Telework provider uses ads to woo federal workers

A new marketing campaign targeting federal workers as a way to boost the awareness and benefits of telecommuting has hit the Washington area.

Advertisements depicting congested freeway interchanges, overcrowded commuter trains and bumper-to-bumper traffic are appearing on metro trains and buses, in The Washington Post's free local newspaper the Express, and on the public radio station WTOP.

With Washingtonians spending 145 million hours per year stuck in traffic, Juniper Networks hopes the campaign, which is driven by the fictional character Ted, will ignite a pro-telecommuting grassroots movement among government workers. If such workers give Juniper the names of their information network managers and those managers agree to demonstrations of Juniper's remote-access telework solutions, the company will buy lunch for up to 25 people in the workers' offices.

In the District of Columbia alone, the hours stuck in traffic translate into $2.4 billion each year in lost productivity, according to Juniper. Congestion across the United States costs more than $63 billion annually in lost productivity, fuel consumption, and the costs of infrastructure and equipment repair, according to Senate findings.

Some 40 million Americans telecommute, but Tom Kreidler, vice president of Juniper Federal Systems, said the practice has not gained more traction in the federal workforce because of the lack of awareness.

Juniper has more than a dozen accounts with federal agencies to offer remote access. But cultural barriers and the inability to make decisions on what technology solutions fit agency telework needs also pose challenges. At this point, the reluctance to incorporate telecommuting is "not a security issue" and is less and less a financial one, he added.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration began offering some of its employees Juniper's technology via dial-up and high-speed Internet connections in November. About 200 employees volunteered during the test phase. Today, all eligible employees, about 2,200, have remote access.

Under Juniper's solution, employee identities are verified via a system that determines the level of access -- such as to files or entire networks -- based on the security of connections. Additionally, such telework solutions must be certified by federal information-processing standards.

Telework creates a borderless enterprise for ensuring the continuity of operations during weather or other emergencies, Kreidler said, but the benefits extend beyond employees and employers. The practice also minimizes environmental impacts and reducing traffic congestion.

The federal government has opted for monetary incentives to encourage the adoption of telework. Under the House version one fiscal 2006 spending bill, H.R. 2862, the departments of Commerce, State and Justice, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Small Business Administration would have to offer employees telework opportunities and designate coordinators to oversee telecommuting or face $5 million reductions in appropriations.

Appropriators used that technique in the fiscal 2005 spending bill, too.