telecommuter

According to a survey conducted by AT&T Inc., small and home-based businesses are using technology in varying degrees to achieve a greater edge in today’s global marketplace. Nearly two-thirds (59%) of small SOHO business owners surveyed indicated that they use technology strategically, with one in ten (11%) claiming to have so much technology, they put NASA to shame:

·        Wireless Use: Just more than half of small business owners surveyed (51%) said they rely more on wireless technology today than they did two years ago, and slightly more (55%) said they expect to depend on it more two years from now.

·        Wireless Advantage: Overall, small business owners see new technologies giving them an edge. Half (49%) said they were optimistic about wireless technology giving their businesses a competitive advantage while only 16% of respondents disagreed with that statement.

·        Very Important Technologies: Nearly all respondents put a premium on traditional wired, wireless, and Internet communications, with a significant number of respondents viewing newer wireless technologies as being very important. Shown below is the percentage of small business owners viewing each technology as being very important:

o       Computers — 82%

o       Landline telephones and/or voice mail — 75%

o       High speed Internet access — 72%

o       Mobile phones — 67%

o       E-mail — 67%

o       Wireless PDA devices — 26%

o       PC data cards — 22%

o       Wi-Fi hot spots — 21%

o       VoIP — 12%

·        The Flexible Connectivity of Wireless: Nearly two-thirds (61%) of small business owners surveyed are likely to conduct business while away from the office (e.g., during a day off or while on vacation). When asked about the importance of having the flexibility to mix work and personal business in their daily routines, one-third (35%) rated this flexibility a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale.

·        Wireless and Flexibility: For about 70% of small business owners, the flexibility offered by today’s wireless devices plays a large role in the owners’ decisions to operate small businesses. When asked to rate the flexibility to mix work and personal business as the reason that they work at small businesses, nearly half (46%) cited this flexibility as a major factor. 

·        Wireless Out-of-Office: Of the 41% of respondents who said they were very likely to conduct business while away from the office, slightly more than half (53%) said the success of their businesses depends on wireless technologies, such as mobile phones, PDAs, and PC data cards. Overall, more than four in 11 (42%) of respondents rely on wireless technology so much that their business could not survive — or it would be a major challenge to survive without it).

·        Wireless and Newer Businesses: The study indicates that newer businesses tend to be more reliant on wireless and new technologies than more established businesses. For example, 95% of businesses less than two years old use wireless while only 89% of businesses older than two years do.

·        PDAs: Of all respondents who use PDAs to view data, 82% check e-mail and 43% use them to access the Web.

For more information, please review this announcement in the AT&T newsroom at http://www.att.com/newsroom.