.png)
Way of life .....
Saturday, December 11, 2010
I was recollecting as how a normal weekday would start about a decade ago, would wake up at 6.30 AM, take a walk and get ready to office and leave to office by 9.00 AM, it would take about 45 minutes to travel to my office, park my vehicle and then complete my register signing formalities and by the time I get to my desk and start my work it would have taken about an hour since I left home. On my way back home it takes about one hour to be get back home from office. But in the last 10 years, traffic has increased by leaps and bounds and travel time has increased to more than one hour, if I had been to travel to same office place. Well, the situation has changed now.......
I no more travel to office on certain days, in fact, my main office is in different city and I live in a different city, I go to office whenever its a absolute necessity ... well, I am talking about WFH...WFH!!?!!..., whats that?. For people in IT industry, it quite common, WFH means 'working from home'. If you are wondering how is that possible?... hold on and read through....
I still remember the early days of Internet about a decade back, when browsing speed of 64 kbps, but still cost of Internet bills would be in range of Rs 3000. Apart from slow browsing at most you can do check yahoo mail, which take few minutes to open up. Compared to that, now I got 2 mbps speed at home for just about Rs 1,500 and have VPN (virtual private network), which allows me to access office network. Due to this speed, I do not find difference in work, whether I at home or office. I can really plan my work, no more impacted by traffic jam and fear of getting late each and every day. My work productivity has really increased, not just because I save my travel time, but also the frustration one is bound to get , when you drive through Indian road. All these was possible due to Internet, it has been a real boon.
Coffee break, lunch breaks are short, so on an average, I save about 3~4 hours a day, on days when I work from home, added to this with IP telephony, mobile phone & teleconference and I am reachable anytime to my peers, project members, client & to my managers and I can do the same as well. As personal social responsibility, I not burning fuel on day's, when I 'WFH' , by not using vehicle, thereby saving myself on fuel cost and foreign exchange reserve for the country.
Internet has changed the way of life, geographical location is not a constraint any more, client can work across the globe, the project team can be at stationed at different locations and so can be the hardware server location, still one can work or operate a virtual office through Internet and get the work planned and executed.
I no more travel to office on certain days, in fact, my main office is in different city and I live in a different city, I go to office whenever its a absolute necessity ... well, I am talking about WFH...WFH!!?!!..., whats that?. For people in IT industry, it quite common, WFH means 'working from home'. If you are wondering how is that possible?... hold on and read through....
I still remember the early days of Internet about a decade back, when browsing speed of 64 kbps, but still cost of Internet bills would be in range of Rs 3000. Apart from slow browsing at most you can do check yahoo mail, which take few minutes to open up. Compared to that, now I got 2 mbps speed at home for just about Rs 1,500 and have VPN (virtual private network), which allows me to access office network. Due to this speed, I do not find difference in work, whether I at home or office. I can really plan my work, no more impacted by traffic jam and fear of getting late each and every day. My work productivity has really increased, not just because I save my travel time, but also the frustration one is bound to get , when you drive through Indian road. All these was possible due to Internet, it has been a real boon.
Coffee break, lunch breaks are short, so on an average, I save about 3~4 hours a day, on days when I work from home, added to this with IP telephony, mobile phone & teleconference and I am reachable anytime to my peers, project members, client & to my managers and I can do the same as well. As personal social responsibility, I not burning fuel on day's, when I 'WFH' , by not using vehicle, thereby saving myself on fuel cost and foreign exchange reserve for the country.
Internet has changed the way of life, geographical location is not a constraint any more, client can work across the globe, the project team can be at stationed at different locations and so can be the hardware server location, still one can work or operate a virtual office through Internet and get the work planned and executed.
Sincerity, commitment on part of employee and trust on part of employers would be required for virtual office to succeed. With 3G phone on the way, virtual office are bound to succeed further.
Before, I sign off on this topic, in the last one decade, in India the real estate prices has gone up by more than 4~5 times and in the same time Internet speed has gone up by 20 times for the same cost paid about decade ago. Due to Internet and 3G, we are well on the way to use virtual office through which, improved productivity and quite a big cost saving can be acheived, since real estate based office cost a fortune these days in India.
