We've all fantasized about elves doing our work for us when we go to sleep at night.
In a global economy, however, you may find your job continues even as you snooze.
Jim Sermersheim is a former Deadhead, living in Provo, Utah. Every morning he drives to his job
as a software developer at Novell Incorporated. But his job isn't over when he finishes work at
the end of the day. Instead his colleague, Vithalprasad Gaitonde, picks up Jim's coding where
he left off. Collaborative projects are nothing unusual, except in this case, Vithalprasad
isn't doing the nightshift in Provo. He's working nine to five, 10,000 miles away
in Bangalore, India.
The 24-hour demands of today's fast paced global economy and advances in encryption and
communications technology are helping to redefine the professional team in business.
Power lunches and rideshares give way to email, conference calls, and video conferencing,
when half your team is a 12-hour flight away.
For a company like the 18-year old Novell, a computer networking software provider whose e-business
applications operate around the clock worldwide and has facilities in over 20 countries,
the global conference room is essential to business. Novell is not alone. Sales of
teleconferencing equipment are four times today what they were five years ago, according
to Wainhouse Research, which analyzes technology trends.
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