What Experts Say About the Virtual Office

Not all companies find success with virtual offices. What separates the winners from the losers often comes down to some basic "dos" and "don'ts."

DON'T force clerical tasks onto salespeople.

"You have now taken somebody with talent and made them into a clerk," says Ken Dulaney, vice president of mobile computing at the Gartner Group (Santa Clara, CA). Xerox's key goal was to have its sales force spend more time with customers. That would be impossible if salespeople took on new tasks. Dulaney suggests that in many cases you will get better results by giving your best salespersons secretaries rather than placing them in a virtual-office environment with inadequate support .

DON'T use mobile technology as a means of cutting costs.

You can't just send off your sales force with modems and notebooks and expect good results, Dulaney warns. Xerox changed its entire information infrastructure, for example, so that its sales force could easily access the data it needs remotely.

Do work harder for better communication.

Important information on products, policies, and key accounts is not easily disseminated in a virtual office. Regular staff meetings to review goals and share information are a must, says Jaclyn Kostner, whose consulting firm Bridge the Distance International (Denver, CO) specializes in helping companies manage the virtual office. "[The sales staff] must be able to reach people in real time," she adds. Kostner recommends giving pagers or cellular phones to key people, requiring the staff to update voice-mail greetings daily, and to frequently check for messages.

DO consciously develop team spirit.

Lack of communication can also diminish the sales staff's morale and effectiveness. Kostner knows of one mobile staff that learned of a coworker's $10 million sale 45 days after the fact. This angered some people who would have sought advice from the coworker. In situations like this, says Kostner, "learning stays in little puddles." Worse, this situation may promote distrust among a staff. A buddy system, such as the one Xerox used, provides "someone else to share the pain as well as the successes," says Kostner.