One of the big changes in business the past few years has been the explosion in mobility. Workers have long been able to compute from the road, but the rise of smartphones and tablet computers has fundamentally changed the game.
The simplicity that comes with swiping a finger and being able to instantly update a spreadsheet makes mobile computing far easier than working with a laptop with its heft, battery issues and slow startup time. The ease with which smartphones and tablets can connect to cellular networks also has made mobile computing easier than ever.
Businesses are unleashing their workers due to this change in mobility. Field work is easier than ever, lunch meetings are no excuse to stop checking e-mail, and telecommuting is rising at most businesses. More than 10 percent of workers now work from home at least part of the time, according to a study earlier this year by researchers at Stanford University.
There’s a good reason for this move to mobile workers, not just as a result of having the technological tools. The Stanford study showed that the average telecommuting worker is 19 percent more productive than his office-based counterparts. And it should go without saying that mobility benefits workers in the field.
Enabling the mobile office takes the right tools, however. Some of these tools are well considered; no business assumes a worker can work remotely without cellular access and a smartphone, tablet or laptop.
But other tools necessary for mobility are not as obvious, and businesses that ignore them will pay the price with a workforce that is not fully able to leverage their mobility.
One of those tools is fax-over-IP (FoIP). FoIP enables workers to be fully mobile. They already have their mail mobile with e-mail. They have their office phone mobile by using their cell phone, or by having their business phone forward with voice-over-IP. They get their office chatter with social networks. But they still have their faxes stuck at the office.
FoIP is the solution, as it makes faxes digital and therefore mobile. With FoIP, workers can send faxes from the road and also make sure they get incoming faxes as they arrive. It is one of the missing pieces.
One easy way to upgrade the fax to a digital solution is with AudioCodes’ (News - Alert) fax ATA solution. It lets a business retrofit its existing fax machines to enable FoIP.
A second technology that businesses need to keep in mind is cloud document storage. Not all files can or should be stored on mobile devices or laptops. It is safer to have business documents in the cloud, in case the mobile device is stolen. It also ensures that the documents are on whatever device the worker is currently using.
Cloud document storage can be as easy as a service such as Dropbox (News - Alert), or as complex as a full-featured cloud-based document repository. But however a business chooses to put its documents in the cloud (securely, of course), it must make sure all documents are in the cloud and accessible for the mobile worker.
With the right tools, mobility is a game-changer.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson