This blog originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

As a parent, we all understand that the health of our child takes precedence over economic concerns, geographic distance, and just about any barrier you can name. Many parents know the stress of finding the right doctor to treat a child’s illness, and the difficulties involved in traveling to see that one specific doctor. For critically ill children, the long wait to see a pediatric specialist can be devastating.

About 1 million children in California have ongoing physical, behavioral, mental, or emotional conditions that can affect their ability to function and participate in activities important to their development and, in some cases, can shorten their lives. According to a recent report published by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, these children with special healthcare needs use more healthcare services than other children and account for more than 40 percent of all healthcare cost among children nationwide, despite making up only 16 percent of the U.S. child population. Though advances in medical care have extended and improved the lives of millions of children, more than four in five of children with special healthcare needs still fail to receive one or more basic aspects of quality healthcare, statewide and nationally.

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Tags: children, healthcare, pediatrics, remote, telehealth

I enjoy being part of a team. It’s great for generating ideas, getting support for my ideas, feeling like I am not alone and knowing I can get help if I get stuck. And then there’s the celebrating when we pull off a big project and get to share in the glory and excitement.

But these days, at least half my team members are somewhere else.

While I can walk down the hall to talk to some of my co-workers, I find I am on email or WebEx for others. Keeping everyone on track is my main goal. In this article on the Seven Habits of Extraordinary Teams, they confirm communication is an important ingredient:

Depending upon the goals and time frame, teams should meet at least once a week, and more often if necessary. More importantly, team communications must be tooled (or retooled if necessary) so that each team member understands what’s going on–and, perhaps more importantly, what is expected of him or her before the next meeting.

But it also cites the complimentary requirement that goes with good communication, sharing resources.

For a team to be successful, members must be willing to share whatever resources they control that are required for the team to achieve its goal.  These include physical resources (money, materials, office space, computers, etc.) as well as mental or emotional resources (like ideas, suggestions, encouragement, or enthusiasm). When team members hoard, teams are weakened–often to the point of total failure.

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Tags: leadership, Meeting Spaces, remote, team, telecommute, WebEX

In a recent study conducted by Cisco WebEx by Wakefield Research, small business owners will spend up to four weeks working remotely. They will do by using online tools and web collaboration to stay in touch and get the job done. The survey was conducted between June 6 and June 14, involving the owners of businesses with 100 or fewer employees.

Summer may be the time for vacations, but small business owners can’t afford to be away from the office for long. To make the most of work and personal time, many plan to work remotely, on average, 18 days this summer, according to the survey of 500 U.S. small business owners.

One way to get it done is with a free basic account from WebEx.

15% say they intend to work remotely 36 days or more. Read More »

Tags: Basic, business, remote, remote worker, research, small business, study, telecommute, WebEX

Q: My company has been trying to figure out how we can do better at connecting our remote users to our main site, as well as making our other location seem like it’s right next door. Any advice?

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Tags: ask cisco, Cisco Small Business, communications, firewalls, remote, remote users, routers, small_business, switches, unified communications, video, Voice

I read something the other day: today is the future’s past.

And I thought about that for a bit and decided to turn it around to machine builders. Today you deliver machines to end users that utilize your machines to make things. Tomorrow that end user will want more from that machine. How will you deliver it? Because if you don’t, you will really be in the past.

Part of the answer lies in Secure Remote Access. Part of it lies in trust between you and the end user (who by the way is your customer, if you haven’t figured that out).

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Tags: access, Automation Fair, Cisco, diagnostics, remote, Rockwell Automation, secure, secure remote access