Monthly Archives: April 2011

Is a Virtual Office Right for Your Company?

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Cloud computing, mobile devices , and an increasingly tech savvy workforce are contributing to make virtual offices a very hot trend right now. The amount of money that an individual company can save by switching to virtual is a major incentive. However, there are a number of trade offs in the way in which business is conducted. Before you make a final decision to transition to a virtual office, you need to consider the following questions.

How much of your total work is conducted via computer and telephone? This applies to your entire workforce, not just yourself and a few sales staff or managers. If any part of your daily operations involves a lot of physical paperwork or hands on work using equipment other than computers, a virtual office New York may not be for you.

Are your employees dependable and independent workers? In other words, can you trust that they will do their work day and day out from home and that they will continue to work at peak efficiency?

Do you have or can you employ centralized systems for project management, time tracking and billing, remote collaboration like video conferencing and document sharing, and other productivity software? Will your customer and company data be protected yet accessible on remote servers?

Do you have systems and procedures for work, reporting, and accountability that can be easily converted to suit a virtual office? You will need policies regarding client contact, use of company technology, and general standards of conduct for at home workers.

Positive answers to all of the above questions is a good indication that your business may be able to make a smooth transition to a virtual company.

guest blogger TJ Lewis is a tech writer who covers new technologies and their impact on society for numerous blogs, websites, and even profiles like this page.

Practical Maps

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There’s a strange dichotomy at work in a country when people stop using maps in favor of GPS and start putting them on the walls as artwork. While most early maps were works of art and good cartographers to this day attempt to make their maps as beautiful of possible, the relegation of the World Wall Map to nothing more than a design accessory is troubling.

Maps are meant to be used, not just admired. Every map was designed to serve a practical function. Topographical maps were meant to be used by campers, backpackers and others who care about the physical dimensions of the space around them. Good road maps help those on long trips make their way from point A to point B with stop offs at interesting towns and landmarks along the way.

Academia and research still rely heavily on actual maps to teach the next generation of students about everything from history to astronomy. Some of the maps may now be computer generated, but that means that they may also be three dimensional and interactive, which makes them into even more effective tools for learning. As long as there are researchers and scientists who need to chart their findings in geographical space, there will be a need for practical maps.