Globalization. IT Consumerization. Big data. Collaboration Software. Social networking. Remote workers. The workplace is transforming quickly and dramatically. These rapid changes can often leave organizations challenged to keep up. So how do you ensure your company is not left behind? More important, how do you strengthen your leadership and competitive position?
We can help. Virtual Distance International has the world's first Software-as-a-Service-based predictive analytics and solutions to reduce Virtual Distance to enable and empower workplace transformation. Metrics that matter. Results you can count on.

What is
Virtual Distance?

Virtual Distance is a measurable disconnect that occurs when human beings rely heavily on smart, digital devices to communicate—no matter where they are located.

What is
Virtual Distance?

Virtual Distance is a measurable disconnect that occurs when human beings rely heavily on smart, digital devices to communicate—no matter where they are located. We've all seen the signs: Meetings that feel unfocused at best. A team member left out due to a perceived slight. Projects that get off track due to poor communication. Welcome to the new world of work. And to a world of new challenges, ones we never could have anticipated.

Everyone's heard the term 'Workplace Transformation' bandied about. But what does it mean? Hi-tech AV equipment? Offices with 24/7 snacks, Starbucks IVs and bean bag chairs? Leveraging more “on demand” workers? Ironically, today’s connected office has actually led to disconnectedness. Try these numbers on for size: 76% of employees feel disengaged. An astounding 87% of projects end up late and/or over budget. And 24% of virtual workers surveyed, reported feeling less respected than their in-person counterparts.

Organizations that leverage today’s technologies effectively have the ability to attract, hire, and motivate the best people, regardless of location. But to do so, they must first address a hidden set of barriers that when taken in sum, is called Virtual Distance.

Virtual Distance:
Backed by science. Proven in business.

The Solution
The Science

We've discovered that when Virtual Distance is properly identified, measured and analyzed, it can also be fixed. Using our advanced Virtual Distance Analytics in dozens of global companies, we've devised ways to:

Identify areas where Virtual Distance is affecting productivity, performance and product development.
Measure the impact of Virtual Distance on performance, leadership, morale, job satisfaction and innovation.
Reduce Virtual Distance by applying best practices that have been tested, validated and proven over a dozen years in the field.
Manage Virtual Distance to improve productivity, support workers at all locations, enhance collaboration and accelerate speed to market, innovation and digital transformation.
Predict where Virtual Distance will occur in the future to avoid the traps that can make digital collaboration ineffective.

Until now, these exclusive Virtual Distance analytics have been available solely for the private use of our consulting clients. Now we are making them available to the world through our scalable VDM Cloud Software as a Service.

Virtual Distance was discovered by Dr. Lojeski while doing her Ph.D. research. Her thesis, "Virtual Distance: A New Model for the Study of Virtual Work", won the 2006 award for outstanding dissertation of the year at Steven's Institute of Technology, one of the top engineering schools in the country.

Using rigorous research methods and in-depth statistical modeling, Dr. Lojeski has shown that Virtual Distance has a significant and negative impact on multiple key performance indicators. And it's not just about geographic or time-zone differences - in fact - when taken in sum - those factors are the least important.

Dr. Lojeski identified 10 factors, grouped into three main components, Physical Distance, Operational Distance and Affinity Distance. The most significant factors, Operational and Affinity Distance, have more to do with day-to-day issues in meaningful communications and the barriers that block the deep formation of relationships. That said, if companies continue to chase the Physical Distance Factors - they are aiming at the wrong target if they want to improve performance.

After a decade of collecting Virtual Distance data, including 40,000 data points from more than 1,000 global teams in companies that employ over a million people, the statistical relationships and predictive power of Virtual Distance has just gotten stronger. We have demonstrated that when Virtual Distance is reduced using Virtual Distance Management (VDM) practices, now available in the VDM Cloud SaaS solution, performance can increase by 30% or more and the difference can be seen in less than six months!

Using science as our ground, we can predict success.

Virtual Distance isn’t something that happens to “other people.”

You are, without a doubt, affected by Virtual Distance. You just may not realize it yet. And when it comes to this topic, what you don’t know CAN hurt you.

For more than a decade, we've worked with Fortune 500 companies around the globe and have demonstrated that Virtual Distance upends multi-billion-dollar businesses, impedes product development, causes team dysfunction and cripples corporate cultures.

For individuals, this can be frustrating. For businesses, it can seriously impact your bottom line. Discover for yourself just how valuable remedying Virtual Distance can be for your company.

