As one of the first telecommuters in Sun Microsystem's work from home program, at the start the attraction was one of personal interest. Our Global Team adaptable to change, and working from home extended creativity, flexibility and the productivity. Ideas that came at odd hours, suddenly were captured instead of lost.

Managers and virtual teams cultivated a new style, that created a better culture independent of the costly overhead associated with renting office space and only hiring the local people or folks willing to move to where the office was. Today it is an art, the skills required to manage a telecommuter really not different than a distributed global enterprise-- biggest of which is keeping a virtual open door policy that everyone knows how to find.

There is a spirit of excitement and collaboration building in Sun IT today. Comes from a meaningful collaboration. Our CIO, Bob Worrall, has long been one of my heroes, because he cares about the common sense practices that drive business, but more than that, he demonstrates a genuine interest in the human side of business, regardless of where the humans are located. This is creating an interesting condition that will make the next year's results interesting.

Leadership is not a self centered practice, it is a community talent. Sun IT is not just Bob Worrall, but a combination of leadership who realize IT has both a responsibility and a need to collaborate in identifying and solving the right problems.

What are telecommuting trends in YOUR area?

As a telecommuting professional it is a delight to find a community of career commuting professionals in all fields growing. Yearly since 2001, we have been studying those progressive companies that have adapted recruiting, IT, and administrative practices to recognize the benefits of being a telecommuting friendly enterprise.

Whether it is your own business, or a company, telecommuting requires a certain type of skills, certainly not for everyone, but very effective for those employers and employees willing to consider the possibilities.

Major change is in place for IT that will require much focus to create meaningful change. Integrated Business Information Solution [IBIS] project will result in the consolidation of some 1,000 ERP applications with a single instance of Oracle. Change and Configuration Management, Service Management, and driving this change while keeping all other systems at a required level of service is an art most great IT companies dance with. Most IT Professionals love that dance too. An IT executive has got to have keen prioritization skills to manage the complexity, of a program that does in 1 year for thousands of systems, what typically is done on 3 year phased cycles of hardware refresh.

Sun's Open Work Practice is world class, of course, communication and Collaboration skills take on a unique challenge in a telecommuting environment. Many of us at Sun have been doing this for so long, it is a natural part of our DNA, and way of doing business. With up to 20,000 flexible workers giving up their fixed offices for the freedom and preference of telecommuting, we have found some new benefits too.

Sun is a leader in telecommuting, and this saves boatloads on real estate and talent recruiting and retention while at the same time, creating a culture of professionals in all industries who are experts in their profession, able to create and maintain meaningful relationships, working for years or days with people in a virtual environment. Teams are created, successful and reassembled for more success!

Other Cool Articles and Resources for Telecommuting:

• International Telework Association and Council -is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing the growth and success of work independent of location
• Telecommuting Program Checklist by Robert Moskowitz
• Telework Coalition: Enabling Distributed Work through Education, Technology, and Legislation.
  
• Working from Home Telecommuting makes weather no object..
• ComputerWorld: Best Places to work in IT Nominations. As companies fight for top talent, telecommuting takes a center stage. 1,400 Chief Financial Officers surveyed suggested that offering telecommuting was second only to more money. Few retention efforts could boast that benefit of saving money, creating loyalty, and creating competitive advantage!
• Telecommuting Professionals is a Yahoo group for sharing ideas and best practices from a telecommuter support community point of view. Members of this free community can share articles, blogs, make Linked In contacts, and share telecommuter tips for time and resource management.
  

Got other articles, blogs or telecommuting inspiration stories to share? Love to hear from you.

Dawn
http://linkedin.com/in/dmular