern des Allianz in life and personal insurance (various types of life, retirement and other forms of pensions insurance) for both individuals and business firms. In 1993, Allianz employed 5 000 people in its in-house departments and was handling over 8 million contracts and premiums in excess of 10 billion DM.
Alliance was induced to examine the question of teleworking following a study carried out by the personnel concerning conditions that could work towards the professional enhancement of women and enable them to reconcile their work and family obligations.
A pilot experiment had already been conducted at the time which gave employees the possibility of maintaining contact with the company and continuing their training during their "family phase" (maternity leave) so as to facilitate their return to professional life. After the employees had expressed a definite desire to continue working for the company during their maternity leave, the idea arose of creating teleworking posts on a trial basis.
1991: drawing up of a pilot project entitled "workplace at home".
Initial ideas about the project were discussed in July 1991 and a pilot project was planned.
The personnel department(for the contract aspect),the computer section(for technical questions) and the works committee joined forces in planning and implementing the teleworking arrangement.
The preparation and launch of the project were evaluated at around one person-month.
The choice of the name "Hausverbundene arbeitsplätze" (workplaces at home) was aimed at highlighting the fact that there still remained a close relationship between the home and Allianz and that no isolation or complete relocation of the employee was intended. Teleworking is practised solely on an alternating basis.
1995: 8 teleworking posts operating on an alternating basis established in Stuttgart.
The experiment involved only women working part-time (19 hours per week).
After the pilot phase of successfully completed trials, 20 additional posts were installed.
Here, too, it is a question of women working part-time, including both those on maternity leave and other categories.
The employees took part in the planning and introduction of the system and received preparation for it in the form of discussion groups and interviews.
Teleworking has been introduced into two activity sectors:
· Employees specialising in processing insurance files
· Employees working in the information systems development department.
Criteria applied:
• compatibility of the work with the distance-working system
• experienced employee
• limited need for communicating with the office.
The major part of the enlargement planned over the short term concerns the insurance file processing sector, the main reason being that the specialised processing procedures can be carried out entirely by the employee (starting with the request for insurance cover, going through the administrative stage and on to the payment phase).
Moreover, 80% of the sales procedures are entirely computerised ("DV gestritzt = based on data processing), which means that the basic conditions for relocated, computerised work are at their optimum.
The employees concerned have a working week of 19 hours. The sharing of these hours between office and home, which can vary considerably from case to case, is organised individually by the employee in agreement with her superior.
The minimum time for working in the office is set at 2 hours per week. Daily working hours are left to the employee's choice, although there is some restriction bound up with the times of availability of the central computing systems.
The employees have no office space of their own and meet with their superiors in the company's conference rooms.
The relocated workplaces are equipped with a PC and some of them with a printer. In regard to the telecommunications network for connecting the teleworking stations to the corporate network, the company has opted for the least costly solution ("fixed link") for each station.
As the employees use the central server software, their PCs have been equipped only with the items necessary for carrying out the work. No problems were encountered in the technical setting up of the workstation and no additional software was required for the host computer.
Where data protection and security are concerned, the same conditions are applied as in the office (confidentiality undertaking and contractual rules). The use of the PC for private purposes is prohibited. Telephone connections are installed only when necessary, as the equipment is limited in regard to communication.
Equipping each of the workplaces cost approximately 10 000 DM. Average monthly cost for data transfer is 1 000 DM per workstation. Given the profitability of this technical system, the company is searching in particular for ways of optimising the costs of data transfer.
The work is organised on the basis of written instructions, project management methods and/or in combination with individual choice:
· Sharing of working hours between home and office subject to the agreement of the superior
· Minimum duration of work at the office: 2 hours per week
· Teleworkers do not have an office of their own on the company's premises
· The work is organised on the basis of written instructions
· The employee personally takes home the printed files on which she is working
· Communication with colleagues and superiors is effected by telephone
· No organisational changes in that the procedures are already computerised and work autonomy well established
· Assessment of performance takes account of criteria applying to the workplace and the employees.
Thanks to the high level of automation of specific processing procedures and the autonomous working method used by qualified employees, there was no need to make any changes in the organisation an co-ordination of the work. Also when applied in the computer sector, the teleworking project offers excellent conditions for the co-ordinating and planning of procedures.
Because not all information activities have been computerised, it is still necessary to physically transport files and other documents. This is ensured by the employees themselves when they visit the office.
Communication with colleagues and superiors is carried out by telephone during office hours. There is no system of communication with the company's outside partners in the computer sector.
