All good points. some other good products to use when working from home that we use are skype and freeconference.com where employees can all converse together and check in. There's alot of other programs of these types out there as well.

Yes for sure like Gomeetnow , Rhubcom etc are the best bet for small business enhancements. As its provide a great plateform to have a secure conferencing solutions in a cost effective way.

Most of my division works virtually. On my specific team, we do a big conference call where we all get together once every 2 weeks. We report on our projects and ask each other for help when needed, etc. We also utilize VPN and a shared place for files. We don't use skype, but we do A LOT of Centra meetings as we work together on things. We also use instant messenger a lot, which can be good and bad. I tend to think of it like having the door open to my office if we were in the same location. We have struggled with more traditional managers thinking along the "hours at a desk" line, but those of us who consistently provide quality work in a timely manner don't get hassled about not working exactly 8-5. Those who struggle, get more hassle about it. We also do a lot of conference calls when several of us are collaborating. Oh, and we have webcams when necessary too. :-)

I support telecommuting wholly! As a Case worker for Department of Children and Families, we were on the road alot. We were given a laptop and cell so that we could submit our reports onto the company website from wherever we were. It made that if we were on the road all day and ended up near our home, that we wouldn't have to go in to the office just to fill out our reports.

One supervisor had a bit of a problem with not knowing where we were at a given time, so she tried to have a book where you put your schedule of where you were going to be while you were out. It didn't really work well since emergencies come up at all hours and plans change. It's one of the kinks in transition, however the benefits far outweigh the negative aspects. I think with gas prices, it will become more popular quickly.

My company encourages telecommuting and promotes it with a telecommuting initiative that provides information and resources to interested employees. The company believes it saves money, increases productivity, and retains talent, and employees love it because it eliminates long commutes and preserves work-life balance.

We have numerous sites throughout the country, and our work processes involve many types of collaborative teams that meet remotely via telephone. Most times, you can't tell whether a team member is participating from a home office or from down the hall.

There are policies and procedures in place to help managers determine eligibility and provide support, but so far these are applied inconsistently. Our corporate Learning & Performance team is currently working on a training strategy to provide tools for both managers and employees for getting started working at home and how to get and use available desktop software for telephone connections.