7/28/2019 Networking Chapter 8 Labs

1/2

Jeff Brown

Networking Class

03-13-13

Chapter 8 SOHO Planning

Exercise 8.4:

Small office/home office Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Home-office" redirects here. For the United Kingdom government department responsible forinternal affairs, see Home Office.

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sourcesremain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing moreprecise citations. (May 2012)

Small office/home office (or single office/home office; SOHO) refers to the category of business or

cottage industry that involves from 1 to 10 workers.

Before the 19th century, and the spread of the industrial revolution around the globe, nearly alloffices were small offices and/or home offices, with only a few exceptions. Most businesses weresmall, and the paperwork that accompanied them was limited. The industrial revolution aggregatedworkers in factories, to mass-produce goods. In most circumstances, the so-called "white collar"counterpart office work was aggregated as well in large buildings, usually in cities or denselypopulated suburban areas.

Sample Home office

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Home_office_small_office.JPGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Home_office_small_office.JPGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Home_office_small_office.JPGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Home_office_small_office.JPG

7/28/2019 Networking Chapter 8 Labs

2/2

Small office/home office (History)

Beginning in the mid-1980s, the advent of the personal computer and fax machine, plus breakthroughs intelecommunications, created opportunities for office workers to decentralize. Decentralization was also

perceived as benefiting employers in terms of lower overheads and potentially greater productivity.

Many consultants and the members of such professions as lawyers, real estate agents, and surveyors insmall and medium-size towns operate from home offices.[citation needed]

Several ranges of products, such as the armoire desk and all-in-one printer, are designed specifically for the SOHO market. A number of books and magazines have been published and marketed specifically atthis type of office. These range from general advice texts to specific guidebooks on such challenges assetting up a small PBX for the office telephones.

Technology has also created a demand for larger businesses to employ individuals who work from home.Sometimes these people remain as an independent businessperson, and sometimes they becomeemployees of a larger company.

In popular literature, the home office has not been the topic of as many works as the "normal" modernoffice. Brian Basset, the author of the newspaper comic strip Adam@home, has sometimes described itsmore humorous aspects.

The small office home office has undergone a transformation since its advent as the internet has enabledanyone working from a home office to compete globally. Technology has made this possible throughemail, the World-Wide Web, e-commerce, videoconferencing, remote desktop software, webinar systems,

and telephone connections by VOIP.

Short for small office/home office, a term that refers to the small or home office environment and the business culture that surrounds it. A SOHO is often thought of as being the smallest of small businesses.It is a privately owned and operated business or individuals who are self-employed. SOHO is oftencharacterized as being a small in both the size of the office space and number of employees.

As a general guideline, a small office is considered to be any firm with fewer than 10 employees, althoughin more recent years, some research and marketing firms have taken to categorizing SOHO as a firm with1-4 employees. Firms with 5 or more employees are considered different categories within the small

business sector (e.g. 5-9, 10-19, and so on, up to 100 employees).

In some cases the workplace is designated space established within the business owner's residence ("homeoffice") where they conduct their business tasks on a regular basis.

Today, the home office has become a popular choice for a work environment because Internet-basedtechnologies allow individuals to work from home using email, Web, VoIP, and remote access softwareto communicate with global employers (see "teleteleworker"). A home office is a good choice for

professionals who operate their own service-based small business (i.e., real estate, pet care, legal services)and for some Internet-based business including email marketing services, SEO consulting or ecommerce.