In the sphere of specialised processing, contact with outside partners is arranged through the employee's superior, who then transmits the information to the employee. Individual aid for employees is provided in the context of a highly co-operative management style in line with a corporate philosophy that encourages employees to be creative, flexible and well informed.
Assessment of performance is based on a well-proven system that takes account of criteria applying to the workplace and the employee. The already well-tried management and supervision systems employed by the company have not been modified.
This takes the form of a part-time work contract. In their capacity of part-time employees, the teleworkers are subject to fixed work conditions.
The employees participate in further training courses to enable them to maintain their qualifications and the chance of resuming work on a full-time basis.
Co-operation with the works committee does not always proceed without dispute, even within Allianz. The Consultative Committee was initially strongly opposed to teleworking and greeted it first with a good deal of scepticism. But the employees succeeded in convincing the Committee that home-based working gave them greater possibilities of co-ordinating their professional activity with family requirements and that they were in favour of teleworking for this very reason.
The wishes and commitment expressed by the employees were decisive and an agreement was accordingly signed for the pilot phase.
The experiment proved satisfactory for all parties involved:
· Employees: makes it possible to reconcile professional activities with the family obligations of the women concerned
· Management: the possibility of maintaining links with their most experienced employees. Productivity goals were exceeded.
· Employer: equipment and operational costs were lower than the cost of re-insertion after prolonged absence or of integrating new personnel.
In addition, the company sees the positive long-term effects of the implementation of teleworking on the flexibility of working hours, on savings in office accommodation costs and on environmental protection.
Especially appreciated by the women is the flexibility of working hours as it affects the relationship with their children.
The impact on their career is of a positive nature, because without the possibility of teleworking, the employees would have to stop working altogether during their maternity leave.
In the case of certain employees, the loss of contact with their colleagues and superiors could prove to be a problem.
The company is of the opinion that the long-term effects of teleworking on the flexibility of working hours, on savings in the costs of office space and on the protection of the environment will remain favourable.
The potential for extending the amount of teleworking in the area of specialised processing is estimated to be 50% of the personnel.
In the short term, the enlargement of the experiment is planned to cover 20 workstations.
Not all the projects meet with success. There are cases where the introduction of teleworking does not prove to be an adequate solution, where it leads to new types of malfunctioning or where it involves new arrangements or even a more or less radical restructuring of the organisation. It is important that the experiment be accompanied by a fine assessment of the resulting effects and their cause before spreading the practice to an entire section of the organisation.
For reasons of confidentiality, the real names of the companies figuring in the following case studies have been replaced by pseudonyms.
GESTSOFT is a company that develops customised management software and sells computer equipment to business firms. It has a network of sales representatives who closely monitor the needs of the clientele spread throughout France.
When the sales representative visits customers,they quite naturally tell him about their technical projects or point out the problems or possible malfunctioning of the products developed by the company.
In some cases, the technical questions asked are too specialised for the representative to be able to answer himself. In order to satisfy the customers, he needs to call on the know-how of the company's computer department.
In the beginning, the representative informed the department concerned by telephone but frequently found it difficult to get hold of the person in question as the line was usually busy. He then left the customer with a promise to call him back as soon as possible. But it was difficult for the representative to deal with the problems of one particular customer while visiting another. He was then obliged to make repeated calls to the computer department from outside to obtain the information required. As to the computerists whose main task is to develop new applications, the constant interruption of the work in progress occasioned by these repeated calls constituted a definite handicap for them in their activities. Lacking flexibility, the system had a negative impact on the productivity of both the computerist and the sales representative, resulting in the image of an organisation that was hardly responsive to its clientele.
In an attempt to solve this problem, the company equipped its sales representative with laptops fitted with a modem and a messaging system. Having become nomadic teleworkers, their mobility and ability to communicate anywhere and anytime with the computerists have improved.
These changes were greeted by all and sundry as the solution to all their problems. For the sales representative, no more trouble with engaged phones when he tries to contact the computerists, plus the feeling that when forwarded by e-mail, the customer's request will be processed immediately. For the computerist, no more interruptions by unending telephone calls.
However, after a certain period of time, a fall off in the use of e-mail by the sales representatives and a return to the telephone could be observed.
The reason was simple: fully occupied with their own software development work, the computerists do not check their mailboxes regularly, They do not always acknowledge receipt of the message and often discuss the problem directly with the customer without informing the sales representative; To find out what has been done and to be able to answer worried customers, the representative then tries the phone for a direct contact with the computerists, in front of whom he finds himself increasingly powerless.
This shows how the introduction of teleworking and, in particular, an asynchronous method of communication can modify the balance of power between the teleworker and his colleagues.