Things are not always as they seem. Across the office or a continent away, Virtual Distance can have significant adverse effects on culture, efficiency and profits.

Virtual Distance can have significant effects on culture, efficiency and profits.

We Can Help.

By leveraging the tools in The Virtual Distance Management (VDM) Cloud software suite, organizations can now take control of Virtual Distance and transform it from a liability into a tool for competitive differentiation. In a world of hard-to-implement and harder-to-measure team engagement solutions, Virtual Distance (and the proven science behind it) is the game changer managers have been waiting for.
What are you waiting for? Get in touch with one of our experts today.

Get your company working smarter with VDM Cloud^™ The world’s first Virtual Distance^® software product.

REQUEST A LIVE DEMO TODAY

VDM Cloud includes five powerful modules that will forever change the way you work.

For the first time, the tools and technology to analyze, manage and predict Virtual Distance are available in a SaaS platform—The VDM Cloud.

See Where You Stand

Virtual Distance Index (VDI) Assessments capture both baseline and comparative data over time. Whether it's today or tomorrow, "as-is" or "to-be", VDI Assessments have you covered.

OVERVIEW
FEATURES

The Dynamic Assessment module features VDI's proprietary Virtual Distance Assessment tools, formerly available only to our consulting clients, leveraging tens of thousands of data points and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from our years of research. This module is extremely valuable because it not only provides a baseline assessment, we can also analyze custom measures for clients. For example in one case, we measured how Virtual Distance was impacting retention rates for summer interns. In another military situation we measured decision quality. In a financial services company we measured specifics around employee engagement unique to that customer. In addition to the Baseline Assessment, we also have the Follow-up Assessment. After about 4-5 months, VDI can reassess to see where and how performance has improved and how Virtual Distance dynamics are shifting.

Baseline Virtual Distance Assessment: Using advanced metrics we provide a baseline of Virtual Distance in your organization, based on the three factors of Physical Distance, Operational Distance and Affinity Distance. We also measure 10 standard performance outcomes including Project Success, Innovation, Trust, Employee Engagement, Strategic Impact, Leader Effectiveness, Job Satisfaction, Learning and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors.
Customized Assessments:This extends the basic assessment to incorporate company-specific performance criteria determined by you. We can create the variables or we can use metrics you are already collecting in your organization.
Follow-up VDI Assessments: This captures metrics that can quantitatively provide evidence of performance improvements once the organization implements the prescribed Virtual Distance Management solutions built from you baseline VDI data sets.

Data in Context

Virtual Distance Analytics and Reporting reveal the causes of relationship management challenges in the workplace.

OVERVIEW
FEATURES

The Virtual Distance Analytics and Reporting module is your analytics gateway into the impact of Virtual Distance within your organization. With this module, you and your teams get precise, scientifically valid measures of Virtual Distance in targeted areas of your business. And it's not just for discrete teams. VDI can measure Virtual Distance at any level: Teams; departments; divisions; entire organization; outside the organization between customers and/or partners; special teams such as project and/or innovation teams, etc. VDI analyzes how Virtual Distance is distributed within and between groups, giving you important insights into the extent in which people experience Virtual Distance on a broad spectrum. Once you are able to measure the impact of Virtual Distance, you can immediately begin the process of enhancing performance among groups – whether enterprise-wide, individual teams such as software developers, specific workgroups or specific types of employees, such as remote workers.

VDI Analytics: After filling out the Virtual Distance Index Assessment, the VDI Analytics Engine goes to work. We analyze your Virtual Distance Dynamics based on our years of experience and proprietary algorithms. We can cut the data any way that suits you best and show you Virtual Distance measures and how Virtual Distance is impacting you on specific performance outcomes for any specific group.
VDM Reporting: You get customized reports that give you important insights pinpointing exactly where, how and to what extent Virtual Distance is affecting your business, including morale, leadership, on-time-delivery of products, productivity, innovation and others.
Virtual Distance Solution Roadmaps: This module details targeted steps you can take to immediately begin enhancing the performance at whatever level you choose to analyze your Virtual Distance Data. You can also run Analytics and Reporting to shed light on relationships with external stakeholders in your enterprise ecosystem, including customers, strategic partners, distributors and others.

Your Insight Gateway

Get the insights you need to restore a clear line of sight into the proper contextual frames to understand today's workplace dynamics.

