Organizations with premise based operations are vulnerable to ‘disruptive events’ (severe weather, natural disasters, terrorism, labor disputes, energy price increases, etc. and their operators MUST attend to learn how to address these issues through distributed work – the new ‘Gold Standard’ for the Information Age.

The rapidly accelerating trend to adopt the domestic Work@Home customer support model has been driven by:
• The desire to cut and keep costs down,
• The backlash caused by an overall dissatisfaction with the services provided by offshore agents as well as the risks associated with personal information being sent offshore where there are few, if any, laws to protect it,
• The need to actively promote Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP),
• The ability to adopt proven existing technologies, and distributed work policies, procedures, and processes,
• The rising cost of gasoline.

“Work@Home Agents make unqualified economic sense, when compared to the financial costs and benefits of traditional bricks and mortar centers,” said Jack Heacock, Senior Vice President and Co-Founder of the Telework Coalition. “Research shows that more than $1 million can annually be added to the bottom line per 100 agents who Work@Home,” he added.

The Work@Home model greatly enlarges the available labor pool. “We can now employ those with disabilities, retirees, stay-at-home parents, military and government spouses, wounded Veterans, part-timers, and those in rural and tribal areas,” commented Chuck Wilsker, TelCoa’s President and CEO. “The greatly increased availability of high speed Internet access, coupled with phones connected through the internet (VoIP), has proven to be the tipping point making the Work@Home agent model a real winner,” he concluded.

“As one of the pioneers in the Work@Home call center agent model and having worked closely with the Telework Coalition since 2000, Working Solutions looks forward to participating in Call Center 2.0 and sharing some of our ideas and perspectives,” said Tim Houlne, CEO. “The Work@Home operational model enables us to compete with any service provider in the global marketplace,” Houlne concluded.

According to Angie Selden, CEO of Willow CSN, “By using Work@Home Agents, Fortune 500 type organizations can gain access to talent that best matches their customers’ needs, take advantage of the geographically dispersed workforce in the U.S., and be rewarded with better customer service at the best price points.”

Mark Frei, Senior Vice President of West Corporation said he is “Happy to see that TMC and the Telework Coalition have partnered to deliver valuable information about one of the hottest topics in the call center industry, Work@Home agents. Home agents are now being embraced by many of our nations leading companies. I am pleased to partner with others in this space to continue the education process,” he concluded.

For detailed Call Center 2.0 information, session content, exhibitor information, and individual registration, go to www.TelCoa.org. Register at: http://www.telcoa.org/id17.htm, and click on registration, then "Secure Registration" in the dark red horizontal panel of the option you chose.

About the Telework Coalition
Based in Washington, D.C., the Telework Coalition (http://www.telcoa.org) brings together a diverse array of organizations, companies and individuals with the common interest of promoting awareness and adoption of existing and emerging Telework and Telecommuting applications. The coalition’s mission is summed up in its tag line: “Enabling virtual, mobile and distributed work through education, technology and legislation.”

For more information contact: Chuck Wilsker, The Telework Coalition, 202-266-0046, ext. 101.