Authors: Anita Kamouri and Eric Richert
Date: February 2007
This paper, a chapter in an upcoming book about virtual teams, explores how data of various kinds can be applied using a decision process to determine when and how distributed work can benefit organizations, teams, and individuals, and describes the data-driven methods used successfully at Sun Microsystems, Inc. to make business-focused decisions about distributed work options. It is based on the experience of the authors at Sun Microsystems.
When Sun embarked upon its exploration of distributed work, it wanted to understand how the transition from proximate work (work performed in physical proximity to others, including face-to-face collaboration) to distributed work (some portion of work activity performed across distance, including remote individual work and virtual team work) would impact desired organizational outcomes. Sun wanted to use this understanding to make sound business decisions.
