Thursday October 21, 2004

iWork and Birthdays

Today is my youngest daughter's 20th birthday!! Happy Birthday Shan!! How time flies.

It was ten years ago that Sun's Workplace Resources organization began to develop our iWork program. The team recognized that rather than supporting the way people work, traditional workplace, management and technology offerings were ineffective for many employees. The nature of knowledge work, which relies on thought and information rather than muscle and machinery, allows for greater freedom for individuals to choose where and when to work, but only if the work infrastructure accommodates such a choice.

We've come a long way since the first flexible offices 10 years ago. Currently there are over 90 flexible office locations around the world and the flexibility that iWork provides is consistently listed as one of the reasons that employees like working at Sun.

We still have room to improve iWork though. We have to make sure that the technology to support iWork is easy to use and readily available. SunRay at home and JDS on laptops will do that. We just have to get them out there with absolutely awesome ease of use, quality and support. We have to expand the flexible infrastructure and continue to enhance and evolve it so it truly reflects the way everyone works, especially people who are doing the innovation, collaboration and creative work that is key to Sun's future. And we have to provide managers with the skills, tools and support required to excel at "remote management". We need to continue to build management acceptance of and support for iWork.

I really believe in this stuff. I don't know what I'll be doing in ten years when Shan turns 30 and iWork turns 20 but I am very confident that iWork will be thriving. We are creating the future of Work!

Thanks to David Rush for allowing me to plagiarize a great white paper he recently wrote on iWork