In theory, it sounds wonderful. No tiresome commuting that wastes time and damages the environment. Everyone enjoying the convenience of working in their own space, with all their home comforts on hand.

In practice, however, it can quickly become a nightmare. If people don’t know when their colleagues are available for meetings. If communication systems are clumsy or unreliable. If it’s hard to share files or to work on them together. All that extra productivity and efficiency can evaporate very quickly.

The solution depends on the precise nature of the business and what it needs to do. Fundamentally, it’s about choosing the right primary system, then adding powerful applications that give you the connectivity and control that you need. Presence information (so that you can see whether someone is available to take a call), instant messaging, video calling, and much more.