I went through an article recently, which raises the topic of working across longitudes, by exploiting the communication technologies through the concept called ‘Follow the sun’ workflow. Advances in global communication via the internet, cell phones, teleconferencing and other technologically advanced tools have diminished the problems that physical separation has traditionally caused for international teams collaborating on projects.

Today, there are many cases, like where a team in Silicon Valley, US and a team in, perhaps, Bengaluru, India collaborate on a project. Both these places are separated by a time gap of 12 and a half hours. When the American team completes their work at 5pm, they can email their Indian counterparts, who would later get to work few hours later, when it is 8am there. Working round the clock indeed has its own advantages for meeting deadlines and present well-documented projects. Call centres and website design companies are some best examples.

However, many experts have a different take on this. They cast doubt on the credibility of this system - many of whom have been a part of a project like this. Though the international work day can help in reducing backlogs and be a cost-effective way of completing a project, an ideal situation is not created. The time gap causes a lot of confusion, which results in the wastage of efforts. If a member of one team has a question to his counterpart across the globe, he has to wait for 12 hours or more for a response. There is no immediate communication facility.

So, a team in doubt will have to make its own assumptions, which often ends up being wrong, resulting in wasted efforts. Thus, they might have to work extra hours, set up conferences much ahead of before the working hours of the respective teams. The managers also suffer a loss in this way and in many situations, the teams don’t receive monetary compensations.

Thus, this concept of ‘following the sun’ has its own ups and downs. While it has been reported to give a 50 per cent reduction in backlog, it has also given rise to communication difficulties leading to erroneous completion of work. So, there is a need for a more ideal situation, which does not solely depend on communication technologies.

– The writer is a pupil based in Dubai