There’s a few reasons I got into the web publishing business, and many of them revolve around convenience and flexibility.  It’s an appealing thought to work from home in your PJs, but there’s much more to it than that.  Aside from self-discipline and juggling the coexistence of home and office life, there’s the matter of working with others in a virtual space, and leveraging technology to ensure you’re as productive as you can be.

Your commute time, for example, is probably a loss in productivity.  If you drive, then you’re limited in other tasks you can accomplish on your way to work.  If you ride public transportation, you’re better able to take advantage of the time you spend traveling, though there’s a few limitations around this as well.  Mobility has taken the concept of work productivity to new heights, joining work and leisure into a single device (theoretically) that transcends the 9-5 time constraints.  But the number of potential work hours an employer loses just waiting for their workers to make it to work and back can quickly add up.

Then there’s the matter of being green.  Driving to work racks up carbon emissions too.  Simply allowing employees to work from home one day out the week could cut down energy costs by 10% for a company.  Just think of those days when your schedule is filled with conference calls and catch-up work–perfect for working from home for a day.

These are some of the highlights Kim Woodward, VP of Marketing at Citrix, brought to my attention during a chat last week, ushering in a broader discussion around telecommuting, virtual work tools and the rise of the knowledge worker (read data scientist).  “Tech will continue to play an important part as it gets easier to get apps where you need them to be,” Woodward says.

But beyond the technology, there’s also a shift taking place across corporate culture.  Companies have been pondering how they’ll deal with employees that check Facebook during work hours, but it boils down to a culture of trust.  Oftentimes giving employees the freedom to schedule their time accordingly renders better results in the office (physical or otherwise).

“As tech advances and gets faster and cheaper, it will get easier for employers to say yes to people that are able to work on the go,” Woodward goes on. “You need a culture of trust, and the measurement to make sure people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing.  How do you make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing?  Well, how can you do this while they’re in their cube? Unless you’re constantly standing over their shoulder, you don’t know.”

This knowledge base is important in building a culture of trust, and it can be derived from data.  Recognizing patterns inside the office and beyond, how tools and apps are being utilized and what empowers workers to boost productivity isn’t always a matter for the bricks and mortar office.  The proof is in the pudding.  Did the assigned project turn out as expected?  Did every team member reach their goal?  Woodward recommends that you measure output not activity.

“One thing I love about Citrix culture is that we’re objective–everyone understands what it takes to reach our goals.  It’s not about how many hours I spend in the office, but are we raising awareness?  Are we growing?”

Extracting the necessary data to support an ecosystem of remote “workers” is an important part of Minted’s business model as well.  The paper and stationary store that takes the Threadless approach to community-driven product selection is made up of folks like self-employed designers and stay-at-home moms that create artistic paper products in their spare time.  While these members aren’t direct employees of Minted, they are the backbone of the site’s marketplace, thriving on user-generated contributions and votes.

Looking at the patterns of crowd-sourcing has enabled Minted to build a marketplace that sustains its remote “workers” across the country.  “We’re an interesting team of people,” says Minted CEO and co-founder Mariam Naficy.

“The balance we have is a lot of great designers, some of which we found through the community, and a great technologist who’s very data driven.  We’re very much about the crowd helping us make decisions.”

In different setting and for different reasons, people’s ability to work in a setting they’re most comfortable is changing the way we all do business.  Data is an important part of this process as it keeps us in line with goals around efficiency, faster learning and faster decision-making towards future improvements.  Where data and humans collide is a place of empowerment, making a series of systems work better for countless purposes.