October 25, 2009, 7:19 PM — With high rates of infection from the H1N1 virus forecasted to impact every workforce over the next few months healthcare experts are encouraging organizations to take steps to reduce employee exposure and decrease the spread of Swine Flu. Along with getting vaccinated and washing hands, the recommendations include avoiding crowds and encouraging employees to stay home if they or members of their families should feel ill.
That may be the most challenging aspect of the preparedness effort. What can organizations and employees do to maintain productivity if employees are encouraged to stay home? VPs of IT and Engineering are increasingly being asked what might be in their toolkits that could help.
There are a variety of web-based services and software that organizations can bring to bear to protect employees by enabling them to work productively from home while minimizing the impact on the bottom line. These technologies offer levels of functionality ranging from web conferencing systems and simple screen recording tools to newer business communications products that enable employees to quickly create and send rich media messages.
Ten years ago web conferencing arrived as a technology that promised a new wave of business communications and collaboration without the overhead of travel to support face-to-face meetings. WebEx is one example. Such systems enable people to join meetings remotely. However, web conferencing may not fit every organization due to the delays caused by trying to align people's schedules. And the costs may be prohibitive if used to fill all the needs to connect at-home employees during flu season.
Alternatives include screen recording tools that are emerging on the Internet and in operating systems that may be able to assist organizations when workers become homebound. Apple's new Snow Leopard is one operating system with new screen recording capability built in. Screen recorders can be used to capture and share snapshots of visual information, though complex information may still require detailed emails, phone calls or conference calls to keep telecommuting employees in the loop.
The next level of visual communications software has multimedia capabilities that combine screen recordings, voice, video, text and attachments into a secure, interactive message delivered through email to one person, a dispersed team, or any number of business contacts regardless of their location. What’s different about these tools is that they are asynchronous like e-mail, employees can send it when they want and recipients can view it when they want – and are available on-demand so employees can be up and running within minutes from any computer, whether work or home.
Dom Virgilio is Vice President Engineering at Ontier guiding the development of its Pixetell visual communications software. Mr. Virgilio has more than 20 years of commercial software design, development, and leadership experience. He has worked at a variety of companies, including OrCAD, Daverci and Mentor Graphics. He co-founded InfoCast, a communication and collaboration software company. Mr. Virgilio received a BSEE from Clarkson University and a Masters Degree from Carnegie-Mellon University.
