Deja Vue - An Article that could been written in April 2009!

What do you think this is, 1999? [really, this was written in 2001]
By Toni Kistner. [back in] April 2001

So far, it has been the cruelest month - at least in the media industry. CMP pulled the plug on quasi-rival Web properties PlanetIT and Windowsmag.com; Mecklermedia's Internet.com and TheStreet.com laid off 20% and 15% of its staffs, respectively; and Home Office Computing magazine (recently renamed Homeoffice) unexpectedly ceased publication after more than 15 years on the stands. Profitable properties are putting the brakes on new projects and slashing fat travel budgets. Friends are out of work, and more than a few freelance writers I know face a dry April.

The good news is that small businesses remain steadfastly optimistic, according to a recent survey by American Management Services (AMS). AMS asked 500 small business owners nationwide about their economic outlook, technology spending and employee hiring. Telework's got its fingerprints all over these findings.

Sixty-three percent said their short-term (six month) financial outlook is positive, and 65% are optimistic about their medium-term (2-year) and long-term (5-year) futures. Sixty-two percent said they would invest the same amount or more in technology this year as last. Ninety-three percent said they would add or keep the same number of employees. More to the point, 74% said they're reluctant to lay off employees because of difficulties in recruiting and retaining qualified employees, particularly in urban areas. Questions relating to commuting, public transportation and housing also bode well for telework. Forty-two percent of respondents said their commute to work has worsened a number that jumps to 50% among suburban and pacific area businesses. Seventy percent report public transportation has worsened in the past 5 years, and 80% believe housing costs have increased or stayed the same over the past 5 years.

What about telework initiatives? Have they been hurt or helped by the economic downturn (or whatever you want to call it)? On the one hand, telework should cut real estate and other operating costs in the long term, but in the short term, a well-executed program demands a substantial initial investment in hardware, services and furniture. In my own informal poll, one telework consultant summed up his industry's general mood best: “The slowing down I'm seeing is more a function of overall budget tightening, but it's not a 'Things are tight; let's ditch this crazy telework stuff until everything settles down.'” And a spokesman for a major telework consulting and technology provisioning firm says, “We expect that the downturn will actually ramp-up interest in formal remote programs as budgets are being tightened - real estate and overhead being victims - which in some way is softened by having a distributed work force.” One explanation for all this small business optimism? Small businesses are nimble, fast on their feet and can respond to economic change much faster than their enterprise cousins. Case in point: Last week, I had lunch with an IT manager of a large New York investment services firm with an IT staff of 1,500. Back in 1999, faced with unprecedented growth and a desire to stem employee turnover, the firm launched an ambitious plan to migrate hundreds of workers to custom built state-of-the-art branch offices in New Jersey. The idea was to cut Manhattan real estate costs as well as the commute for suburban employees. Plans to develop a related telework program were also put in motion.

But since then, the CTO has left, and the company has stopped growing. Nevertheless, the first office is scheduled to open next month. Given the climate change I asked, what's the payoff, now? Will you at least be able to give up a couple of floors in the main office?

“No, not even,” she answered. “The program will allow us to stem future expansion.” She paused then added, “It's a very long-term strategy.”