Friday September 17, 2004

Why iWork is cool

As I said in my first blog entry iWork is a Sun's internal program that allows people to work in the way that is most effective for them and for Sun. Everyone at Sun is in one of three categories: Home assigned, Flexible, or Sun assigned. We have recognized that in today's world very few people come to the same office every day and just stay there.

iWork is cool because it really does support the way people work. I led a meeting this afternoon that included 10 people. 4 people were working from home, 3 people were in our Colorado office and 3 people were in California Bay Area offices. It really doesn't matter where I am located I can always work. I hardly ever do a meeting where everyone is in the same room.

iWork is cool because for a lot of people it is a big reason to work at Sun. People can live where they want to live and work from home. Just look at Mary or Tim. To work from Home you have to be focused, self motivated and a make things happen kind of person. But then those are the kind of people who thrive at Sun.

It is our systems. SunRay, JDS, Network computing they really do allow mobility with security. It is so cool to be able to check my mail and my calendar from home on my SunRay then go into any flexible office or drop in center and work on a SunRay there with exactly the same environment.

It is our infrastructure. We have dropin centers, flexible offices, the work from home program, iWork cafes to name a few. We call it a Network of Places :-)

It is the processes like change management, and the evaluation and assessment tools we have built to help people make the transition.

But what I think is coolest of all is that I really do believe that what we are doing reflects future work. I think that in the twentieth century we worked by going to our office and staying there. In the twenty first century we will work virtually. There are lots of challenges and lots to learn about how to work effectively in a virtual world but those who adapt and figure it out will have an enormous advantage!