With the introduction of asynchronous communication, there is a danger that the computerist's behaviour will become more unpredictable (greater freedom of action). Faced with this increasing uncertainty, the sales representative then rejects the use of a system in which he had placed great hopes.
This refusal has led the heads of the company to issue strict rules on the use of the e-mail system.
Alongside its competitors, CARBUR is a company distributing fuel throughout France.
The company employs a team of people for monitoring the prices charged at the filling stations, who comb each region to determine the prices applied by the company's rivals in the particular zone concerned.
Depending on how local prices fluctuate, CARBUR adjusts the prices charged by the stations in its own network on a case by case basis.
Originally, with the aim of ensuring consistency, changes in retail prices were decided centrally once the information submitted by monitors had been collated by region and faxed to the head office.
To endow the system with greater reactivity, the head office decided to equip a pilot group of local monitors with communicating laptop computers.
The enhanced mobility of monitors, now operating as nomadic teleworkers, enabled them to maintain an ever closer watch on the competition. This gradually led to such a high influx of messages requesting price changes, that the company Management, in danger of being suffocated by these demands, was no longer able to make decisions at the right time and keep up with the situation.
Discarding the idea of imposing corrective measures or returning to the former system, the heads of the company put this malfunctioning down to the malfunctioning of its own decision-making process.
This led them to reorganise the company's decision-making structures. The new system gives monitors the possibility of advising filling stations within their geographical zone on the prices to be charged, within a pre-determined range, without having to refer systematically to a superior instance within the company. Price modifications lying outside this range remain dependent on decisions taken by the regional office, which then finds itself having to undertake a new duty involving similarly pre-determined limits. Beyond these limits, and only then, the regional office refers the question back to the head office.
This example shows how the way in which teleworking is introduced can, after the results of the initial experiment have been analysed, give rise to radical changes in the organisation affecting both other workplaces (in the regional offices) and the running of an entire section of the organisation (modification of decision-making structures).
CIX is a company comprising a group of operational (as opposed to administrative) establishments spread throughout France and several foreign subsidiaries. The nature of the technologies implemented, the various industrial projects carried out and changes in security standards make it necessary for the different divisions to call regularly on the services of specialists with a proper knowledge of the domain concerned.
These experts are recruited from within the company and grouped together in a division situated in Paris, Service d'Expertise Opérationnelle (SEO). In addition to serving the operational establishments at home, they have the foreign subsidiaries of CIX as "clients".
In 1999, SEO considered it absolutely necessary to strengthen its team by bringing in engineers with good experience "in the field". The experts that SEO wished to recruit were working in the provinces in various operational establishments. Although interested in this change of status, the executives in question refuse to see their workplace transferred to Paris.
To solve this dilemma, the heads of SEO decided to build up a scattered network of experts working away from, but in collaboration with, the Paris-based personnel.
SEO then launched an initial 6-month experiment involving three experts recruited from within three different operational establishments.
The experiment embraced two closely linked elements: the network of local offices and the transit office.
The term local office implies dual proximity: proximity of the client (close contact strategy pursued by the operational establishments) and the proximity of the home (which tends to satisfy the personal needs of the teleworker).
The recruited experts keep an office (equipped with a communicating computer) within their original establishment, since part of their job directly concerns this establishment.
The other part of their task involves outside cases which they work on in collaboration with other specialists situated either in Paris or in the provinces. Responsible for co-ordination is a Paris-based project manager.
An Intranet offering synchronous and asynchronous communication and groupware functions constitutes the tool for the networked operations concerned. The teleworkers can also obtain access to the central documentary research library by going through the SEO secretariat or consulting a distant database containing documentation that has been computerised.
This is a properly equipped room situated in SEO's premises in Paris. The office is used for receiving experts visiting the capital (nomadic experts) and especiallyt teleworkers from the local offoices. The transit offoice contains four workstations equipped with computers, telephones and access to the company's Intranet.
These cover four areas:
1. An improvement in SEO's competitiveness: obtain a better knowledge of client firms, design a more demand-oriented offering, improve customer satisfaction
2. Optimisation of the functioning of the company: to be able to recruit experts regardless of their location, introduce methods of networked working and asynchronous exchange to enhance co-ordination and the sharing of skills, achieve greater visibility in regard to experts' work schedules, have access to a well-structured and easily mobilisable information service
3. Enhanced performance: improve reactiveness, co-operate and share experiences with clients in a much closer fashion, achieve savings in infrastructure costs (lower property costs of local offices), reduce travelling expenses, reduce logistic activity
4. An improvement in working and living conditions: reduce travelling, lessen the dangers of isolation among teleworkers, increase the autonomy of teleworking experts, provide a comfortable work environment.