OVERVIEW
FEATURES

With your VDM SaaS solution, you have access to a wide-ranging set of on-demand content that gives you the context and tools to leverage best practices in managing Virtual Distance for workplace transformation. With this content, you can restore meaningful human relationships and improve business outcomes resulting from Virtual Distance dynamics inside and outside your organization. Organizations immediately see the results of this new learning in the form of measurable improvements on critical success factors—employee engagement, speed to market, worker productivity, and more—that business leaders depend on for competitive advantage and profitability.

Multi-Modal Content for Better Learning: Customers have a wide range of formats to consume content and leverage best practices across workgroups or the entire enterprise. This includes an integrated set of micro-learning modules such as videos, podcasts, worksheets, webinars and other thought-leadership content that maximizes the use of the VDI Dynamic Assessment Suite and Virtual Distance Analytics and Reporting modules.
Multi-Level Content: You get customized reports that give you important insights pinpointing exactly where, how and to what extent Virtual Distance is affecting your business, including morale, leadership, on-time-delivery of products, productivity, innovation and others.
- Level 1 - Virtual Distance Foundations gives you the basics you need to understand the Virtual Distance Dynamics that impact you most and the solutions you need to improve performance and innovation at this fundamental level.
- Level 2 - Advanced Virtual Distance Management gives the user deeper insights into how Virtual Distance impacts your critical success factors like trust, innovation, project success and more and how to understand them in a way that you can "listen for Virtual Distance" in every conversation.
- Level 3 - Virtual Distance Certification is for organizations that want to have employees certified in Virtual Distance Management and take it deeper into the organization. This Level also offers our partners a way to deliver Virtual Distance Solutions to their clients as well.
- Level 4 - Virtual Distance Master is for those who want to curate their own content on Virtual Distance matters specifically tailored for their organizations.

Communities that Count

The Institute is your home for peer-to-peer learning and exchange around Virtual Distance as it pervades our work and everyday lives.

OVERVIEW
FEATURES

Subscribers to VDM SaaS solutions gain exclusive free membership access to the Virtual Distance Institute, which is a peer-to-peer communication environment where unique thought-leadership materials and provocative discussion groups provide additional opportunities for reflection and learning. The VDI Institute hosts special events and supports member-led forums, blogs and other content to showcase issues, challenges and success stories related to Virtual Distance. Relevant neuroscience research and other inter-disciplinary topics are explored more fully, and members can voice their interests and perspectives on the more subtle – but powerful – forces that impact us as we speed into the future of work.

Community: Peer-to-peer community environment with thought-leadership materials, provocative discussion groups and other content/collaboration tools generated either by VDI or VDI Institute members.
Activities: Special events, member-led forums, VDI-led forums and webinars, blogs and other content, live and online.
Early Access to New Software Releases: VDI Institute members are informed of special and early access to new releases of VDI software solutions. In this way, community members are privy to never-before-seen technologies to further advance competitiveness and more authentic human connections.

Mastery that Matters

With a Virtual Distance Certification, become a master at detection, analysis and remedies for Virtual Distance challenges in the ever-shifting future workplace landscape.

OVERVIEW
FEATURES

The VDM integrated solution consists of several subscription levels, including Virtual Distance Certification. We also offer a certification program to organizations and individuals beyond our SaaS subscribers. The concept behind this program is to create VDM facilitators, coaches and other types of organizational leaders that specialize in Virtual Distance detection and mitigation strategies. VDI Certification also offers our partners another way to engage with VDI. As a VDI Certified Partner, you are qualified to offer VDI solutions to your customers.

Virtual Distance Certification: This is available to VDI SaaS subscribers, VDI Certified Partners and other teams/individuals who aspire to be VDI facilitators, coaches or evangelists. To obtain VDI Certification, there are some special considerations that we will discuss with you should you want to move forward in this direction.
VDI Certified Partner Program: This is available for customers that would like to have a "white box" VDM solution, whereby your organization can provide your own branded VDM solutions for your customers.

VIRTUAL DISTANCE

A sense of psychological and emotional detachment that grows
little by little when most of our experiences are mediated by devices.

The modules in the VDM Cloud software give you the tools you need to
avoid the effects of Virtual Distance. Click the icons above to learn more.

A few of the organizations we’ve helped.

A few of the organizations
we’ve helped.

