<p><b>The Intelligent Office</b></p>
<p>"Going to work" is becoming old school. "Work" is now something you do and no longer a location. The growth of telecommuting, home-based businesses, cell phones, laptops and other mobile means is mute testimony to the idea that more and more people are leaving the traditional office behind. An AT&T Telework White Paper in April of 2003 states "a significant increase in remote working is taking place," and John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., an international outplacement consulting firm, predicts "telecommuting will be the predominant workplace trend in the next 20 years."</p>
<p>This socioeconomic shift that is quietly underway promises to literally alter not just the entire commercial landscape but also the where and how people choose to live. The forward-thinking businessperson would be well advised to consider how this will alter every aspect of running a business in the very near future.</p>
<p>We are returning to a primal way of life that we are all hard-wired to prefer. Modern technology and the Information Age are allowing us to return to a lifestyle where we live and work in the same place, just as it used to be.</p>
<p>For the first 500,000 years or so of our existence we were all farmers or hunter-gatherers, and we lived and worked in the same place. Then along came the Industrial Revolution and we had to go to where the jobs and machines were located. We started "going to work." For the first time we now lived and worked in two different places. The work locations became huge factories employing many people that created cities and increased transportation options. And the distance between our home space and our workspace increased.</p>
<p>We brought that thinking into the dawn of the Communication Age and built tall buildings filled with individual workspaces called offices. "Going to work" evolved into something we now call a "commute" which meant putting on a "uniform," getting into a fossil fuel burning vehicle, leaving our home space and driving to another space where we replicate a chair, desk, phone and roof over our head. And our workspace and our home space were more divided than ever. When we were at work, we couldn''t do much about home life, and at home we couldn''t do much about work issues.</p>
<p>Then along came the Information Age and our jobs became the sharing of information. Our days were filled with communications, phones, faxes, computers, and a diminishing amount of face time with customers. The "back office" idea flourished with its attendant Dilbert culture, but we were all still "going to work."</p>
<p>The advent of modems begat "telecommuting." Phones were already everywhere but now data could be shared from anywhere. Workspace didn''t have to be centralized and could be done from anywhere, even from home, and management took notice of the idea "that just because you hired them doesn''t mean that you have to house them." At first it wasn''t easy but ultimately, progressive companies like IBM began to figure out how to work remotely. The saving in infrastructure cost is obvious, but "productivity gains are the most significant benefit of telework." (AT&T Telework White Paper) In a properly supported, independent work environment, most people were better managers of their own output than those who worked in traditional "line of sight management" settings. As a result, a lot of middle management jobs were no longer needed.</p>
<p>While the top of the organization chart loves the idea of working remotely, so too does the bottom of the organization chart. We want to go home. We want the flexibility and independence to blend our work life with our personal life. We want to choose the "when" and "how" of working. We have family care issues and commute issues and self-esteem issues. When the kids go to bed at 8:30 at night we do not get the urge to leave home and drive to our traditional office, but we might be inclined to wander down the hall to that home-based workspace because the quiet time of night is more conducive to our work style. Even if our paycheck comes from a Fortune 500 company, working remotely still serves the American Dream of being your own boss. It feels right and touches something primal within all of us to live this way; the way it used to be for so long.</p>
<p>The seismic shift is by no means confined to corporate culture. It has been the individual and very small business pioneer that has really advanced the frontier of working remotely. Lone Eagles, home-based businesses and "virtual" companies reap the largest rewards in terms of their bottom line and personal quality of life. However, without the resources of a large company, many of these organizations have suffered from a diminished professional presence and the very real discrimination of a "mom and pop" image.</p>
<p>Working remotely and professionally can go hand-in-hand. The Intelligent Office provides services that combine the necessary professionalism of a traditional office with the benefits and freedom of working remotely. Our company''s growth during the "office glut" of the last four years is evidence of the strength of this movement. Working remotely is coming because to people it feels right, works better and costs less.</p>
<p>Individuals and businesses alike are embracing the idea of working remotely at an ever-quickening pace. Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a Washington-based benefits consulting firm, predicts that half the workforce will work remotely in 10 years. IDC, a market research firm in Framingham, Mass., expects the number of office-based mobile workers to reach 55 million by 2004. A cursory examination of any office building reveals that a large percentage of those workers are candidates for working remotely in the not too distant future. If I were investing in an office building with a shelf life of 50 to 75 years, I would certainly want to be aware that 30 to 60 percent of the current market was expected to disappear within the next five to 10 years. In fact, if I wasn't already working remotely, I sure would want to know how to do it for both personal and business reasons.</p>
<p>Change causes stress, but the only constant in our free enterprise system is change. Business at every level will be dramatically affected by these changes and, as always, those who recognize and embrace positive change will win the race.</p>
<p><b>About The Intelligent Office:</b></p>
<p>Launched in Boulder, Colo. in 1995, <a href="htttp://www.intelligentoffice.com" target="new">The Intelligent Office</a> offers a smart alternative to traditional offices and executive suites. The Intelligent Office combines the benefits of physical office space with the flexibility of virtual office solutions. With a growing network of franchises, The Intelligent Office provides "Class A" office space and business services to home-based professionals who only need office space on an occasional basis. The franchise company has 21 locations in nine states.</p>
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