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Targeted results |
Project benefits |
Limits and differences |
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· Increased competitiveness |
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Improved knowledge of client firms |
Being on site facilitates access to numerous local documents. It also makes for closer relations with the customers. Familiarity with the premises is also an advantage, even where remote communication is concerned: communication can only be effective when the two parties know each other and when the customer's work context is known. |
The fact that it is in this case a question of a employee formerly working in one of the group's internal client companies and now physically occupying an office on the customer's premises, could prove to be a handicap in that it might give rise to some ambiguity as to the new status of teleworker. |
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Better adapted services |
Knowledge of the concrete situation applying to industrial sites enables the teleworker to make an effective analysis of the needs of the establishment. |
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Customer satisfaction |
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This may vary because of the ambiguity regarding the status of the expert who, by virtue of his new duties and knowledge of the inner workings of his original place of work, tends to circumvent the local hierarchy and establish direct contact with the employees. |
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1 Optimisation of the organisation |
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Recruiting independent of the expert's workplace |
Satisfied with the initial results, SEO decided to continue recruiting experts as teleworkers from within the provincial operational establishments. |
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Networked working methods |
In the case of distance-working with partners in several regions, it is difficult to meet and exchange experiences at a given place and time. Moreover, SEO's experts are nomadic teleworkers. For the purposes of co-ordination, communication must be made possible in the absence of one party or another, and this is where e-mail becomes indispensable. All SEO experts are familiar with the use of e-mail, which frees them from the need to establish physical contact with their colleagues for communicating with them, whether they happen to be in far removed centres or just two offices away. |
The need for teamwork arises not so much from the practice of teleworking but more from the nature of SEO's work. Each mission calls for a great deal of discussion between partners in the project. This offsets the natural tendency of teleworkers to isolate themselves. The networking principle combining remote synchronous or asynchronous contacts and personal meetings with partners from different work spheres calls for heavy efforts on the part of the co-ordinator in terms of stimulation and communication. Lastly, remote communication does not make it easy to discern warning tones and expressions which in a traditional situation would enable the superior to approach the employee and take the necessary steps before the situation worsens.
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Visible work schedules |
For effective co-ordination, each party should be aware of the other's work schedule. Faced with the need for strict management of their schedule, teleworkers strongly urge their colleagues to employ the common electronic diary. There is a separate diary for the management of the transit office in the form of an electronic booking centre. This can be accessed by all authorised persons, who note the times of availability and make direct reservations from their workplace. |
Experts differ in regard to the extent to which the common diary is used. Some of them find the system too sluggish, which is bound up in particular with the overloading of the networks. This only serves to add to the inherent slowness of the software employed. |
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Easily obtainable structured information |
Prior to the experiment, printed matter took precedence over the computer as a documentation system. As soon as the necessity arose for a teleworker to be able to access all the required documentation elements wherever he happened to be, as applying in the case of all others in the department, it was decided to create a common computerised documentation centre destined eventually to replace all printed documentation.
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Teleworkers are still frequently faced with the problem of accessing printed documents, while obtaining them by electronic means is not always easy (saturated network). What happens in practice is that the expert will only choose to consult a database in cases of immediate need. Electronic documentation will not replace the printed format. “Paper is something you can leaf through, make notes on and memorise”. |
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1 Enhanced performance |
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Once a clcient knows that he is dealing with a teleworker, he associates teleworking with reactiveness. |
Teleworkers have no access to a local secretariat and are thus obliged to use the central service. This beijng so, it appears that keeping to delivery times is more important than reactiveness on the part of the teleworker. |
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Closer co-operation with the customer. |
Teleworkers are responsible for monitoring several operational sites. This enables them to ensure an exchange of experiences Their contact with the SEO expert team at international level makes it possible to allow the operational establishments to benefit from the experience acquired abroad |
Between 50 and 75% of a teleworker's activity is taken up by a national project. This partly cuts them off from the site where they have their office. Now that their colleagues have become teleworkers, the other employees claim to have far less direct contact with them. |
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Infrastructure savings |
The costs of setting up a teleworking post in the provinces are found to be roughly the same as for installing a traditional post for an SEO expert in Paris. |
It has proved difficult to define common criteria for calculating costs. |
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Reduced travelling costs |
