The office of the 21st Century is a mobile one. Where you can be reached, is where you do business. This is changing the way we think about workspaces, affecting the design of corporate offices and altering the image of the home office. Melding closer to one another, never to be the same, but certainly altered by the experience.

By the year 2000 it is estimated that there will be over 30 million mobile workers in America. Doubling the number from 1997. From independent contractors to home-based businesses and telecommuters, corporations and individuals are breaking out of the mold, creating "flexible" work environments to fit their needs.

The work ethic developed during the Industrial Age is no longer effective as we evolve into this Information Age. In this hyper-cyber competitive world we live in, companies are downsizing, conserving resources and striving for optimal performance with the utmost versatility. Work patterns and processes are changing dramatically. Developing technologies have leveled the playing field considerably and allowed individuals to provide services competitive with major corporations. Along with the demands of workers to have more flexible lifestyles and their dissatisfaction with commuting, these critical issues are responsible for a major shift in perspective.

Changes in workplace design emerge from focusing on strategic business issues for survival. Conserving resources and real estate is paramount within the overall financial plan of a company, therefore, many corporations are adopting shared space allocation (reserved for workers as needed), telecommuting, and home-based office options for solutions. With upper-level management coping to manage individuals within these flexible systems, the need for re-inventing the "fixed location" workplace and finding better solutions is apparent.

Designers today are faced with providing individuality, flexibility, and safety in the workplace. With the elimination of geographical barriers and new means for conducting business "anywhere", it becomes the role of the interior designers to create corporate and individual spaces which inspire workers and impress visitors, melding current technologies seamlessly into warm, productive, cost-effective work environments.

ADVANTAGES

● Ease of use
  ● Effortless communication
  ● Affordable cost
  ● Smaller, lighter, stronger, more functional equipment
  ● Reduced lag in sending/receiving information between companies
  ● Reduction in duplicating data entry
  ● Less distraction
  ● Increased flexibility
  ● Reduction in commuting
  ● Staying at home with family
  ● Extremely useful for sales teams and upper management

DRAWBACKS

  ● Difficulty of transmitting information securely
  ● Hackers attempting to access sensitive files
  ● Cost of standardization
  ● Difficulty managing employees working from another location
  ● High cost of training employees
  ● Maintaining current records of information accessed by multiple users

TOOLS

Hand-Held Instruments

Cordless Telephones and Headsets, Mobile and Cellular Flip-Phone, Pagers, Video Pagers, Personal Digital Assistant, Portable Recorders, Portable Radio with Headset, Television Wrist Watch

Computers

Notebook Computers, External Modem, Advanced Hardware and Software, Surge Protectors, Electronic Mail, Electronic Messaging, Videoconferencing, Hi-Speed Connections, Chat Programs, Television

Equipment

Ergonomic Seating, Task Lighting, Answering Machines, Plain Paper Fax, Laser and Ink Jet Desktop Copiers, Flatbed Scanner, Overhead Projector, Slide Projector, Portable Whiteboards, Personal Servers

Expansion of the Information Superhighway provides a global framework of connections via computer hardware worldwide, which allows access to information in different areas of the world. The expansion of the Internet, development of sophisticated technologies and a competitive global market combined with individual demands, will result in many more companies striving to find appropriate workplace design solutions in the years to come.