We have worked with dozens of global companies to solve some of the most vexing problems presented by the new world of work. Our experience with industry-specific nuances, whether it be privacy, compliance or localization, allows us to deliver solutions that ensure that you see the most impactful results in the shortest amount of time.

We have worked with dozens of global clients to solve some of the most vexing problems presented by the new world of work. Our experience with industry-specific nuances, whether it be privacy, compliance or localization, allows us to deliver a solution that will ensure that you see the most impactful results in the shortest amount of time.

Select an Industry

Testimonials

Managing Director, Major Financial Services Company

"VRM solutions gave me the tools I needed to manage global virtual teams. I wasn't getting that from any other source. Virtual Distance Analytics allowed me to measurably improve performance across the globe."

Head of Consumer Research, Fortune 500 Consumer Products Company

"Reflecting on the Virtual Distance pilot and now getting ready for the global roll-out, I can honestly say this is one of the most relevant solutions I have seen in my entire career with tremendous opportunity for immediate application."

Chief Science Officer, Major Telecommunications Company

"Virtual Distance Analytics revealed cracks in our worldwide engineering teams and how to fix them. After taking steps to reduce Virtual Distance, our innovation effectiveness went up markedly, reducing our time-to-market with new products and increasing our competitive positioning overall."

About Virtual Distance International

Virtual Distance International (VDI), is a New York-based software company specializing in providing solutions to the most vexing challenges around Workplace Transformation. Based on the award-winning discovery of Virtual Distance by Founder and CEO, Dr. Karen Lojeski, VDI has the world's only algorithms that are scientifically validated and precisely reveal where and how Virtual Distance is impacting performance and innovation. VDI pairs these integrated data, assessments, analytics and reporting solutions with prescriptive action plans that once implemented, yield immediate and measurable improvements to performance and innovation.

Meet The VDI Leadership Team

Founder & Ceo

Dr. Karen Lojeski

Dr. Karen Sobel Lojeski is the Founder and CEO of Virtual Distance International (VDI), a software company specializing in Workplace Transformation powered by Virtual Distance Analytics. Dr. Lojeski began as a Systems Engineer with a B.S. in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. She also held leadership positions at major corporations including Chase Manhattan Bank, Stratus Computer, and Mercer Consulting. Karen then earned her Ph.D. from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Dr. Lojeski is the author of two books: Leading the Virtual Workforce and Uniting the Virtual Workforce. Click here to hear her tell the story of how she discovered Virtual Distance.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Carl Eneroth

Carl Eneroth serves as Creative Director and Learning Officer at Virtual Distance International. Carl is a filmmaker and founder of Stockholm Social Innovation Labs (SSI). Carl produces award-winning digital content for online executive education and social media. He also developed the Virtual Distance Leadership Program at the Stockholm School of Economics.

In The News

Contact us to learn more and to schedule a live demo.

New York
Tel: +1-631–509–6490 Email: contact@virtualdistance.com

* Source: 2016 University of Texas survey on workplace satisfaction.

DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT SUITE

TEAM ANALYTICS+REPORTING

THE VDI LEARNING LIBRARY

THE VDI INSTITUTE

VDI CERTIFICATION PROGRAM

See Where You Stand

Virtual Distance Index (VDI) Assessments capture both baseline and comparative data over time. Whether it's today or tomorrow, "as-is" or "to-be", VDI Assessments have you covered.

Data in Context

Virtual Distance Analytics and Reporting reveal the causes of relationship management challenges in the workplace.

Your Insight Gateway

Get the insights you need to restore a clear line of sight into the proper contextual frames to understand today's workplace dynamics.

Communities that Count

The Institute is your home for peer-to-peer learning and exchange around Virtual Distance as it pervades our work and everyday lives.

Mastery that Matters

With a Virtual Distance Certification, become a master at detection, analysis and remedies for Virtual Distance challenges in the ever-shifting future workplace landscape.

See Where You Stand

Virtual Distance Index (VDI) Assessments capture both baseline and comparative data over time.

Data in Context

Virtual Distance Analytics and Reporting reveal the causes of relationship management challenges in the workplace.

Your Insight Gateway

Get the insights you need to restore a clear line of sight into the proper contextual frames to understand today's workplace dynamics.

Communities that Count

The Institute is your home for peer-to-peer learning and exchange around Virtual Distance as it pervades our work and everyday lives.

Mastery that Matters

With a Virtual Distance Certification, become a master at detection, analysis and remedies for Virtual Distance challenges in the ever-shifting future workplace landscape.