Teleworkers' travelling expenses were calculated on the basis of projections in which account was taken of the fact that being present on the site for part of their mission, their transport costs would be lower. |
It appears that travelling expenses represented the main item of expenditure in the case of one particular teleworker. The extra cost involved was bound up with the national scope of his mission. |
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Reduced logistical infrastructure |
With no local secretariat available, the teleworkers carry out current logistics-related tasks themselves. Without having daily contact with other members of the team, the teleworkers are in the habit of seeking information from other sources than the experts in the central department. |
Teleworking generates extra work for secretaries to SEO managers of the transit office. Accustomed to having the help of a secretary at their normal place of work, some users of transit offices tend to look on the managers of these offices as their transferred secretariat. |
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· Improvement in living and working conditions |
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Less travelling |
Teleworkers consider the possibility of remaining close to home in a region they appreciate as a positive element on the personal plane. |
Teleworkers must be careful in ensuring that their travelling is limited to what is strictly necessary. On the one hand, extra travelling means an increase in the costs of the teleworking station and, on the other, it represents a fatigue factor. Teleworking also gives rise to unforeseen effects such as the need to find new ways of reconciling family requirements with work demands. |
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No isolation of the teleworker |
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The teleworkers do not know who looks after them at local level in their capacity of tenant. They are not informed when there is work to be done in their office, There is no local contact for seeing to the reception of equipment. |
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Increased autonomy |
The teleworkers look positively on having more room to manœuvre than they would have in a traditional situation. |
On the other hand, they feel they are more involved in their work: they work on the train, they work at home during the weekend, etc. |
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Comfortable working environment
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The transit office system gives nomadic experts passing through Paris the possibility of using a fully-equipped office. Each space can be occupied for half a day. Authorised persons can obtain information on availability and make their bookings through the reservation centre. The existence of transit offices eliminates the practice of squatting by travelling personnel in the offices of SEO. |
The duties of users of the transit office sometimes oblige them to remain several days in Paris. To make things more convenient, they would like to have a pigeonhole where they can leave their documents and small items of equipment. Another cause of discomfort: when several people use the transit office at the same time, telephone calls made by some of them disturb others at work. Lastly, the fact that some users ignore the reservation system does nothing to facilitate the task of the management team. |
Even when suggesting changes, neither the teleworkers interviewed nor their superiors regret having opted for teleworking. Neither has the experiment given rise to any form of rejection by those only indirectly involved in the project. On the contrary, it has aroused new hopes among the latter, namely, a wish to take part one day in a teleworking experiment themselves.
A telecottage, or Community Teleservice Centre (CTSC), may be described as a resource centre situated in a rural or geographically isolated zone — or in a disadvantaged urban area— where computer and telecommunications equipment is put at the disposal of the local population for use on a shared basis [QVO, 95].
The aim of the CTSC is to offset the drawbacks caused by geographical estrangement or by the socio-economic situation of a specific region. The shortcomings may be economic, educational or cultural in nature and may affect employment, services or other types of infrastructure.
The first two CTSCs were set up in Denmark and Sweden in 1985. By 1990, 50 telecottages were being operated in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Scotland, Ireland and Canada. According to the latest count, there were more than 200 in 11 countries at the end of 1993.
As a rule, they comprise an office, a public area with access to computers and telecommunications services, a room equipped for receiving traditional and computer-assisted training courses and distance-training courses employing communicating PCs. There is also a meeting room, services for users(students, teleworkers, local farmers, businessmen, etc.) and a small kitchen with a coffee machine.
Telecottages are often installed in schools, libraries, municipal premises, etc. The minimum number of employees required for running the telecottage is two: a manager and a part-time assistant.
CTSCs are differentiated according to whether they have private or public status.
The results of surveys conducted among telecottage managers show the local installation of a CTSC has a positive impact on local development. The effects can be felt at economic, social, cultural and employment level and are clearest in the sphere of education.
Nevertheless, opinions differ as to the two types of telecottage, the private type and the public type.
The private type seems to have a greater impact on the maintenance —if not the development— of economic activity than on the local job market. The widespread practice of using rented office space implies that one of the functions of the telecottage is to serve as a support for newly-created business firms.
In the initial stages of the telecottage experiment, teleworking posts were often set up for low-skilled jobs. The argument was that distance-working carried out in a community centre was preferable to home-based teleworking which isolated members of the working population.<
Despite its being considered preferable for distance-working to be practised in a CTSC as opposed to working strictly from home, the experiment consisting in devoting the CTSC primarily to low-skilled jobs met with failure.
