Nortel

The teleworking program at Nortel has been operating for over 10 years. Around 65 per cent of Nortel’s employees take regular advantage of the ability to securely access corporate systems—intranet, email, people directories, business applications—with their laptop PC from somewhere other than a traditional office desk. Approximately eight per cent of Nortel employees work from home on a permanent, full-time basis.

The results of Nortel’s teleworking program, now called mobility program, are:

• An estimated fifteen per cent increase in productivity reported by teleworkers;
• Increased employee satisfaction, with teleworkers reporting that they are eleven per cent more satisfied than the overall employee population;
• Teleworking saves approximately $22 million in annual real estate facility costs;
• Approximately $18 million is saved annually on traditional telephony costs for mobile workers when they switched to Voice over IP solutions;
• Over 900 wireless LAN access points for in-building roaming with laptop PCs;
• Flexible working capabilities that enable business continuity during disruptive events; and
• Proactive awareness of teleworking and mobile community with presence management.

Nortel provides a number of teleworking and mobile options:

Home-based—Full-time teleworkers

• 60 to 100 per cent of time is spent in home office
• Provided desktop, furniture, office equipment
• Requires high-speed access to corporate network

Remote access—Road warriors

• 40 to 80 per cent of time is spent away from the primary office (could be at a hotel, Wi-Fi hot spot, onsite drip-in desk) 
• Find-me follow-me call management is important 
• Requires access to corporate network via multiple options

Dedicated onsite office—Part-time workers

• 20 to 40 per cent of time in home office—evenings, weekends, occasional day at home 
• Retains standard dedicated onsite office 
• Provided laptop and high-speed access to corporate network

Onsite roaming capability—all employees

• 100 per cent of time when in primary location
• Anyone—software developers, technical support staff—moving between cubicles and collaborative team rooms
• Provided laptops and wireless LAN access