Revolutionary innovations in communication technology
render distances less restrictive. The transition from analogue to
digital has increased the carrying capacity and richness of
communications and has further accelerated the process of distance
compression.



Regardless of the successes of digital communications, it is important
not to overstate the gains. Even with ever-improving digital
communications we are still bound by the physical reality of space. The
avalanche of bold predictions spurred by the popularity of the Internet in the late 1990s evaporated after the dot commercial bubble precisely because the vision did not correspond to the reality.



The current generation of communications tools
could fare better. Less encumbered by hubristic visions and backed by a
solid network infrastructure, today’s digital communications are
already making a tangible difference. One of the aspects of these
changes is the engendering of new working patterns.



Today, the workplace can be anywhere and workers can interact with
colleagues and clients wherever they are. Flexible work patterns bring
real benefits by enabling a more responsive organisation and reducing
demand for expensive centralised office space and the associated
commuting costs. This can also open entirely new business opportunities
by widening the pool of employees, collaborators and clients.



Finally, flexible working can improve the morale of the existing
workforce by accommodating their preferences in terms of location and
scheduling.



Attitudes to flexi-work vary across countries, enterprise size-bands and organisational roles.



The survey confirms an absence of a clear stance on flexible working due to different legislative frameworks, communications infrastructures
and operational conditions present in different countries, enterprise
size-bands and organisational roles. According to IT managers surveyed,
almost one third of organisations (29%) do not offer flexi-work at all,
over a half of organisations (56%) support flexi-work actively and the
remainder offers flexi-work, but not with active IT support.



With respect to attitudes towards flexi-work, organisations from
different countries exhibit distinct traits. Some countries have a high
incidence (up to 75%) of organisations that support flexi-work and
provide active IT support. If the organisations that offer flexible
working without active support are included, the number offering some
form of flexi-work reaches 90%. This, in fact, is the case in France,
the leading country in terms of flexi-work support. Switzerland and
Australia may be viewed as equally good examples of such a pattern.



By contrast to its widespread support in most of the markets surveyed,
only 55% of US organisations actively support flexible working. A mere
5% offer flexi-work without active IT support. This makes organisations
in the US more akin to those in Asia than those in Western Europe and
Australia. In Asia, just under a quarter of organisations offer
flexi-work and IT support. In MEA a majority of organisations offer
flexi-work, but most of them do not offer active support to go with it.



Although the pattern can be interpreted in a variety of ways, it is
clear that the adoption of unified communications is not the principal
reason behind the decision to support flexi-work. For example, the
Composite Unified Communications Maturity index (see appendix),
indicates that the first and the third most advanced markets in terms
of unified communications adoption, the US and Asia lag behind in terms
of offering flexi-work. Clearly, the reasons are to be sought in
regulatory frameworks and the structure of the employment market and
not in the communications infrastructure.



It is also interesting to note that in the US very few organisations
offer flexible working without IT support associated (5%), whereas in
the MEA region a far higher proportion (37%) do. The US pattern can be
explained by highly regulated IT governance that restricts the scope
for the informal support of flexi-work. In MEA, less established
infrastructure is forcing enterprises to delegate IT support for
flexi-working to employees.