The fact is that where unskilled personnel are concerned, and all things being equal, firms situated in urban districts seem to prefer to use local labour. Distant manpower escapes the control of the management. Moreover, although the idea of teleworking for unskilled employees in a CTSC may eliminate the problem of isolation at work, it tends to lend force to the traditional centre/outskirts distinction whereby skilled jobs are concentrated in the built-up areas to the detriment of rural zones which have to share the unskilled jobs;
Following this initial experiment, it was concluded that the only type of teleworking to be encouraged in the telecottage should involve highly-qualified activities or professionals: consultants, business executives, architects, etc. By being able to carry out their duties directly with the use of equipment available in the centre, they avoid having to travel to town everyday.
Both professionals and executives can be seen to look extremely favourably on the possibility of working either from home or in the rural CTSC where they can profit from the installations and equipment (library, databases, distance-learning tools, etc.) at their disposal.
A couple of similar to each other examples in teleworking in the IT area are companies Nicotech and Cinimex (Moscow, Russia) and their West-European counterparts.
Telework is mostly operational in the areas, where the subject of the work is either easily movable, or non-material. Information is one of such subjects; it can be easily moved from one place to another, or can equally easily be transmitted over the lines of communication. Thus it is no surprise that telework is especially popular in the industries dealing with the information. In particular, the programming is one of the professions which are well positioned for the successful telework.
Company Nicotech was established in the middle of 1992 as a Russian-Dutch joint venture (with a company L+T, Eindhoven) with the programming as its core business. Company Cinimex split from Nicotech in the middle of 1997 with the same business in mind, but with differences in the details. Both companies work for West-European clients, both use telework as their main method of the work, both are successful. So these are two examples of fully operational teleworking between EU countries and CIS countries.
It can be interesting to consider the experience of these two companies. Their examples can be the guidelines for the development of the other successful telework projects between EU countries and other countries. Here it must be mentioned, that although the experiences of both companies are similar, these experiences have the different time frame. Nicotech has (as of today) more than eight years of experience. Cinimex has only three and a half years. But company Cinimex was split from Nicotech, and at that moment it had the same level of telework as Nicotech itself. From that moment on, the both companies have similar, but not identical experience. This gives a better ground for generalizations.
Concerning telework, we can outline three different time periods in the life of these companies.
Originally (in period ONE), Nicotech made software projects for its western clients (companies L+T and Consist, the Netherlands), and it communicated with their western counterparts by the traditional communication lines. The programs were developed in Moscow, on computers installed in Moscow office. The projects had to be well documented, very often in excess of the normal documentation level. This was especially valid for the initial documentation, which had to describe the project in all the details for the fear of the misunderstanding. The initial documentation for Nicotech and the designs made by Nicotech traveled by conventional means, namely by DHL post or by the fax. The source code of the programs also traveled (in both directions) in hard copies, on the diskettes and on the tapes. For everyday communications the parties used the long-distance calls.
Nicotech had their own work procedures, and only the end-date was adjusted to the other side. After the end-date, i.e. after the moment when the programs were sent to the western counterpart, the customer has its own schedule for the testing and acceptation. And it could very well be, that if the customer had any problems or questions in the testing phase, there was nobody in Nicotech who previously developed this part of the program, and who would be able to resolve the problem.
The parties had independent criteria for selecting the personnel, and independent programs for personnel development. Each party used its own calendar of holidays. Work in Moscow started at 8.30-9.00 hours (6.30-7.00 CET), so the parties had at maximum six hours for operational communications.
We see that in this period the telework in Nicotech was virtually non-existent. It was a plain offshore software development with only slight elements of the teleworking.
Period ONE lasted approximately 18 months, until the end of 1993, when low-speed Internet became available in Moscow.
In the second period Internet gradually replaced the conventional means of communication. At that moment Nicotech had dial-up Internet connection with the speed 1200bod, which with the time rose to 2400-4800-14400-28800-33600bod. At first the initial documentation, then short sources, and then all the sources were sent in both directions via Internet. And of course, everyday operational documentation, legal and financial documentation also traveled by Internet.
It became possible to make the smaller projects and the projects not so thoroughly described. Nicotech started to sign with the customers (companies L+T, Consist, Matrix, Metis, Up2date, PallasAthena – all from the Netherlands) the so called frame contracts, which defined hour rates, responsibilities of the parties, other generic conditions, but left aside the descriptions of the particular work. Afterwards, work descriptions could arrive on a day-to-day basis, producing a permanent stream of work for Nicotech.
The contents of the projects also changed. In the period ONE most of the projects were some kind of the “new development projects”, where a substantial piece of software was to be built anew or reengineered from the similar legacy software. In period TWO, due to better everyday communications, it became possible to make “additional development projects”, where there were more pieces of software, each smaller in size.
This was already a telework, where the employer (the boss) sat on a western side, and the employee (personnel) on a Russian side.
