Winter weather can cause problems for people trying to get to work, but for some Iowans, a virtual office enures they can still get to work without leaving home. Tony Mumm of Iowa Network Services says virtual office technology is becoming more popular.
Mumm says the virtual office technology allows you to access your company network and all the applications it runs securely from a computer. He says you can access the service from a laptop or your home desktop computer. Mumm says the virtual network offers the chance to have all the tools for work without the major investment.
He says smaller businesses with five to 15 employees might not have the I-T staff on hand to maintain the network, and there is also the high cost to employ the technology, so it works well for them to invest in the service. Mumm says it can be a system that adds to what larger companies already have.
Flexibility is one of the big benefits of the virtual office. Mumm says this kind of access allows you to work whenever and wherever you need to. He says he has a newborn baby and that requires him to be flexible in his schedule at home and he says it also allows employees to be out and about.
Keri Storjohann runs Solutions, Inc., a small Iowa marketing company and likes using having virtual office. She says the structure of her office doesn’t always require a bricks and mortar building, and it allows her to hire people all around the country to work for her in a single system. Storjohann says the virtual office allows the employees to work on different schedules.
She says it gives a tremendous amount of flexibility, as it allows people to work out of their homes and during their own hours, but still have access to the information they need. Storjohann says things like the blizzard earlier this month have less of an impact on her business, because her employees can still work without having to come to an office building.
Long before Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network, central Iowa youngsters watched Duane Ellet and his puppet pooch, Floppy. The pair started entertaining audiences in 1957 and continued until Ellet’s death in 1987. Next week, the Duane and Floppy Film Festival will be held at the State Historical Museum in Des Moines.
Snow plows and salt trucks are rolling, but authorities say road conditions on this Christmas Day are worsening across Iowa’s western half. Temperatures have fallen into the teens since this morning and winds are picking up, now gusting up to 40 miles an hour in the west, bumping wind chill factors into the teens and 20s below zero.
