A study of the remote neighborhood office center concept

The substitution of communications for commuting to work is examined from several aspects. Attention is focused on the possibility of certain groups of white collar workers conducting their business affairs through a network of Remote Neighborhood Office Centers (RNOC's) located near their homes. Typically, employees would communicate with their headquarters organizations by means of voice and digital circuits. Although current technology is readily able to support such an RNOC network, the main problems confronting would-be implementers center around the need for demonstrating that a sufficient number of business operations can be carried out in such a decentralized configuration as efficiently as they are under more conventional circumstances. The description of a pilot program is presented which is intended to identify pacing issues that must be settled before firm conclusions can be reached on whether the concept is operationally viable.