This type of work changed the demands for employees and for their development. Originally the employees had to have the definite software development skills, defined in terms of software platforms, programming languages and packages (i.e. AS/400, Wintel, OS/2, Cobol/400, Delphi, C++, etc). The development of their skills was also measured in terms of new platforms, new languages and new packages. In period TWO it became important, what knowledge and experience they have in particular programs of the particular customer. When they gained experience about the particular products of the customer (and not about generic languages), their value to the company increased,.
The most obvious way to gain customer-specific skills was to send a programmer to a customer site for some period of time, and this way was widely used by Nicotech. The legal obstacles for working abroad could be easily overcome by the facts that persons
Were NOT on a payroll of the customer;
Most of the work was made in Moscow;
A visit to the customer site was mostly used for joint testing, elimination of unclearly defined places, starting a new piece of work.
During such trips, which lasted from several days and up to three months, personnel from both sides often established the strong personal contacts, in some cases even friendships between families. What was more important for business, such trips led to closer business and cultural convergence between the parties. The work procedures in Moscow office of Nicotech more and more resembled the work procedures of one or another customer. Nicotech easily incorporated changes from the traditional work procedures to the customer-oriented procedures.
Totally, because the work environment of the western client was different from the one in Moscow, this period brought to Nicotech a knowledge of new platforms, new languages and new programming tools, where all of them were exactly the same which were used by their western counterparts. It may be said that employee qualifications and culture became better synchronized.
Other items also became better synchronized. Nicotech shifted the start of their working day to 10.30-11.00 (8.30-9.00 CET), what allowed full eight-hour period for communications with the western counterparts. At the very beginning of the period TWO, both sides made a common choice of e-mail client package, so all the information sent via Internet were absolutely compatible. They also made other agreements concerning use of Internet e-mail on AS/400 platform, concerning the use of FTP protocol for sending and receiving the files, etc. Later on, when Nicotech was in technical negotiations with other potential clients, this list of agreements could be produced and could constitute a ground for similar agreements with the new counterparts. This was important, because people working in a closed environment, sometime do not realize that the world is a bigger place, and the environments may change from place to place.
The similar synchronization took place in the business area of the projects. The parties used the same Office packages, so the technical and business documentation traveled seamlessly. In many cases, the parties shared the reporting formats, thus the description of errors reported on a western side was easily incorporated into the rework assignments on a Russian side. Adversely, design problems and questions reported by Nicotech, easily found a way to designers of the western counterpart and were easily incorporated into its workplans.
For at least some customers such telework became important and took substantial place in its plans. Such customer, when he planned some new projects using the new tools and/or platforms, had to take into consideration how fast Nicotech can build the corresponding skills and how fast it can build the technical infrastructure. For example, in the first half of 1996 Nicotech had to invest a lot of time in additional education courses on APS and ADW tools on OS/2 platform, and had to accelerate the upgrade of the working places to make them OS/2 compatible.
It is necessary to mention here, that the preparation of the work environment for the growing number of the customers became more and more difficult. The work environment (hardware, software and skills) became more and more expensive, and many projects had to be abandoned for the economical reasons.
Period TWO lasted 3.5 years from 1994 till mid-1997, when it became unprofitable to replicate the work environments of numerous clients. At this moment Nicotech started to investigate different new opportunities for communicating with the customers.
As was said before, the Internet connection during period TWO improved from 1200 bod to 33600 bod. In the beginning of the period TWO, Nicotech paid $60 per 1Mb of traffic, in the end - $0.006 per 1Mb of traffic in excess of a certain monthly level. In 1997, the permanent, low-cost and fast Internet connection became possible in Moscow, thus it became possible to start new types of work. At the same time, there was a split from Nicotech of a new company Cinimex, working for a new client (also Chronotech, the Netherlands). This became possible, because Cinimex could count on a lower cost of the infrastructure, affordable to its smaller size.
In mid-1997, Nicotech for the first time established a direct online connection with the computer of one of the customers in Germany (JBA Ratioplan, Villingen). Given the proper access rights, this had an effect of the person sitting before the computer in Germany, when actually he was sitting in Moscow office. This was the start of the period THREE – direct work via Internet.
A new type of telework had a lot of advantages; at the same time, it generated new problems and new issues, which had to be addressed. We shall just briefly outline the most important of both the advantages and new problems.
Identical work environments on the customer site and in Moscow now were easily achieved. In fact, there was a single work environment at the customer side, accessed from Moscow via Internet.
