Do me a favor and think about the top tools that you like to use for workshifting.

Now if you are like me, I will bet that some, if not all, of the tools that you just came up with have some social aspect to them. Mark Zuckerberg is right, humans are social creatures and like to feel like they are part of something bigger, something that we can connect to. Much like the community we are building here at Workshifting.com, we all like to have somewhere to go to find people of like mind and thoughts and workshifters are no different.

If I were going to rattle off a list that many of you might have, I would bet it might include Twitter, Facebook, maybe a few LinkedIn's, but if your company is like a lot of others these tools are a no-no for use in the enterprise. To a certain extent there are valid arguments for not allowing these tools. Sharing company-specific information on a social network could be considered a bad idea. How many times have we seen Tweets or Facebook posts that have come back to haunt someone?

So what's a good workshifter to do? Why not consider introducing one of the new "enterprise class" social networking tools into your business? Companies of all sizes are starting to realize that the traditional ways of hiring and managing people are just not going to work any longer. The value of allowing people to communicate and collaborate in ways they feel comfortable is quickly becoming the present and future way that we are going to work.

The good news is that the enterprise social tools are getting better; I wanted to throw out a few that I know of and hopefully you can leave some that you like in the comments.

Microsoft SharePoint - If you are a Microsoft shop, SharePoint has quickly become the go-to intranet site for your business. Because it takes the tools that most companies use and love, the Microsoft Office suite, and builds in tight integration with SharePoint, the functionality is hard to beat. Microsoft has seen the social light and is quickly trying to build social aspects into their products and their latest release, SharePoint 2010, has the most social hooks to date. Best of all is that there are several bolt-on products from companies like Newsgator that can kick the social aspect up a notch.

Yammer - I consider Yammer to be the Twitter for the enterprise. Much like Twitter, Yammer allows you to create a profile for each of your employees, post and reply to comments and thoughts, securely share files, and direct message each other all via their app. They even have a great starting price: free! All you need is a company email address to sign up.

Salesforce.com Chatter - When you hear "Salesforce" you might instantly think CRM but they have rolled out a new collaboration tool that is getting pretty good reviews. I consider Chatter to be more like an internal, private Facebook for your business and all of the good Facebook features are there. Profiles, groups, status updates, file sharing - all that you need to help make your business more collaborative.

How about you? These are a few that I have come up with. Which ones would you add?

Photo Credit: stitch

Ok, I will date myself a little here and admit that the very first computer I had was a Texas Instruments TI99 that used tape cassettes for storage. I also remember cranking up old analog modems to get online and having bragging rights because I had the first 28.8k modem on my street.

Its safe to say that I have been in IT for a while and its been mind blowing to see what we used just 15 years ago compared to what we have today. Typically these swings in tech are proceeded by subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, trends that start to emerge as companies start to craft and shape their visions. Shifts like moving mainframes to PC's and Microsoft starting to embrace the internet, have changed the way we work, and workshift, even today.

We are all lucky to be living through another one of these transitional periods in tech and these upcoming trends could change the way that we do business and workshift to get business done. Now, depending on which tech pundit or tech vendor you ask, this list could change. But here are three trends that I see coming (or that are already here) and if you have some I would love to hear from you.

1. The consumerization of IT. Think about the traditional model of how IT procures and distributes technology to an organization. Typically an IT shop partners with a specific set of vendors and they procure and deliver solutions from only them because a homogeneous shop tends to works best. With the introduction of new technologies like the iPad, Android phones, iPhones, and with more Millennials starting to enter the workplace, people want to start using the same technology they use at home in their job. Honestly, the consumer based tools are starting to work better and get updated more frequently than traditional enterprise applications so who can blame them. More and more, people's work and home lives are starting to blur and they want to use tools that are familiar to them in both locations.

2. The embracing of software as a service (SaaS). You can really start to see the shift in traditional IT in how businesses are starting to embrace the SaaS model of delivering key applications to their organization. We are starting to see a shift from where IT is always the center of technology decisions to more business units going with web based tools to fill a gap in their technology infrastructure. Be it Google Apps for email, WorkDay for HR, Salesforce for CRM, there are some really compelling tools available for businesses to deploy quickly and often at a cheaper cost than involving IT. The benefit for workshifters is that these tools can be accessed from anywhere using almost any device.

