The Future of the IT Workplace - No Office

Imagine a work world with no commute, no corporate headquarters and perhaps not even an office in the physical world at all. For Bob Flavin, a computer scientist at IBM; Janet Hoffman, an executive at a management consulting firm; and Joseph Jaffe, a marketing entrepreneur, the future is already here.

"These days we do so much by teleconference it really doesn't matter where you are," Flavin said. Like 42 percent of IBM's 350,000 employees, Flavin rarely comes in to an IBM office. "We don't care where and how you get your work done," said Dan Pelino, general manager of IBM's global health care and life sciences business. "We care that you get your work done."

IBM says it saves $100 million a year in real estate costs because it doesn't need the offices.