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Save your commute with virtual offices
18 February, 2007
By Vanessa Ho |
A recent survey conducted by Statistics Canada indicated that workers are spending 45 minutes less a day with their families than 20 years ago due to increased working hours. To help workers gain some of that time back, depo consulting, an Internet consultancy firm based in the United Kingdom has set up virtual offices on Second Life, a 3-D virtual world.
What these virtual offices do is replicate the real life office in every way while all in the comfort of ones home. From access to computer systems, filing cabinets, management oversight and even through to office romances and water-cooler moments, all of this can be replicated within the virtual office. The site can be accessed through
here
"People are working ludicrous hours if you include travel time and I think the ability to have a better lifestyle has to be a good thing," said Peter Dunkley, a director with depo consulting.
While first-time users of Second Life may think it is video game like the SIMS with animated characters representing yourself and co-workers, Dunkley said it isn't. Companies have used depo's virtual meeting rooms to conduct meetings or presentations. Internally, depo has used its virtual offices to work on projects together.
He added that this allows companies with multiple locations around the world to still work together collaboratively without having to travel or rely on unreliable phone and video conferencing technologies in order to meet.
Businesses that use a Second Life virtual office simply just teleport, a term that Dunkley used, to attend meetings from where ever they are and then afterwards are free to continue on what they were doing before. This saves a company a lot of money on travel costs.
Currently, the company is talking with IT services companies about developing genuine virtual offices and Dunkley believes that "within five years virtual offices will be established as a genuine alternative for many businesses."
If there is anything that does goes against the technology right now, Dunkley said that Second Life does go down for maintenance sometimes at peak times when people conduct business and that there is some lag in the program.
"Those things are not acceptable for anybody but those things are going to be resolved fairly quickly," he added.
Once those issues are resolved, Dunkley bets that in 15 years time, the face business will change because of these virtual offices. He added that it is smaller businesses and niche businesses like depo that will be the early adopters of this trend.
In addition to providing a better lifestyle and increased productivity for workers, virtual offices also have environmental benefits, said Dunkley.
"Spending two hours a day traveling is a horrendous sacrifice, especially for those with families but it is also becoming clear that global warming is an issue and our behavior is not helping with that. There is lots of travel in terms of commuting and business travel for meetings that could be avoided," he added.
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