CONCORD, Mass. -- Jan. 24, 2005 -- There's nothing like a snow blizzard to remind us that nature can sometimes make our business operations come to a standstill. With snow piled high on the sides of our roads, most of us will retreat from our school, work or social plans and sit isolated at home while the storm passes or until the snow ploughs have had enough time to clear our transport arteries.
For businesses, snow days can be a big disruption to their activities with most employees staying at home or at least leaving early to be able to make it home. However for some, the Internet can overcome the isolating power of a large snow blizzard. Some employees are now working online in an "online workplace". With just a computer and an Internet connection at home they can securely access the files, knowledge and resources they need to put in a full day's work.
"Many of our clients use an online workplace to more easily share files and scheduling information with distributed team members, for example clients that are off site or team members that travel frequently. An additional benefit of an online workplace is that when a storm like this comes along, while we may not be able to buy the Boston Globe from our local store, we can still log on and work seamlessly with our colleagues," said Katherine Santer, a vice president at ProjectLounge.com, Inc., a company that has been hosting online workplaces powered by IBM Lotus collaboration software for four years.
Similar to a wiki, an online workplace is a website that allows its audience to add and edit content using basic web navigation skills via a user friendly interface. However it differs with wikis in one major area, security. The data in an online workplace can only be accessed by invited members. And the read, edit, author access privileges for each member are controlled by the manager of a workplace. ProjectLounge.com, Inc. hosted workplaces allow users to set approval workflows ensuring content is added or edited only with the approval of specified members, and each revision or addition is author and time stamped.
Teams of any size can share information such as files, message boards, calendars, task management charts and discussion forums in their online workplace and can use web-conferencing tools such as screen sharing, instant messaging and polling to discuss their work or build consensus in real time.
"By sharing project information and key documents in a secure online workplace hosted by ProjectLounge, and coordinating tasks and events online using Gantt charts and an online calendar, (employees) can seamlessly participate in our collaboration without needing to meet in a physical location regularly," said Court Booth, the volunteer chairman of CCTV, Inc., one of ProjectLounge's clients.
As Internet technologies make working from home easier and more accessible, we may not need a snow day to see a change in peak hour traffic on a work day.
More information on ProjectLounge can be found at www.projectlounge.com. ProjectLounge offers several service options depending on a team's need, starting at $10 per month per user. An online workplace can be set up instantly via the website.
