At the European Telework Online website

"Telework 1997":
Annual Report from the European Commission

3. Status of European Telework:

3.13 Spain

A number of companies in Spain have taken a lead in developing experimental telework programmes. IBM, for example, has since 1995 had more than a thousand employees, working from their homes, whilst travelling or from clients' offices. The insurance company Mapfre Life has equipped 500 staff to work on the road, with 100 of them able to call up insurance policies on-line. Other initiatives are planned by companies such as Bull, Olivetti, Telefónica and Airtel.

IBM Spain
IBM Spain has been running one of the most ambitious telework schemes in Spain. Starting as a pilot project at the end 1995 with about 100 salesperson or technicians, the scheme now affects about 1,500 people. The company made use of the most advanced technology and the full integration of groupwork concepts. Each member of the scheme uses a laptop, connected to the central webpages, and BBS via modem and telephone. Centralised information, accessible from each individual laptop, includes company and social news, password controlled access to numerous databases, a centralised agenda with access to the travelling schedules and engagements of higher management, the publication of own agenda and scheduled engagements, "chat" about sales made, etc. The system reproduces most of the environment of a physical office space and maintains people in permanent contact.

The software and groupware tools used are maintained and updated on-line. Periodically, each member "docks" his or her laptop to a central facility which automatically ensures that all the members of the team are using the same software versions and norms.

An overwhelming proportion of staff involved confirm their satisfaction with the new working conditions. Of course, most of the employees involved were already of the nomadic type, i.e. specialists who spend a lot of time on the road and with customers. Full teleworking does not preclude regular meetings both for work or for more social purposes. In general, both employees and the employer report great advantages in increased productivity and in better working conditions and job satisfaction. Careful selection, information and preparation, as well as a high level of continuous training of employees, is reported by IBM to have been essential for the viability and the success of this experiment.

In general, however, telework in Spain has not been introduced through formal employer-led schemes. There are also low levels of awareness in Spain's large SME sector of the opportunities of information and communication technologies. E-mail, for example, is currently used in only 10% of SMEs.

Nevertheless, there is considerable public interest in telework as a concept, reflected in high levels of press attention. Three organisations are helping to promote the idea:

  1. The Asociación Española de Teletrabajo (Spanish Telework Association) has more than 200 members and sponsors. The association has organised a number of conferences (both physical and electronic). Members have access to Internet resources and also receive a telework handbook.
  2. The Asociación Española de Usuarios de Internet (Spanish Internet Users Association)
  3. The Asociación Española de Documentación y Teletrabajo (Spanish Association for Documentation and Telework) are also active.
  4.  

There is also a very active telework e-mail discussion list in Spanish, with several hundred participants both from Spain and from other Spanish language areas of the world.

More generally, there are a number of initiatives in different parts of Spain which aim to exploit the opportunities of the technology. In Cáceres, for example, the regional government is engaged in a training project, funded by the European Commission NOW programme, to offer women IT skills, which may lead to the development of rurally-based tele-secretarial work. There are other ventures designed to encourage SMEs in regional areas to make use of telematic services.

The region of Valencia is the setting for one of the most exciting and ambitious projects, Infoville. This is focused on the small town of Villena (31,000 inhabitants), and involves the creation of a local ISDN net for the town, linking at least 10% of the population. The aim is to encourage electronic banking and shipping, telemedicine and on-line information from the town hall and regional government. The project has 1000 home-based computers installed and involves in total an investment of about 6.25m ECU. The project is supported, among others, by ATT, Sun, NCR, Microsoft, Netscape, IBM, Oracle and Telefónica. Details are on the http://www.tissat.es web site.

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Page last updated: 24 October 1997