3. The shift towards using simple devices running specific task oriented applications. Lets face it, in a lot of ways workshifters are no different from normal consumers when it comes to tech. We want something that is mobile, works consistently, and is low maintenance. There are always going to be power user/coder types who will need the processing power of a workstation. But for us who simply need to be mobile, access to email, SaaS applications, the new type of slate/iPad devices are starting to become more appealing. Instant on, quick performance, great battery life make for a workshifters dream. Pair this hardware with task specific apps, like an app for Twitter, one for word processing, another for email, that are very easy to install/uninstall, and it gives you a pretty compelling tool to use in your daily workshifting life. I know that my iPad is starting to pick up more of my daily use.

Its going to be an exciting next 10 - 15 years. As we start to see these trends emerge, start to see business focus on ROWE work environments, it will be a workshifters nirvana.

These are three trends that I can see coming, how about you?

Photo Credit: techbirmingham

One of the things we have been wrestling with is building a sound disaster recovery plan for our business. If you have never done it, disaster recovery quickly turns into one of those never ending rabbit holes that take a lot of planning to get it right. But all of this time I never really translated disaster recovery into my personal life.

Until...

I lost the hard drive on our main iMac in our home. All of our digital pictures, our entire iTunes library, lots of documents, you get the picture. I have talked about some technology sins that I have committed in the past but not having a good backup of this system had to be my worst. I know better, I know how to build a good backup and recovery plan for a business, have done it several times in the past. But I sure didn't have a good one for home and I will bet that I am not alone.

After rebuilding our iMac, and being really lucky to come across a tool called Disk Warrior that saved my hide, I got to thinking about the close call and wondered why I couldn't apply some of the things that I have learned in business to my workshifting world.

Like I mentioned above, disaster recovery can be as big and as complex as you want to make it, but here are a few key areas to start your own workshifting disaster recovery plan:

1. Get a good idea of where all of your important data resides. For us the killer apps on this machine were our iTunes and iPhoto libraries. For you it might be some important work documents. Find them and document where they are being stored.
   
   
2. Identify your must have applications. These are the ones that you can't do without on a day-to-day basis. Document these must haves and then think about prioritizing them. In the event of a disaster you likely can't bring them all back at once. By having them prioritized it will give you a good concrete list to work from.
   
   
3. Now that you know where your data lives get it off of your machine and preferably out of your home. There are several, cloud based, tools to help you do this. Take a look at Mozy and DropBox to get you started. To survive a real disaster (fire, flood) it does no good to have your backup disks sitting in the drawer under your machine.
   
   
4. Take your key list of applications and start thinking how you can make them more resilient. This one can be a tuffy, but if you are a small business it could be that your Quickbooks invoices are your lifeblood. What should you try to get back first? Hopefully you will already have that answered.
   

These are a few key areas to think about but there are certainly many other areas that may be important for you, depending on the nature of your work, data, and needs.

How about you? Had any personal disaster stories that you want to share?

Photo Credit: Will Scullin

If you go back and look at how Google started as a company, it's really amazing to see how much they have grown. Starting out with search, they have grown into many areas including collaboration, mobile, and productivity. While at times I wish that Google would focus, it's hard to argue against their strategy as they are leaders in the search market and challengers in many other areas.

So when they announced Google Wave there was a ton of hype because everyone was waiting for that next killer application from Google. Let's face it, these are the guys who did Google Search, Gmail, Adwords. All game changers in their categories, so expectations were pretty high.

But something happened along the way.. No one really knew what to do with it.

I am like a lot of people when I say that I honestly haven't used Wave a whole lot. When Google first announced it I rushed out and got an invitation, started a few Wave's with some buddies, but the interest quickly faded. That doesn't mean that Wave couldn't be a great tool for workshifting and after I revisited it some benefits bubbled up to the surface:

•    For team collaboration it quickly beats trading information back and forth via email. We have all been on those long email strings, soon you lose track of what came first, that important attachment that everyone else is referencing has been misplaced in your inbox. With Wave all of this information is contained within the Wave for everyone to see. One version of the truth.

