|
Working whilst outside the office, home or other fixed location is nothing new. Long before wireless and cellular networking became widely used for mobile access to IT or communications, service and field engineers, trades people, sales people, and other professionals have often had to perform their job responsibilities outside the confines of their office or business premises and while on the move. For many organisations it is a major benefit to have access to central IT systems at the employees' point of activity, however remote that might be, with information updated immediately, in real time, when and where the transaction is being performed.
This mode of work is essential to the successful operation of many organisations, and although escaping the constraints of the office might seem liberating to some, mobile and remote working can often be excessively tiring, stressful and highly disruptive. It is also not necessarily the most productive environment for work either, as there are many disruptions and interruptions that can distract and affect efficiency. These are different from those inside business premises - colleagues, other phones ringing, the lure of a coffee machine or staff facilities - and for many employees a mobile workplace will provide a quieter haven from the buzz of an office, but with other temptations and challenges to slow the working process.
The challenge now is that with so many more workers relying on almost continuous access to IT services to perform their job functions, there is an increasing need for mobile or remote access solutions (Figure 1). When the research was conducted, the majority of companies thought that the number of employees in these types of working roles would grow, and anecdotally that trend appears to be accurate. Changes in attitudes to the environment, business facilities locations and working practices provides more impetus for all forms of flexible, mobile and remote working to increase and this will place increasing demands on the IT function. Away from the office, mobile and remote employees cannot depend on the presence or immediate support of colleagues and rely on a communications lifeline to the IT department.
To help them remain at their most productive, these employees must focus as little time, effort and energy as possible on the technology and tools they are provided with, to concentrate on the task in hand. It is bad enough for distractions to be part of the environment for mobile workers, but it is even more of an aggravation when the mobile technology itself gets in the way of productive working.
As this mode of working becomes the norm for many more workers, distractions caused by technology shortcomings should be minimised, otherwise the productivity gains promised by mobile working will be diminished. This document looks at the main areas where problems generally occur in mobile deployments, and how organisations can avoid the pitfalls and therefore maximise mobile productivity.
Once the constraints of a fixed desk are removed there are a number of different ?un-tethered' ways of working. For example some organisations have some form of flexible working or hot-desking where employees roam among different desks or workstations within the organisation's facilities. In others, many employees have worked remotely in some form, perhaps from home, or historically by dialling in with a modem over a phone line while travelling, say in a hotel (Figure 2).
An often quoted stereotype for un-tethered working is the ?roadwarrior? who is often referred to as mobile, but primarily moves from one fixed location to another. These remote workers require intermittent IT access and applications use, from one or more fixed locations - home, hotel or airport lounge. This remote access helps extend the working day, especially when travelling, or manage their work/life balance, but rarely involves the need for continuous IT and application access while on the move.
The more recent growth of networked Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), smartphones and especially laptops with cellular data cards and embedded wireless connectivity is fuelling the trend towards truly mobile working.
|
