European Telework Development (ETD)

ETD and the IT Director or Manager

1. understand the opportunities presented by telework, teletrade and telecooperation;
2. develop practical and effective policies and implementation strategies;
3. readily find sources of information, advice, products, services, case studies and best practice examples.

ETD's approach focuses on practical activities and deliverables that aim to be attractive and useful to individual IT directors and managers and to the organisations they serve and support. As well as providing information, ETD provides links with other organisations and the opportunity to network with other professionals and managers for the exchange of experiences and know how.

The ETD Initiative seeks to work with IT-managers within all businesses for the successful development of Telework, Teletrade (Electronic Commerce) and Teleco-operation (TTT). ETD can provide direct advice or introduce reliable sources of advice about strategies, techniques and methods in respect of:

• Internet connections and security precautions
• Intranets - internal applications of the Internet technologies
• Extranets - providing customers and suppliers with access to services and databases etc at a low cost using Internet methods
• The key applications of telecooperation
• Management priorities and policies
• Skills requirements and training provision

The Initiative is itself a prolific user of the relevant technologies and our advice is based on direct experience, as well as close links with suppliers, other users, and policy makers.

Our aim is to support IT-managers in five main ways:

• by helping IT-managers to understand and respond to the market opportunities and the demands from their own organisation,
• by working alongside IT-managers and others (including the European Commission, Member States Governments, suppliers and public sector agencies) to increase the awareness and take up of relevant technologies and applications,
• by promoting effective and beneficial use of the technologies and applications and making successful examples more widely known among IT-managers
• by assisting IT-managers to identify barriers to successful take up, alerting them to relevant regulatory and legal proposal and issues,
  and
  
• by submitting and publishing on the Web Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) relevant to IT-managers in their role as advisers within their îhome organisations.

Interest Group for IT-managers

ETD places a very high emphasis on Interest Groups and communities of interest. It contributes to establishing îgood connectionsî that can be useful across all aspects of TTT.

IT-managers can become rather isolated in their own organisations. They tend to be blamed if something goes wrong, whereas successes are claimed by those who specified the demands of the IT-project. An IT-manager needs a personal network of colleagues to share experiences with and to consult when new projects are to be designed and developed. These networks were formerly provided by user associations focused on the products of an organisation's main supplier, but with most IT sites now multi-user a different approach is needed. For this purpose ETD is forming an Interest group of people within the TTT field for exchange of experinces and examples of good practice. These examples will be gathered on the European Telework Online web site for everyone participating in the Interest group to look up and use. Use this form to register an interest and make sure you are informed about the Interest Group's formation.

What does an IT-manager look for?

An IT-manager who is facing the demand from his organisation to provide for facilities within TTT must be prepared to answer to a lot of questions about TTT:

• Technical and software issues
• Telecommunication demands and possibilities
• Legal aspects
• Contractual aspects between labor unions and employers
• Security
• Psychological issues
• Insurance
• Restructuring of the general IT structure to allow for TTT
• Examples of new business opportunities provided by TTT
• Education and training within the field of TTT
• Provision of bench marking methods and statistics
• Environmental gains and impacts

All these aspects of TTT are described in the ETD web sites for the benefit of IT-managers and others who share these needs. Contributions are welcome and the site also provides many useful links to other sources of information, ideas and solutions.

How can I get involved?

If you are interested to join the ETD IT-manager Interest group please use this registration of interest form.

What is ETD doing?

The key theme for ETD is to move Telework, Teletrade and Telecooperation from research and debate to practical implementation. Already in the early stages of the Initiative we have constructed the worlds most complete and useful Telework website and we are well advanced in developing equivalent coverage of telework and teletrade. In addition, ETD provides:

• A discussion list for telework matters;
• An announcements only list for news of events and developments in telework, teletrade and telecooperation;
• Support to the European Memorandum of Understanding on Access to Global Electronic Commerce for SMEs (small and medium enterprises);
• A calendar of events at European, national and local levels;
• Lists of Frequently Asked Questions and Answers (FAQs);
• Pages of tested and commented links to useful sites and resources on the Internet
• Pages of helpful information, definitions and tips on telework, teletrade and telecooperation;
• A network of local contacts in European countries, with support to websites in local languages

We welcome suggestions for new content, services and activities - and contributions from practising managers.

For Further Information and Participation

To Keep in Touch

To be fully informed of developments in telework world wide and especially of activities of the ETD initiative, please join the eto discussion or eto announcement lists.

Register an Interest

To register a general interest and to offer support to ETD in some way, please use the general online registration form. Your details will be added to our database and you will be kept informed of developments in your area of interest.

Inputs and Suggestions

If you have knowledge or experience that you believe will be helpful to other teleworkers we invite you to submit information to our general online information point: eto-info@eto.org.uk. We also welcome additional suggestions about the Individual Teleworker aspects of the ETD initiative. Please, note that this is not a general enquiry point - for this you should use your national enquiry point or use one of the other mechanisms.

Get Involved with National or Local Activities Your starting point for information in what is happening in your coutnry are your National Telework Website (if it exists) and your National Enquiry Point.

---

Return To:
ETD: Who can get involved and how will they benefit?

Page address http://www.eto.org.uk/etd/it_mgr/it-mgr01.htm
This page last updated 05 February 1997
Page owner: Sune Wilhelmson sune.wilhelmson@sito.se
Please send your comments and suggestions about the ETO site and pages to eto-info@eto.org.uk