•    Get new teammates up to speed quickly. As you add new people to your team you can quickly get them up to speed by using the playback feature found in every wave. The playback starts over at the beginning of the wave and you can quickly see the content and people who where added to wave as they happened.

•    Wave brings conversation into your project. How many times have you been working remotely on a project, needed some additional information from a team member, and you then had to use other tools to start these offline conversations. With Wave, all of these conversations can happen within the project where they are then stored for the whole team to see.

I decided to take another run at really using Wave to see if it fits into my workshifting toolbox and I need your help. A few weeks back I posted five reasons why your boss won't let you workshift and now I want to come up with a post that focuses on the reasons why you can.

I have started a wave so that we can collaborate on the responses. This will help me out by getting some feedback on my post and it will allow us to kick the tires on Google Wave to see the good and the bad. I will put out a follow up post on how Wave worked and if it meets the mark for workshifting use.

If you are interested in joining, make sure you have a Google Wave account, and shoot me an email at wave@itkgroup.com and I will email you the invite. Hopefully we will get a new post put together and we will see if Google Wave is a workshifting treasure or tease.

Have you found any workshifting benefits of Google Wave?


Photo Credit: Rafa Garces

I think we would all agree that of all the hurdles that we face when trying to implement a workshifting culture our technical problems are nothing compared to our people problems. The technical challenges are likely the easiest to overcome because they are purely black and white, either it works or it doesn't. Its easy to get discouraged but I am here to tell you that a little planning up front will make the task of convincing your boss that much easier.

The biggest challenge we will face is changing the pervasive work environment that can be found in the majority of businesses across America that still sees workshifting as a pipe dream, something that will never work. Lets work through these five and in another post we will give you five reasons why we can make workshifting happen.

1. When you are working from home I can't tell when you are really working. Look, I already have enough to do without having to worry about what you are doing while working out of the office. When 8:00 AM rolls around and I can see you sitting at your desk, I know that you are in the office and stuff is getting done.
2. No one can get real work done at home. I know my place has way to many distractions to be productive. Your kids are running around the house, screaming, all while you are trying to talk to a customer? Forget about it, no way am I going to take a chance that we will look unprofessional, not even in the slightest.
3. How about filing your TPS reports? We have filing cabinets full of those reports that you have to refer to daily. How can you do that while working out of the office. Think we are going to send them to you? Don't be selfish, our jobs are hard enough already without having to cater to your whims and wishes.
4. You know how it is, out of sight, out of mind. You really want that promotion? I'm telling you, if you work out of the office you miss all of the offline chatter that builds relationships and relationships are what builds careers.
5. I know that you have valid reasons but as soon as I let you start working away from the office I will have to let everyone do it. No favorites are played at this company. My job is hard enough managing the people that I have. As soon as I open this up for you I will have ten people breathing down my neck to do the same.

Honestly its pretty easy to explain away why someone cannot make workshifting happen in their organization. Go ahead and Google "telecommute problems" and see what comes up at the top of the list. Its not the technical chops that you need to make it work, its the management and people problems that are hard to solve.

That is one of the reasons that we are here, to help solve some of these problems. The Workshifting.com community is here to help answer some of these questions and be a great reference on why you can make this happen.

These are five that I came up with. Any you have heard that you would like to share?


Photo Credit: Editor B

How many times has it happened to you? Computer crashed. Kid sick so you can't make it into the office. Car won't start.

I have said it before, life happens, so you should try to make your organization as prepared as possible to keep moving forward when you are thrown that curve ball. In the post above, I talked about protecting your data but there are many pieces to this puzzle so lets turn our attention to your most precious asset, your people.

A common thought that goes through many organizations is that people need to come into the office in order to work. One of the problems with this line of thinking is that by tying your staff to a physical location you are putting all of your eggs into one basket. If the building burns, or if your staff cannot make it into the office, you have a high potential that their work day will be interrupted at best and at worst days/weeks could be a complete loss.

How can you combat this? Set your people free!

Studies have shown that by allowing your team to workshift, it makes for a happier and more productive staff. Best Buy's ROWE program shows how to allow your people to focus on what is important. Its also good sign that big business is starting to find out that you don't have to be in the office to get real work done.

