Johan Opsommer and Pierre-Andre Rulmont Belgacom, New Developments E. Jacqmainlaan 151, B-1210 Brussels
The fast evolution in informatics and in telecommunication has resulted in fast and reliable ways to transfer all kinds of information. Although teleworking is not completely new, the numerous services offered by today's telecommunication operators will certainly play a stimulating role. In this paper, we examine the needs of teleworking and explain how telecommunication services fulfil these needs.
The telephone is the most widespread method of telecommunication. However, beyond the common voice carrier service, the telephone of today can provide other facilities, mainly due to the continuous increasing flexibility of the associated services. The following topics will be covered: CENTREX, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), Universal Numbers (UN) and Intelligent Networks (IN). The full paper will also discuss the possibilities for data communication and analyse a few telecommunication based applications
The communication needs for teleworking are different for the employee and the manager. The employee in the first place requires access to the information needed to do his job. Ideally, he should have the same documents available as when he is physically present at his office. For this reason, it is important to have an electronic Document Management System (DMS) in which all documents are stored. Also important is the contact with colleagues and customers. This can be realised by telephone, mail and videophone. The latter is important because of the visual contact between the persons involved in the communication.
For the manager, the contact with his employees is of major importance. In addition, an electronic scheduler can be used for setting up meetings with teleworkers. Besides the telecommunications needs, the manager will have to change his methods for leading his people. The attitude of controlling the presence of employees must be replaced by an evaluation of the obtained results.
The first type of flexibility that public operators provide is the CENTREX. This service offers the same flexibility as a private exchange, known as a PABX. The following list indicates the primary possibilities useful in the context of teleworking:z communication between several users,z Call Waiting, through which the incoming calls are queued at the operator,z internal numbering plan.In addition to these facilities, the CENTREX will be connected together to form the AREA WIDE CENTREX which means that these functionalities will be available throughout the whole country without having to make any investment by the company.
Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are built on the concept of a Closed User Group. Restrictions for incoming or outgoing calls are established on top of the public network. This network is integrated in the public network and nevertheless acts as a completely private network. In addition to the access restrictions, Virtual Private Networks provide more extensive billing facilities, so that a better control of the telecommunication cost is possible.
The interest for the teleworker at home is that through the VPN, he can make calls on the account of the company. This method provides an easy way to avoid billing of professional calls on the personal account. With these billing facilities, the manager has control on the communication cost. How does it work in practice? The teleworker dials a freephone number which connects him to the VPN of his company. After giving his personal PIN code, he is granted access to the network but the charges will be for his company. This functionality avoids the need for a second telephone line.
A serious disadvantage of using the private telephone line for professional use is related to the distribution of the private number. If the teleworker has to be contacted, he has to disclose his private number. If he does not agree to do this, the problem can be solved by the introduction of universal numbers. These are specific numbers which can be routed towards another number. The destination of the routing process can depend on the time of the day. For the teleworker, a universal number is provided by the operator; this number is then routed to the private number during the day and to a special announcement outside the working hours.
The flexibility of the universal numbering is certainly interesting but not complete since the user cannot modify the routing by himself. This service can however be offered if the operator uses Intelligent Networks (IN). The basic idea behind an Intelligent Network is to place a network of computers in parallel with the telephone switches. For particular calling types, the switch will contact the nearest computer to consult a database. This database contains the routing information of the switch. The contents of the routing database can be updated by the user via a telephone (DTMF) or a personal computer connected to the videotex network.
Both employees and companies expect more and more flexibility from the working environment. This flexibility can certainly be offered by teleworking. Most of the technical requirements for teleworking are available now. As such, the evolution in telecommunication will have an important influence on the success of teleworking.