From the Telework Times
From the Telework Times today:
I think the remote McDonalds has got to be the strangest one of these tidbits. And it is interesting that in Washinton D.C. they have to reduce the number of teleworkers. I guess too many people were trying to claim what ever tax bonus available.
Revision to Criteria Reduces Number of Area Telecommuters By Steven Ginsberg (Washington Post, July 22, 2004)
'A new definition of telecommuting, announced yesterday by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, restricts those counted to people who spend minimal time on roads because they “work at home or at a telework or satellite center during an entire workday.” '
GSA tries technology to ease telecommuting By Jason Miller, GCN Staff (07/19/04)
“Since January, [Wendell] Joice and three others have been testing videoconferencing hardware from Logitec Inc. of Fremont, Calif., with software from Marratech AB of Sweden, either at their homes or at GSA telework centers.“
(This evalution is one of a number of ongoing pilots we're doing at the Telework Consortium)
The Network of Space by James A. Bacon (Bacon's Rebellion, July 12, 2004)
“Technology is transforming the relationship between people and where they work. To fulfill the promise of telework, the Commonwealth needs to invest less in asphalt and more in bandwidth.”
“Until those attitudes change, the Telework Consortium, AgilQuest and their allies will continue making the business case for telework, conducting research studies, lobbying for broadband deployment, sponsoring pilot projects and disseminating best business practices. Until the big guys get it, [John] Starke [President of the Telework Consortium] says, small businesses, many of which are virtual organizations to begin with, are likely to lead the way.”
A Drive-Through Lane to the Next Time Zone By Michael Fitzgerald (New York Times, July 18, 2004)
Is a fascinating case study on using remote order takers (in Colorado Springs) at a McDonald's drive through restaurant in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Digital pictures of the person placing the order is used to match the order to the correct car. The franchise owner reports terrific increases in productivity and quality. “This transforms my business,” Mr. Bigari said. “It's bigger than drive-through.”
“Mr. Bigari said he had cut order time in his dual-lane drive-throughs by slightly more than 30 seconds, to about 1 minute, 5 seconds, on average. That's less than half the average of 2 minutes, 36 seconds, for all McDonald's, and among the fastest of any franchise in the country, according to QSRweb.com, which tracks such things. His drive-throughs now handle 260 cars an hour, Mr. Bigari said, 30 more than they did before he started the call center.”
…
“Though his operators earn, on average, 40 cents an hour more than his line employees, he has cut his overall labor costs by a percentage point, even as drive-through sales have increased. He said the call center saved enough in six months to cover the cost of setting it up, in part because he no longer had to employ as many people on the overnight shift.”