Some interesting stats from Telework.Gov:

•    Federal agencies have 102,900 employees that are teleworking
•    64% of those employees were teleworking relatively frequently (either 1-2 days a week, or 3 or more days a week)
•    Office coverage and management resistance are considered the largest barriers to implementation

The federal government is starting to catch the workshifting religion and more companies like Best Buy are starting to see the benefits of having a focused workforce working where they feel comfortable and more productive.

Computer crashed? No problem, many workshifting tools turns the computer into a dumb terminal, all of your data is stored online. Kids sick? Once the children are tended to and resting, your employee simply returns to their home office and they are back up to speed. A real disaster occurs? Your team can be home with their families, your data is dispersed so it is safe, and they have their everyday tools on hand to pick up the pieces.


What do you think? How do you keep your organization nimble?


Photo credit: dazzied

No one is perfect, right? 

I have a small confession to make. Some of those tech best practices that everyone says that you shouldn't do... I sometimes do them. I always have the best intentions but just like all of you, sometimes life happens. Its easy to do, I sign up for a lot of new services and a lot of the time I am just trying to get something done so security gets sacrificed for speed. 

I have lots of tools in my workshifting toolbox and I wanted to share some of my sins and some good ways that you can avoid them while on the go. 

Sometimes I use the same password on different systems
 
Like I mentioned above, I am constantly trying out new services. Seeing what is good, and not so good, is part of my job but unfortunately it can lead to a lot of user names and passwords to have to remember. Its a pretty big faux pas and it is also one of the linchpins that helped Twitter get hacked over the summer. 

I know that its tough but as you sign up for new accounts (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc) take the time and try to come up with a different password for each system. As in the Twitter hack, once one of your passwords fall, its an easy process to figure out what systems you are active on and try the same user name and password combination to gain access to each. 

I don't do a good job of backing up my data 

This is another one of those things where time is a killer. Unless you have an automated system in place you just will not back up the data on your computers consistently. Again, I always have good intentions but data backup is one of those things that we all will "get to a little later". 

The good news is that there are a couple of free tools that can help take this burden off of us. 

Mozy is a super easy backup and recovery tool for your computer. An extra advantage to Mozy is that they actually back up your data into the cloud on Mozy's servers. In the case of a disaster, your data is off site and safe and can be restored back to your systems when you are ready. Installation couldn't be easier, simply sign up for the service, install a small program on your computer, tell the program what folders on your computer you want to protect, and Mozy handles the rest. Mozy will give you two gigabytes of storage just to try it out. Beyond that you can back up all of your data for five bucks a month. 

Dropbox is a fairly new application that handles backups a little differently than Mozy. With Dropbox, you store your data in the cloud but you can also sync your data across multiple systems in your home. The sync feature is nice if you want to share some files across your system and changes made on your documents are automatically synced between all systems as the changes are made. Dropbox also has a web console where you can log in, see your data, and download files to other systems as needed. A very slick little app, and they also provide for two gigabytes of storage for free. You can increase your storage to fifty gigabytes for ten dollars a month and go with one hundred for twenty dollars a month. 

I sign up for too many systems and then don't clean up after myself 

Like I noted above, I am constantly trying new online applications out. The other night I decided to kick the tires on HootSuite and I am trying to see if it will be an addition to the list of apps that I love. The problem with this is that sometimes I leave a lot of baggage behind me that needs to be cleaned up. With all of these extra accounts lying around, it widens the footprint that someone could leverage if they were looking to hack your accounts. This came into play in the Twitter hack as well. One of the Twitter staffers had an old Hotmail account that they didn't use any longer but then never closed the account. The problem was that the staffer used their old Hotmail address as one of the alternate email addresses when a password reset request was made. Once the hacker compromised Hotmail, they simply requested a password reset on the system they wanted access too, and it was all downhill from there. 

To try to combat this I have created a list that I add any new services I try too. From time to time I review the list, see what I am not using anymore, and then go about deleting the old accounts that are not needed. One annoying thing, a lot of these services don't want you to delete your account, deflates their number of subscribers, so sometimes you have to go digging to find the account delete feature. 

Hopefully you got some tips to help you avoid some of the mistakes that I have made. Any you would like to share?  

Photo Credit: D.C Atty