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  The following listing of providers does not imply our endorsement of any of their products, services or other offerings. The listing is, rather, intended as an overview and sampling of private sector activity currently ongoing. |
  In addition to the 11 categories of products and services relating to telecommuting and teleworking, we also have telecommuting consultants and online resources that may be of help and interest to you. |
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Alpine Access is an outsourcing provider that uses remote and home-based employees to provide call-center and customer service agent support. The American Management Association offers a three-day workshop titled "Leading Virtual and Remote Teams" at various dates and locations in the U.S. Check the AMA site for details. APQC (the American Productivity and Quality Center) conducts consortium-based benchmarking studies on many topics, and is available to assist with telework-related benchmarking efforts. The focus of this kind of project would be to "discover best practices in strategies for teleworking, identifying the telecommuter pool, designing and delivering effective teleworking programs, and understanding the effect of teleworking on the bottom line." Auriga is a U.S. company established by a former Moscow State University professor; it provides American customers with highly skilled programmers from countries of the former Soviet Union. These programmers work remotely from Moscow and elsewhere on projects for U.S. client companies. "Bridging the Distance: Virtual Teams on the Road to Results" is a video based Debra Dinnocenzo's book 101 TIPS FOR TELECOMMUTERS, and describes the skills necessary for virtual team success. Chancellor & Chancellor is a "financial firm specializing in tax compliance and payrolling services for professional contractors engaged directly by the client without the use of an agency. In addition, we will screen all current contractor suppliers for tax compliance and provide usage reports on all professional temporary services." CONNECT is a line of remote systems management products designed to perform administrative and systems management functions such as doing remote hardware and software inventories, checking on system configurations, tracking software licenses, doing file back-ups, and checking for viruses. CyberTemp.com provides outsourcing services performed by homebased workers for data entry, Web site development, word processing and other tasks. Disabled Workers - there are several sites available that list information on assistive devices and other resources for the disabled, including telecommuters. These include: The Electronic Scriptorium is a Virginia-based company that provides IT outsourcing for corporate clients, using residents of a dozen monasteries across the U.S. ExecutiveWorks offers a number of Web-based training and management tools to aid in the selection, training, and performance evaluation of remote workers. Harvard Business School Publishing offers a number of articles, case studies and other resources on the virtual office, virtual teams, and related topics. Check the home page and search on the term “virtual” for current items available. Indus Internet Limited has been established with a mission to set up teleworking centers in India (primarily to handle work outsourced from other locations), and to provide telework consultancy and other services. Job Results Management Institute specializes in helping organizations develop "a style of management that aims people at accomplishing the results in their jobs that the organization needs in order to fulfill its mission." This results orientation can be very helpful in remote-work situations. JSoft Ltd. in Hungary is an outsourcing provider for web page development, site hosting, and application development. For more information contact John Szokreny. Lift, Inc. is a national nonprofit organization that recruits, assesses, trains, hires, and places information technology professionals who have significant physical disabilities. Lift teleworkers are typically placed with large corporations, in positions such as programmer-analyst, web developer, software engineer, or technical writer. The National Telecommuting Institute (NTI) is a Boston-based organization whose goal is to "provide career education to individuals who prefer or require homebased work. This education is not an end in itself but is an integral part of job placement." NTI provides various "virtual courses" and other resources, and works with employers to find suitable employment for its trainees. NeGRAL Corp. is an outsourcing company based in Hungary that works for distant clients to provide programming, Web site design and other IT services. NJIT offers a wide range of Distance Learning courses at the bachelor's and master's level, plus certificate programs, in IT and related fields. Remote workers can become remote learners, and earn their degrees or simply brush up on specific skills. OffSiteWorks provides off-site business support through its professional "teleworkforce," offering a wide variety of services such as database development, forms processing, conversion, and on-call project support. PMA Insurance Group offers the "PMA One(R) Integrated Disability Management" insurance program. This product combines workers' compensation and disability insurance into a single program. The advantage for employers of telecommuters, according to PMA, is to provide "seamless coverage" for injuries on or off the job, no matter where they occur. Program Ace is a Ukraine-based outsourcing provider that does Web site design and hosting. Rainmaker Thinking is a "a research, training and consulting firm focused on the working lives of those born after 1963." In addition to consulting services, the company provides various training programs to help employers manage "Gen X" workers. Saztec does contract data conversion and data capture work in six countries worldwide, and has been providing these offshore services since 1972. Shred-It Corp. provides on-site and mobile document shredding and destruction services around the world - and presumably will visit telecommuters' homes as well. Softjourn is a US-based company specializing in assembling and managing teams of software engineers in Ukraine, for US companies.  Sterling Services handles customer service outsourcing using students from Sterling College in Sterling, KS.SupplyPro manufactures an "automated dispensing system" (more easily described as a vending machine) for office supplies. The stand-alone unit stocks various supplies, and access is granted to the locked cabinet only after an employee keys in his/her ID number and other information. The software included allows different supplies access to different employees, tracks inventory and usage, and more. This could be a useful solution for a hoteling or drop-in area for remote/mobile workers. SureTime is described as "the worldÕs first
billing assurance software program. SureTime allows employers to
authenticate billable time whether it's coming from an on-site employee,
work-at-home telecommuter, or off-site contractor."Teletrips.com (tm) provides Web-based software that "assists with the management of trip-reduction programs such as telework, flextime and ridesharing." Telework Analytics International developed TeleworkAudits (tm) and TeleworkAnalysys (tm) to accurately assess the economic feasibility and impact of Teleworking / Telecommuting from both the employer's and the employee's points of view. TimeMe is a "Windows 95/98/NT application for timing tasks and/or subtasks. Enter your tasks and subtasks, make a selection and press the start time button. When you are finished, press the stop time button and the event is recorded." White Rabbit Virtual Inc. offers a comprehensive, interactive training course for telecommuters and their managers. The Virtual Skills Workshop(tm) prepares teleworkers for success and teaches them how to maximize their personal productivity. Willow CSN is the "cyberagent network" that provides homebased call center agents to handle outsourced customer service calls. The Work & Family Connection is a clearinghouse of information about work-life issues and practices. Work and Family Connection, in partnership with Gil Gordon Associates, offers two Web-based online training courses for telecommuters/teleworkers and their managers. These are available for internal license and can be customized on request. Work Virtual is a consulting firm that provides "tools and training for the alternative office." Working Solutions is described as "the world's largest outsourcer of virtual CRM agents," and provides access to homebased customer service agents.
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