By David Bogan We hear a lot about the virtual organization, but in practical terms, what does it mean to be virtual? As companies gravitate to more nomadic workforces, IT organizations are learning how to make virtual organizations work. Having spent more than a few years as CIO for a large consulting firm, I’d like to share some thoughts about practical issues and solutions when dealing with nomads.

Nomads need standards

While it may seem contradictory, if you want to be mobile, you first have to consolidate and standardize. Mobility is based upon the idea that work happens where you happen to be, whether that is an office, at home, or on the road. Location becomes secondary to services, which introduces some interesting opportunities. For example, you may no longer need to have file servers in every office location, which can substantially reduce costs. Consolidation into secure and managed facilities is one of the things that makes mobility reliable.

Similarly, standardization gives you the ability to offer improved service. There are no longer location variations, so nomads can go anywhere and get the same level of service. Self-service solutions, like built in troubleshooting tools and “wizards” for common questions, are simpler to deploy and more trustworthy. The trick is to standardize at a level that makes mobility an economic proposition, but still gives your nomads the flexibility that they need to get their work done no matter where they are.

Don’t let technology get in the way

Mobile employees are highly dependent on technology, much more so than workers in an office. You can’t simply take what works in your office and translate it into a virtual environment. A lot of moving parts have to work together properly for the work experience to be as good for mobile employees as it is in a fixed location.

Getting all those parts to work together isn’t the biggest challenge, though. The biggest challenge is getting them to work together transparently. Most people don’t really care about technology, despite what the popular press would have us assume. They just want to get their work done, not worry about how to hook up a PC to a wireless connection. They want the technology to be transparent, not something they have to fiddle with.

Our tendency is to let technology get in the way. That’s because often the people who design the technology are high-tolerance users who are willing to put up with a lot of fiddling. Most people are low-tolerance: They don’t want to fiddle with their computers, and when we ask them to, they often run into problems. Then they get frustrated, stop using the technology, and reinforce their belief that “those IT guys” really don’t understand.

Employees will always figure out a way to get their work done. If the technology you give them is so complicated that they can’t figure out how to use it, or it takes too long, or they need 52 different passwords, they will gravitate toward something that is less secure, not appropriate for your business purposes, and often more expensive.

Think of it like software design. Software that is simple to write typically is difficult for people to use. This may reduce your development costs, but it increases the maintenance cost. Maintenance is where the majority of your cost is always going to be, so more time spent in design and development will always cost less in the long run.

How much will this cost?

“Isn’t being virtual more expensive?” people ask. “Don’t you spend more money on support?” The answer to both questions may be yes, and will absolutely be yes with consolidation and standards. You don’t make your organization more virtual because it’s cheaper. You do it because it opens up new business opportunities. Being virtual means balancing opportunity and cost.

Gartner’s studies of TCO confirm that mobile environments are more expensive. They say that in a highly controlled desktop environment, you can expect the proportion of devices to service technicians to be about 150:1 or 200:1. But if you move into a laptop environment, those numbers may drop to 75:1 or 50:1 because of the complexity of the devices and the amount of variability you have.

We tend to think most of the time about what things cost. But if you miss an opportunity because you were stuck in the office, how much did that cost you? Some financial folks will say opportunity costs aren’t real money, that they aren’t “green” dollars. But if not being able to respond makes you miss too many opportunities, there won’t be any “green” dollars coming your way

How virtual should you be?

Culture is crucial when thinking about your answer to that question. Organizations have more than one culture, and there aren’t many organizations that can be totally virtual. The consulting arm of a business can be virtual, because mobility is a natural fit with the consulting culture. Consultants are never in the office because if they are they’re not billing. So that business has a natural affinity with nomads and being virtual.

Are your people creators or consumers? Your answer to that question determines the nature of the tools you provide to people. Chances are that you have a small cadre of people who create content that is consumed by a wider audience. If your employees are mostly consumers, you might be able to give them smart devices, such as PDAs,. Those devices are good for nomadic employees to view content, but they aren’t designed for creating things. If you have a large cadre of creators, you can provide a laptop or some kind of tool that will allow them to create content wherever they are.

Maybe the best question about culture is whether you treat your employees like children or adults. How you answer that question really determines whether you can be virtual or not. If you treat your employees as children, as people who must be controlled and directed all the time, then being virtual is not for you.. Being virtual means trusting your folks to do the right thing because you have given them the tools they need to make work happen wherever they are. The best ideas come from those who are closest to the customers, so that’s where we want our nomads to be.

The technology to be virtual is there today — it’s not rocket science. Being successful at it is a lot harder, because you have to really understand your people and your culture. The payoffs are great: better response to your customers and more satisfied employees. So go be a nomad — you might find you like it!

Dave Bogan is CSC’s Chief Technology Officer.