How do you prevent the spread of flu, create happier, more productive employees and "inoculate" your organization against disruption? It starts with making technology simple and adding the right organizational support. Let me explain.

The other day my eight-year-old boy, Alex, woke up complaining vaguely that he was not feeling well. He didn't have a fever, and he really didn't have other specific symptoms. At that point, I had a choice. I could send him to school and see if it went away, or I could keep him home.

Since my husband and I both work, the temptation could be to send the kids to school unless they're clearly ill. Only I didn't. At this point it's finally gotten so easy for me to seamlessly work from home at a moment's notice, there's no need to take the risk of exposing our germs to anyone else.

After getting my son to work on his homework, I logged into GoToMyPC which lets me securely view and control my office computer and work on my documents and programs as if I were sitting there in the office. I reviewed my meetings for the day, and informed the organizers I would join remotely via GoToMeeting.

Over the years, I have seen firsthand how these remote work tools have empowered myself and my husband - as well as co-workers, friends and customers who have shared their stories - to keep up with demanding jobs while balancing the rest of their lives. I helped launch GoToMyPC in 2001 then used it to work from home with a new baby. My husband could take the kids to soccer practice in the afternoon, and finish work from home at night. We're not tempted to bring our cold germs to work, and we always know we can get things done even if we're not in the office. It's no wonder work flexibility tops the list of most desired employee benefits.

Not everyone must get a vaccine for the general population to be protected so I imagine the same is true of remote work. Not everyone needs to be able to do it, but those of us "inoculated" with the ability to do so easily, at a moments notice, protect a much larger group. In so doing, we help prevent flu contagion, get work done when traffic or other disruptions threaten business, take better care of our families, and generally increase our well-being and productivity.

For organizations wanting to see these benefits, there are two potential pitfalls:

1. The key to adoption is making technology simple. For instance, I rely on GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting because they are easy-to-use and dependable. The more I use them, the more I benefit my employer with increased productivity - even when I might otherwise be unavailable. Some organizations think putting the tools in place is enough. However, they must also be easy and convenient before they will be widely adopted.

2. Work flexibility is a privilege. Organizations must provide remote work tools and encourage employees to make use of them in a responsible way. This requires a results-oriented culture of accountability. Measure task completion, not hours logged at a particular place. Plan for a future of increased work mobility and family-friendly policies. You may not want sick employees in the office, traveling employees to be out of touch, or new parents to quit, but if you don't publicly and frequently encourage remote work as a solution, that's what you may get.

My son, incidentally, was fine and back to school the next day. Perhaps I was overly cautious, but I'm sure glad it's easy for me to make that choice...

See Workshifting for more on working from anywhere.

GoToMyPC is adding support for Mac OS X!

I've been been anxiously waiting for "GoToMyMac" since I converted to Macs, and recently Citrix Online made one of my "Mac-user wishes" come true, "GoToMyMac" err GoToMyPC for Mac beta was privately rolled out to some existing customers, aka beta testers.
The official GA date is not available yet, however the development team keeps cranking out awesome features, nearly matching the ones already available on the PC today. In the meantime allow me to share a brief demo video showcasing the new Mac support feature.

 
 
best,
Gus
 
twitter.com/guspinto

I'm truly impressed with Microsoft Live Mesh services, it's an awesome approach to cloud computing, however, the service relies on RDP and we all know RDP is not fine tuned for HPRD (high-performance remote desktop).

I'm showing on this screencast a comparison of GoToMyPC and Live Mesh Remote Desktop side by side, and I add my thoughts on how Microsoft can partner with Citrix to deliver superior quality for this unique platform.

cheers,

Gus Pinto
Microsoft MVP - Virtualization
Twitter.com/GusPinto

GoToAssist Express Beta was just updated to a new version, the current build is now 8.0, and there are some new features addded and bug fixes included in this release.

New features that were just added to the product are: 

Notes - You can now take notes during a session and have them saved for reporting purposes.

Reverse Screen Sharing - An expert can now share their screen with their customer.

Performance Improvements - We added a lot of performance improvements which should be noticeable right away.

Performace Settings - We added the ability to change your performance settings for optimal screen refresh rates.

Bug Fixes - As always, we fixed a lot of bugs. As beta testers, your feedback on these has been extremely valuable!

More features are coming soon and will posted on the blog, so keep checking back!

Continue at Source: GoToAssist Express Beta Blog

You are invited to join us for a training Webinar on Wednesday, April 30, 2008. Come and learn how to use GoToAssist Express and see how it can benefit your business.

Attend this one-hour training session and find out how to:

• Quickly launch remote-support sessions with both PC and Mac users.
• Use key GoToAssist Express features such as Chat and File Transfer.
• Provide unattended remote support (work when your customers are away from their computers).

Title: GoToAssist Express New User Training

Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Time: 10 AM PDT (1 PM EDT)

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/816176572

Here is great summary and videos on how to integrate with GoToAssist/GoToMeeting/GoToMyPC SDKs from Terry Holland (Sr. Manager of Integration Services, Citrix Online division).

GoToAssist Integration Presentation Available for Viewing:
The following recorded presentation describes all the techniques for integrating GoToAssist. Topics include how to automate the launch of a GoToAssist session for end users, how to streamline support agents' tasks and how to integrate and locally save session data. After the general overview (20 min), there is a section on how to approach integration with a CRM system (10 min) and a final section on the out-of-box Database Integration (10 min). Total viewing time is 40 min.
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/334585120

GoToAssist Integration Services Website:
http://www.gotoassist.com/intServices.html

GoToMeeting Corporate Integration Presentation Available for Viewing:
The following recorded presentation describes all the techniques for integrating GoToMeeting Corporate. Topics include an overview of integration options, the Organizer API and the Administrator/Reporting API. The presentation also includes some examples. Total viewing time is 20 mins.
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/605056742

GoToMeeting Corporate Integration Services Website:
https://www.gotomeeting.com/pre/corp/integration.tmpl

GoToMyPC Corporate Integration Presentation Available for Viewing:
The following recorded presentation describes all the techniques for integrating GoToMyPC Corporate. Topics include an overview of integration options, the out-of-box Provisioning Tool, the Administrator API and the Reporting API. Total viewing time is 20 mins.
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/295522528

GoToMyPC Corporate Integration Services Website:
https://www.gotomypc.com/corp/integration.html

Please leave us feedback on our Citrix online SDKs.
Thanks

So here I sit in my kitchen, connecting to my laptop sitting on my desk at Citrix. I forget sometimes how cool it is to be able to do this. I forget the early days when I never worked from home - because I didn't want to set up my "work machine" as a MetaFrame Server and publish my server. And yes, I'll confess, I still like to install apps locally, just because, well, it's MY computer, right?

Yes, I can log in through Web Interface or other connections and have all my work apps, launch a published browser to get to all my sharepoint sites, and web applications, but it just isn't as homey or comfy to me as knowing I'm on my own computer.

It's funny to see that as I was thinking about writing this post, we had a survey published about the same topic - even though I'm sadly no longer in that age group.

Because who are we kidding - we like working in casual attire (I didn't say PJs). We like snacking on leftovers, and talking to our pets about the latest email we got from our project team.  We like dialing into meetings and walking around the house while making our points.

And yes, I multi-task. I sort laundry while I listen to project meetings, with the phone on mute.  Trust me, it's way better than sitting quietly in a chair at a table with 15 other people waiting for your turn to speak.

So, hooray for remote access! Hooray for GoToMyPC! And hooray for companies that support working from home - I for one, thank you!