A Tool to Measure the Impact of Telecommuting

Among other things, PeopleCube software (described in this post from ZDNet) will help business measure how much money they're saving by using teleconferencing and the like. That's cool, but what I really love is this concept of resource scheduling as a key component of a successful telecommuting program. Here's the scenario:

You're wandering around your building and see empty offices and cubes. Where are all the workers? At home, on the road, in the coffee shop, or what have you. But you're not saving any money because you still have places for those people when they dew drop inn.

It sounds like PeopleCube could help you set up a flexible workplace arrangement that would actually reduce your real estate, power, and so on costs. (And so on is one of the biggest business expenses, I hear.) Your employees can schedule time in flexible workspaces, conference rooms, lounge areas, or whatever you want to set up in the system. Workers have a definite place to alight when they come on site, and you can accurately measure how your space is being utilized to determine if you have too many offices, not enough, or if it's just right.

I know I'm probably just falling prey to marketing hype, but why would the Resource Scheduling Advisory Board give us bad advice, eh?