Release maintenance became a much easier task. Previously, the customer had to carefully watch which sources were sent from Moscow side, then had to incorporate them into the total set of source code (production library). All this demanded a huge system of marking and numeration of the changes in the code, which had to be constantly synchronized with Moscow. This task became extremely difficult in the case, when some changes in the code were at the same time made by the customer itself. In the period THREE, there was just one source code, corrected and updated from the both sides of the communication lines.
The time difference between West Europe and Moscow could be used positively. In necessary cases, parties agreed about contact hours, and Nicotech shifted working hours in such a way, that the most active work of the programmers was when in Europe was either the early morning, or the evening. This way, the capacities of the host computer were more fully utilized, and time-consuming tasks (such as compilation) were performed faster.
New issue, which had to be addressed, was the security. In period THREE, Nicotech got an access to production libraries and source codes of the customers. This in principle brought to the customers an additional risk of damage or unauthorized use of the sources. The problem was resolved by establishing in Nicotech of the same security standards as the customer had. Usually the customers granted the access only to the restricted use of sources, and each Nicotech employee got his access rights personally from the customer with whom he worked.
The similar issue was the privacy. The real projects are often tested on the real databases, which can contain the sensible information about the persons, companies, taxes, etc. In no circumstances this information could be accessed from another country. Thus the customers had a new task of preparing a false database, which was suitable for testing, but which contained no information about the real objects.
An important technical issue was the access speed. This turned to be dependent of a hardware platform. For AS/400 platform, where information is sent page by page (after you hit “Enter”), this proved to be no problem at all. Delay in response time was insignificant and comparable to difference between bigger and smaller models of AS/400. This was different for Wintel and UNIX platforms, where the programmer can scroll the screen up and down. In the most difficult cases, the response time problem was resolved by making a hybrid combination between online and offline work: the programmer downloaded the necessary piece of the source code (for example, using FTP), then worked on it, and uploaded the source code back; after that, he could compile and test it on a customer computer in online mode.
The work of Nicotech (and Cinimex) became more transparent to the customers. They could easily see, who is working at the moment, and what he is exactly doing. Thus the work procedures in the Russian companies became stricter and closer to the western standards. The Russian programmers also had to devote more time to program testing, than it is usually envisioned in Russia. They spent more time on planning and evaluation of their work, because the traditional ad hoc try-and-error method was not suitable to be seen by the customers. Not going into details, the same could be told about control of the quality of the work, and of the team development within Nicotech and Cinimex.
Given all this, new method of work proved to be rather effective. Both companies successfully expanded. Cinimex started from the period TWO (work offline with online communications) and quickly (immediately after Nicotech) came to online telework. In the peak period, in the middle of 1998, it was possible to see in the office of Nicotech the simultaneous connections to 4-6 customers in three or four European countries (L+T and Up2date, the Netherlands; EliAS, Belgium; Ratioplan and Bechtle, Germany; JBA, Ireland. There were also companies JBAUK, Great Britain; Rosas, the Netherlands; JBAsro, Prague; Agrocor, Croatia; ASIT, Switzerland), and 20-25 people actually working on the computers in those countries (plus 50% of this in the office of Cinimex).
Totally at that time in Nicotech there were working 40-45 programmers, and the company developed a three-tier system of telework. Some projects, which demanded a work of many people, were first analyzed in Nicotech, and necessary initial information (designs, sample sources, definitions etc) was downloaded from the customer in Europe and placed on a server in Nicotech itself. In the office of Nicotech there were only the project managers who evaluated the tasks, assigned them to the particular programmers, tested the results, accepted them and uploaded them back to the customer server (or sent back to the programmer for rework). The programmers themselves sat in auxiliary offices (may be even at home) and used Internet connections for work on Nicotech server. Only once a week did they came to the main office for briefing and evaluation of the results.
There appeared two new types of the projects available only with direct online method of work. First type was the testing projects, where teleworking party tested the programs, developed elsewhere. Testing is mostly the routine and time-consuming work, distracting developers from their main tasks. The second type was the maintenance projects, where the teleworking party underwrites to provide the support and maintenance for the software, developed earlier. Such work consists of the end-user wishes, correction of bugs, improvements etc. The amount of work can hardly be planned in advance, and capacity problem can be resolved by online connection with third party, which provides support. Company Cinimex started to specialize on this type of the projects.
At this moment both the companies Nicotech and Cinimex are continuing the successful teleworking for the European clients. They use both the direct online teleworking method and more traditional methods of telework. At present, there are the different ways in which the projects are made. There are projects started at the customer site, then made in Moscow and then presented or tested at the customer site. There are the projects made mostly at the customer site while the parts of them are made in Moscow. And there are online projects made in Moscow only.