Released on = July 18, 2006, 7:47 am

Press Release Author = Joan Muschamp/Applied Knowledge Group, Inc

Industry = Government

Press Release Summary = Andrew Campbell, CEO of Applied Knowledge Group
(http://www.akgroup.com), describes one telework effort by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) to create landing guidelines for an Alaskan airport. Telework
has become big in the United States. According to the International Telework
Association and Council, more than 44 million Americans now work remotely at least
part of each week. However, most of these people work in the private sector as
government agencies have been slow to take advantage of telework.

Press Release Body = Andrew Campbell, CEO of Applied Knowledge Group
(http://www.akgroup.com), describes one telework effort by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) to create landing guidelines for an Alaskan airport.
Historically this process has taken as long as one year. But, an innovative FAA
employee set up a Microsoft SharePoint site, enabling people to collaborate in real
time-handling the project by teleworking-and completing the process in three months.
\"That saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars,\" says Campbell, whose firm
helps create telework and collaboration solutions for federal agencies, non-profits
and private sector clients.

Telework has become big in the United States. According to the International
Telework Association and Council, more than 44 million Americans now work remotely
at least part of each week. However, most of these people work in the private sector
as government agencies have been slow to take advantage of telework. But recent
events underscore the notion that a flexible, remote work force might be better able
to respond to catastrophes than one that is tied to a single building or office
complex.

Teleworking employees also regularly report higher job satisfaction, but adoption of
telework by federal agencies has been slow. By 2004, agencies had achieved only 14
percent compliance with Public Law 106-346 goals. Tom Davis, a Republican
representative from Virginia, has threatened to withhold millions of dollars in
funding from agencies that balk at implementing telework. \"Unfortunately, that\'s the
wrong approach,\" says Campbell. \"For most agencies, a few million dollars is decimal
dust. It\'s not going to make any difference,\" he says. \"You start to get push-back
when you try to browbeat agencies into adopting telework. Instead,\" he says, \"it\'s
better to take a viral approach, leveraging examples of how telework can improve
productivity so that other agencies and managers can see the benefits.\"

The FAA, perhaps the most telework-enabled federal agency, is a key example of a
successful approach. Today, more than 22,000 FAA employees work on the agency\'s
Knowledge Services Network (KSN), which is one of the biggest Microsoft
SharePoint-based networks in the federal government. The KSN got its start in 1999,
when Ronald Simmons, a scientific and technical advisor for the FAA, saw a
demonstration of Microsoft's new product and quickly grasped its implications. \"I
was trying to come up with a way to extend the FAA\'s ability to work virtually,\"
said Simmons, adding "SharePoint offered the flexible, scalable, cost-efficient
platform we needed."

By 2002, the FAA formalized the new collaborative working site. Fifty people were
the early adopters of KSN, first used as a central reporting site for aviation
incidents. KSN has grown exponentially and currently adds about 1,000 users per
month. The KSN can be used anywhere by anyone with an Internet connection.

Applied Knowledge Group has been working with the FAA to refine the KSN, providing
technical expertise as well as training and other adoption services. The FAA uses
the KSN in a number of ways including to help with collaborative rule making, as an
aid in managing meetings, and to create and review documents and budgets. Over all,
some 40 percent of FAA employees now use the KSN with a target of 80 percent.

The KSN is a key part of the agency\'s Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP), a
process by which all federal agencies are required to have contingency plans for
maintaining services in the event of a disaster. \"Too often,\" says Simmons, \"these
plans call for agency employees to work over a VPN or with e-mail and telephones.
But, because the employees don\'t use such a system in their everyday work, if they
need to adopt it quickly, the results are apt to be chaotic.\" Simmons concludes,
\"With the KSN, we don\'t change how you work, we change where you work.\"


About Applied Knowledge Group, Inc.

AKG, a Microsoft®Certified Partner, is a turnkey \"solutions integrator\" focused
entirely on collaboration, change management, and information sharing, specifically
engaged in SharePoint® implementation and adoption. AKG integrates team behaviors,
processes, and leadership skills with technology training, SharePoint implementation
and SharePoint adoption best practices. The AKG staff has the expertise necessary to
help clients get the most out of their SharePoint investment



Web Site = http://www.akgroup.com

Contact Details = Joan Muschamp
2100 Reston Parkway; Suite 400
Reston, VA 20191
pr@akgroup.com