Large companies are taking note of successful alternative work styles and the shifting desire of many employees to work from home or at satellite offices closer to home. Many of these companies are attempting to tackle the problem with large-scale, expensive telepresence and video conferencing services that cost as much money as they save. Here are 7 keys to keep a remote workforce program successful:

1. You can keep a strong client / vendor relationship without ever meeting face-to-face. The concept of representatives flying around the world to meet clients is a thing of the past. While face-to-face still has its place and value, interacting by video conferencing, phone and email is no longer “impersonal” and can be quite intimate and engaging. Many workers these days are just as comfortable with colleagues they’ve never met as they are with their in-office counterparts.

2. Physical presence doesn’t necessarily mean quality presence. Old and large corporations live by the notion that if you aren’t sitting at your desk, you aren’t working. But being in the office does not guarantee that you are truly engaged in your work and by the same token, being away from the office doesn’t mean you’re not working. There are dozens of online project management tools - often including time tracking - that can help managers keep a handle on their remote workers.

3. Large telepresence systems may be overkill for smaller companies. Telepresence systems may be an ideal solution for large companies that have multiple satellite offices that have frequent online meetings, but there are many inexpensive, even free, teleconferencing and videoconferencing services like instantpresenter.com that can still make distributed teams incredibly productive for a fraction of the price.

4. Electronic “paper” trails increase accountability. Unlike face-to-face meetings or phone calls that are not taped, many remote online meeting tools have built-in recording features that can be archived and reviewed. Using project management tools in the work process can also track and archive all of your correspondence. Switching from standard meetings to online discussion boards helps make your “institutional memory” more readily available to all workers in the company, creating a knowledge management database and cutting down on needless searches for information.

5. Archived training videos and demos, along with archived webinars and webcasts are all right at your fingertips. They are also at your client’s or potential client’s fingertips any time of the day or night or in any time zone. Your sales tools are always at the ready.

6. Online web-work can help save the planet. All corporations are feeling the pressure to go green, and having employees work from home and not drive, and having clients meet via video conferencing and not fly are easy success stories that you can use to impress stakeholders. Save fossil fuels by implementing telecommuting and remote work processes. Corporate workers care about saving the planet, too.

7. Take advantage of web conferencing, audio conferencing and video conferencing services. Just because workers are out of the office (whether traveling, working in remote offices, or working from home) doesn’t mean that you have to be out of touch. There are many quality video conferencing and webcasting services available at very low costs such as InstantPresenter and WebEx.

iLinc, a leading provider of Web conferencing software and online collaboration solutions today announced that Technology Marketing Corporation’s, Communications Solutions has named the iLinc 9.0 Web conferencing suite a recipient of the Product of the Year Award. The award is given to the most innovative products and services brought to market in 2007. As one of the top independent providers of Web conferencing, webcasting and online collaboration solutions, iLinc provides easy to use online collaboration tools in its suite of applications to small and large businesses.

TMC President, Rich Tehrani:

iLinc has been recognized with a 2007 Product of the Year Award for their excellence in the advancement of voice, data and/or video communications, iLinc has proven they are committed to quality and excellence in solutions that benefit the customer experience as well as ROI for the companies that use them.”

With its four-product suite, iLinc provides solutions for virtual classrooms, webinars, web conferencing and online collaboration sessions. These solutions enable organizations with real-time web collaboration tools designed with specific modules for sales, marketing, training, and IT and customer service support functions. The iLinc suite of web conferencing software provides meeting leaders and attendees an online experience equal to, and in some cases superior to, in-person interaction.

As businesses of all sizes continue to expand globally, instant electronic communication has become increasingly critical to daily operations. Most companies now have “virtual teams” which comprise of employees of one or multiple companies, often in different locations around the globe, and frequently whom never meet face-to-face. Instead, these virtual teams only communicate by phone, email, video conference and other forms of electronic communication.

The alternative to working in virtual teams, requires constant travel expenses and loss of time and productivity. Virtual teams allow talents in different geographic locations to work together, while still having time to work on other local teams and tasks. However, one of the biggest drawbacks to working virtually is the lack of human interaction.

Michael Beyerlein, a professor and head of the Department of Organizational Leadership and Supervision characterizes the problem:

Nonverbal signals, such as eye contact, are huge. Researchers have estimated that about 90 percent of our communication is nonverbal, so obviously working electronically can create obstacles within a team. However, many of the basic meeting management guidelines can help workers get the most out of their virtual team experience.

• If possible, conduct the first team meeting in person and then the rest as virtual meetings. This gives the group a chance to get to know who they will be working with and establish goals and norms for the project.
• Use meeting facilitators. Have a leader who makes sure everyone on the team has a chance to be heard, this helps the group stay on topic and makes sure any technical problems are solved immediately.
• Celebrate the successes virtually. In-person teams celebrate the completion of a project, so should virtual teams. Send congratulatory e-mails, glue pictures of your team to your computer, or if you can, get together and go out to a restaurant. If you’re working with people from Thailand, for instance, choose a Thai restaurant to recognize and celebrate part of your team’s culture. These are little things, but they can go a long way.