Increased Productivity Due to Telecommuting

In the global networked economy, work is performed everywhere, at any time and any place. That said, what are the operational benefits? Cisco set out to evaluate the social, economic and environmental impacts associated with allowing and actively enabling employees to telecommute.

Cisco announced the findings of its Teleworker Survey, an in-depth study of almost 2,000 company employees. The study, conducted to evaluate the social, economic and environmental impacts associated with telecommuting at Cisco, revealed that a majority of respondents experienced a significant increase in work-life flexibility, productivity and overall satisfaction as a result of their ability to work remotely.

Create a Sound Telecommuting Strategy
As the modern workforce continues to evolve and globalize, more companies are evaluating a telecommuting strategy to save costs and lower carbon emissions as well as to retain top talent.

For these companies, Cisco's survey highlights the gains that a sound telecommuting strategy provides for employees and employers alike.

Cisco is achieving new levels of efficiency and effectiveness by enabling people to work together no matter where they are located. In fact, according to Cisco's Internet Business Services Group, the company's global strategic consulting arm, the company has generated an estimated annual savings of $277 million in productivity by allowing employees to telecommute and telework.

Examples of Connectivity Solution Adoption
In addition, with the steady adoption of enterprise-class remote connectivity solutions like Cisco Virtual Office, the recently announced Cisco OfficeExtend, and virtual collaboration tools like Cisco WebEx, Cisco anticipates that employees and employers will continue to see a rise in the benefits associated with telecommuting.

Highlights from the study include the following:

• Approximately 69 percent of the employees surveyed cited higher productivity when working remote, and 75 percent of those surveyed said the timeliness of their work improved.
• By telecommuting, 83 percent of employees said their ability to communicate and collaborate with co-workers was the same as, if not better than, it was when working on-site.
• 67 percent of survey respondents said their overall work quality improved when telecommuting.
• An improved quality of life through telecommuting was cited by 80 percent of survey respondents.
• Telecommuting can also lead to a higher employee retention rate, as more than 91 percent of respondents say telecommuting is somewhat or very important to their overall satisfaction.
  

How can your business benefit from these key insights? Bring your people and information together to reduce decision times and accelerate innovation. Develop a strategy to enable open, secure, adaptable enterprise collaboration that improves your company's creativity and velocity.

Can Managed Services Rescue Financial Services?

Turmoil and struggles in the financial services sector are splashed daily on the front page of newspapers around the world. The industry faces a number of monumental challenges that are threatening and shaping its future. To remain competitive, forward-looking firms need to:

• Reduce costs
• Improve cross-sell and up-sell results from existing customers
• Shift capital expenditures to operational expenditures through variable costing and on-demand capabilities
  

Progressive companies in the financial services sector are aggressively using managed services technology to address some of these current challenges.

Serving Market Growth
The financial services sector currently spends more than 2.5 times more on technology than other industries. The way they can attack challenge number one is to shift the management of desktops, data centers, and call centers to a managed services model. Companies are using this option not just to reduce costs, but as a way to reallocate investment into growth initiatives.

One regional U.S. bank came to Cisco ISBG (the company's strategic consulting arm), wanting to quickly enter a new niche market faster than a competitor and increase its market share. Its tactic: deploy an end-to-end managed service, including both technology and business processes.

The economics of managed services lower the barriers of entry to niche markets that might not have been economical before; it also helps them determine success or failure more quickly, and act accordingly.

Managed Services Increase Customer Ties
In developing markets, companies are looking to use managed services to target customers who might not have used banks at all previously. A managed service that offers the underlying network infrastructure, including phones, provides them with an on-demand and scalable service that they can roll-out ahead of competitors.

To increase the amount of business conducted with customers, financial services firms are looking beyond the traditional world of financial transactions and services. One large bank we're working with wants to expand its relationship with its small and mid-size customers by providing them with essential services as payroll, procurement, and human resources.

Because the bank wants to roll out these services quickly, they will be created, delivered and managed by another entity through a managed services model.

Next generation managed services offer a real opportunity to transform the financial services sector. But success will require creative thinking, as well as both the development of strategic partnerships with managed services providers and proper governance models.

About the author: Stuart Taylor is a Director in Cisco IBSG. Stuart leads thought leadership and engagements with key Service Providers in managed services. He has over 15 years of experience focused on strategy, corporate development, business unit strategy, M&A and operational improvement with large mobile and wireline operators and high technology clients.