World Car-Free day on 22 September once again pushed remote working into the spotlight. In its ninth year, the day was aimed at encouraging UK adults who drive to work, to ditch their car and either travel by public transport or work from home. A couple of years ago we researched employee attitudes towards the environment, over half (52 per cent) felt that reducing their commute would make them ‘greener.’ Such a response indicates a growing understanding among workers of the impact that their daily journey into work has on the environment.

The same research also found that staff wanted their employers to deploy greener policies - beyond recycling - more effectively. Remote working is just one element of adopting a greener outlook, but as more and more people start to work from home employers are recognising the impact that working practices have on our planet and on their bottom line. It’s not just the focus on the environment that is leading to discussions about remote working. With the UK Government extending flexible working rights (which encompasses the right to work from home) to 4.5 million parents with children under the age of 16 at the end of 2008, it is clear that the way in which we do business is changing.

Surely it’s a win-win scenario for staff and employers? To take advantage of these cost savings, organisations need to confront the Challenge of managing productivity and collaboration across the workforce, while at the same time ensuring access to mission critical applications and the effective delivery of data.

While this might sound like a daunting task, the good news is that it doesn’t have to be. The technology exists to make managing a remote workforce as easy as if you were all in the same location. Many companies think that enabling remote workers and managing them well all comes down to communications technology. However, the ability to collaborate is of equal importance. A key gripe is that when working from home it can be hard to know if a colleague is available. The integration of technologies such as presence indicators and instant messaging (IM) makes it easier than ever to know where people are so you can time your call to them accordingly. IM also allows employees to quickly get answers to questions when they can see from "Pesence" that the person they want to talk to is already on a call. Presence also has the added benefit of helping remote workers to work more effectively with colleagues across varying locations as it indicates when they are available, ensuring not only a productive workforce but one that feels connected.

Video conferencing also helps employees to have meetings with their peers across the country (or even around the globe) whilst cutting down on travel costs.

Ensuring that these collaboration tools are able to be used effectively and that employees have access to information as seamlessly as if they were in a ‘fixed’ office location is where a robust communications infrastructure comes into play. For virtual working to be effective, the right network capacity has to be in place to support this business model. If its not, workers will become frustrated by the stilted conversations they are having with customers and colleagues or the fact that it takes half an hour to download content rich documents.

Across the UK it would appear that there is a healthy take up of remote working policies, but many organisations are still missing out. It’s important that businesses implement an agile solution that is in line with their business strategy, but equally that those who have been cautious in the past need to sit up and take notice of how remote working can help their business. Next generation network technologies are the heartbeat of effective remote solutions and ensure that everyone stands to benefit. The bottom line is that having working policies in place that enable staff to work from home delivers tangible value to businesses at a time when they need to be more flexible than ever before.