An article in the Washington Sun: Boeing employees could work from OC center someday Amy Trask, Sun Staff (August 3, 2003), provides a case study look at one teleworker in Kitsap county, WA.

"One of roughly 400 Boeing employees who live in Kitsap, Westrum-Grumer is enthusiastic about the steps her company, motivated in part by cost savings, is taking to allow her and co-workers to eliminate their commutes.

"Boeing is looking at the cost of buildings it owns and leases, trying to cut its real estate costs by 25 percent.

"Dean Tougas, a company spokesman, estimates that Boeing can save $7 million in Puget Sound alone by implementing a telework plan."

Olympic College is working with Boeing to investigate using telework centers as an alternative to home-based offices for some workers.

"OC is the ideal place for such a center because the college is attached to the Kitsap Public Utility District's fiber-optic backbone, which transfers data quicker than lines readily available in homes."

This is the key to allowing teleworkers like Westrum-Grumer to eliminate her twice-weekly commute into the office to transfer large databases onto her laptop, an effort that takes seconds over a high-speed connection but is nearly impossible from her low speed home connection.

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