Queensland-based IT services provider, Data#3 (ASX:DTL), is considering moving its main office and has mulled over the possibility of more remote working, its chief revealed.
Chairing an e-business stream discussion at the Federal Government's Realising our Broadband Future summit at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) yesterday, managing director, John Grant, introduced the idea of businesses allowing remote working and touched on the prevailing contemporary view that work is something you do, not somewhere you go.
"We are going through an exercise in our own business at the moment about relocating our main office with a view to taking on a 10-year lease," he said. "As a CEO, I have huge hesitations about it. We have just done a body of work about what work could be like, but we probably don't have the moral fortitude to commit to that and take the risk associated with that.
“We will probably secure premises for another 10 years. But it is a dilemma in the sort of transitions organisations need to go through and whether a) the organisation is up to it and b) whether the ecosystem in which they operate is up to it as well."
In a wide-ranging discussion on the barriers to furthering e-business, Grant also called on the industry to do more promotion outside of itself.
"We have to be advocates. One of the things we need to do and the people in our industry need to do, is go and talk to people that don't work in the industry and tell them all the things that can be done,” he said.
Last month, Data#3 (ASX:DTL) announced it was on track to return better first-half FY09/10 results than for the same period last year. While not able to disclose details about ongoing negotiations at the time, the company expected major contract decisions with state governments to be reached by Christmas.
(More information on the Realising our Broadband Future: Stream Session 2. Reality check? e-business discussions can be listened to on the forum's website.)
