On the other hand, it allows employees the freedom to leave the office early when necessary for personal business while still being able to complete important work projects. BlackBerry devices make it possible for you to send and receive email on your cell phone, thus being able to remain in touch with important clients and key personnel at your company whether you are on business, on vacation, or at home.

Even if you are ill, you can remain in touch with people who have pertinent information you need to know. In addition, cell phones that allow you to access your office files such as those in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are part of the new technological advances that will make office portability a process that future generations will likely use to create the home-office for many more of its employees. The future will see more telecommuting and less of the drive to work, especially for working mothers who desire the flexibility of having a job and staying home with their children.

How realistic is it to think that in the next few decades, fewer people will be going out to work on a regular basis? Remember, just twenty-five or thirty years ago we could not have envisioned a computer that you could carry home with you that didn't require a power socket to drive it. We also didn't envision the tiny cell phone that we could take into another room in the home or office in order to hold a private conversation.

With so much new technology, we can only guess what the future holds. I have personally read articles that predict by the 22nd century hardly anyone will be working in an office or factory except those necessary to keep production lines running.

Perhaps it is only a prediction that offers hope to those who would like to see it happen, but on the other hand, based upon how far technology has advanced in just twenty-five years, it is not impossible to see it as a future lifestyle.

After all, we need only look around and see how far things have come even since the beginning of the 21st century to see the potential for a world where only production workers and key personnel are required to report to a job location on a daily basis.

Dale Troppito and Dawna Paton are managing partners of the Gantry Group. Troppito has guided Gantry's rigorous ROI best practice models based on a 25-year career in the technology sector as a CEO, product development executive and chief marketing officer. You can reach her at dtroppito@gantrygroup.com. Paton believes that the technology leaders of the future will be those that understand the crucial role that a market-validated, value delivery strategy and compelling ROI play in shaping corporate competitiveness and customer satisfaction. You can reach her at dpaton@gantrygroup.com.