Teleworking Support for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Teleworking is the key to a more flexible design of working time and places of work on the way to the modern information society with a knowledge oriented growth of economy. The rapid development of electronic networking systems such as Internet and the penetration of ISDN-based applications have demonstrated the enormous potential of technical facilities for new employment models. This paper describes scenarios and support facilities for teleworking in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). After reviewing categories, advantages and challenges of teleworking in general, a detailed cost analysis of teleworking with respect to SMEs is presented. Based on that, several alternative implementation scenarios are proposed. As a concrete example and instantiation of the scenarios, experiences with teleworking in the graphics design area are discussed. Proceeding from the general reflection on teleworking, additional application scenarios especially for homeworking are now being developed, implemented and tested. The results are based on a joint project effort between Dresden University of Technology, our local ministry and several SMEs in Saxony.