What's New, The Virtual Office
by Paul R. Kiesel

For the past several years, my "holy grail" of law firm practice has been to achieve the remote office. A firm whose very existence is dependent not on file cabinets filled with thousands of pieces of paper, nor large oak desks with hash marks reflecting the years of practice endured, but one that exists in the air itself. For years I have advocated the future possibilities of the remote or paperless office, but never before have we been as close to achieving this goal as we are today. Of course -- as with all technology, each day some fifteen year-old is working on not only perfecting the currently available technologies but is developing new and creative ways to improve our productivity.

In many ways the move toward the paperless office is all about improving productivity. During the last century, this country has been able to increase workers' productivity by an incredible amount. (See Overworked American) Whether we have improved job satisfaction, health and happiness remains to be seen. For me, having a remote office has led to an extraordinary increase in both "at home time" and the ability to travel with my wife and children. Joshua, age 9, and Lauren, age 7, are (I think) thrilled to have their dad around more than ever before, and they know that the brief time I need to check in remotely means I can spend more time "away" from the office. I suppose we are simply redefining work and play time. So what is the remote office, and how does it work? I would define it as being able to remotely access your office, your files, U.S. Postal Service mail, email, phone messages, word processing files, faxes, and client data base.

1. Internet access. Being able to access your offices' computers from a remote location obviously requires internet access both at the office and when "dialing" in remotely. You should opt for the quickest access speed you can afford. There are several options, from a T-1 line (a dedicated phone line for your office internet access) to DSL. You should speak with your office facilities manager to determine what internet access capabilities your office has or, if you are in your "own" office space (like your home), you should call your local cable or telephone company to evaluate pricing and availability.

2. DNS: Once your office is on line, the next step is making sure you can access your office remotely. A computer consultant can obtain from your internet provider a specific numeric designation that identifies your office "server" computer to the internet. This designation is a series of numbers and dots (just like a phone number) and is referred to as your "DNS." The number may look something like this: 183.132.34.1. Your computer consultant will request that there be a name designator or pointer that tells the net world, for example, that when you type in http://server.office.com, you are actually being connected to 183.132.34.1. Thus you can access your office server computer either by typing in the specific DNS number OR by typing the name identifier for your office's DNS. Of course, you should make sure that you have sufficient firewalls to protect your network, since you don't want random 12 year-olds being able to hack in to your office's network.

3. Access: Now that your office computer is on-line, how do you access it? I use Earthlink as a dial-up account, since they have local dial-up connections in thousands of cities. This way when you are in another city, all you do is dial the local number Earthlink number for that city, and you have direct access to your office network AT NO COST. On a recent trip to Maui, I was able to access the office a few hours each day all at no charge by dialing in the Maui access number.

4. Software: After your office and your remote machine are capable of being connected through the internet, what else do you need? You need software that allows you to connect remotely to your office server. You should discuss with a computer consultant the type of software that is right for your office. In the "old days" -- three or four years ago -- if you wanted to access your office's computer, you would have used a direct dial-up from your remote computer that would be specifically linked to your office computer. This would simply be a dedicated phone number, just like a fax number, that would give you access to your office network, and you would have used software such as PC Anywhere for access. Today Microsoft and Novell just to name a few have software that allows you to access your office through the use of software, loaded on your remote machine, but accessed through the internet. Thus, I've got Groupwise on my home computer and once connected to the net can simply run Groupwise and my office network appears. The beauty of this is your can access your office anywhere in the world (assuming you've got the software on your remote machine) and the look and feel is exactly as if you were sitting at your desk.

5. Document access: Once the computers are connected and the software is in place, you need to make your documents available through the server. This can be accomplished by purchasing a scanner. An non-sheet feeding scanner can be purchased for under $100, or you can buy a sheet-feeding high speed scanner capable of producing 75 scanned pages a minute. With a computer, internet access, operational software and a scanner, you have accomplished that which has been sought after -- a truly remote office. Is it reliable? Does it let you separate work time from play time? Only time will tell.