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Steve Schilling's TeleCommute Solutions will handle your telecommuters.

Atlanta is a city in the throes of severe traffic-induced pollution problems. Its highway funds are frozen until it brings down smog levels. One of the solutions for such cities is telecommuting, and it seems appropriate that TeleCommute Solutions (TCS) is located there.

TCS somewhat uncomfortably calls itself a network service provider, but what it offers goes beyond the technology of delivering services over a network. Its stock in trade is a complete telecommuting package for large enterprises that takes care of every aspect of dealing with off-site workers, from access to training to support.

You'd think that city, state, and national efforts to encourage telecommuting as a solution to traffic and pollution, and as a way of saving on real estate costs, would be driving the current interest, but, in fact, that's not the principal reason, says Steve Schilling, president of TCS.

"The reality is people are doing this now for the job market," he says. "Because the market's gotten so tight, they need to retain and attract people. They need to expand the pool of people they get access to. And, companies are looking at telecommuting as an employee benefit, a retention tool."

Telecommuting can be a slippery term; it generally refers to workers who spend at least part of the work week at home--but the time can range from one day a week to full-time with only occasional visits to the main office. Link Resources, which has studied telecommuting for years, says the number of telecommuters is approaching 20 million. The Gartner Group projects that a quarter of the workforce will be doing some telecommuting by 2003.

This presents enormous challenges to the corporate network, as well as to the skills of management. In fact, says Don O'Hagan, vice president of telecommunications for the Pearson Technology Center, it's not even clear that telecommuters are the responsibility of IT departments. Pearson Education, with 11,000 employees, is aiming to be the largest education publisher in the world, and the technology center supports the entire operation all over the world. Right now, O'Hagan supports 4,000 remote workers.

# posted by Medical Information : 4:04 AM