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Business has become increasingly mobile with more employees keeping in touch with the office by checking emails on their mobile phones or remotely dia...(Microscope Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Business has become increasingly mobile with more employees keeping in touch with the office by checking emails on their mobile phones or remotely dialling into office servers from across the globe. This means more people in the UK can now choose to work from home, with Leicester University reporting that more than 25% of UK employees now occasionally take advantage of this option. Responding to this change, technology companies are now providing employees with the tools they need to complete their work efficiently, without ever stepping inside the office. However, have these improvements in mobile technology created a more proactive workforce, or are we becoming slaves to technology with more of us bringing our mobile devices home with us? A report by CBS Outdoor found the UK economy gains ?9bn a year from the increased productivity of workers on the move, with devices such as mobile phones, Blackberrys, laptops and personal digital assistants (PDAs) popularly being used. However, there are still limitations to the degree of secure access employees are granted remotely to company servers and on the amount of storage capacity available on portable devices. Technology companies are now making it their mission to abolish these barriers to mobility by creating applications specifically for portable devices. One example is Microsoft with its application openoffice.org2. This allows portable devices to download Microsoft Office, making it easier for users to write documents and use spreadsheets without the need for a laptop. Technology has evolved dramatically to help users become increasingly mobile. The first laptop released 20 years ago weighed more than 10kg and could sustain only minutes of activity before it ran out of power. It also came with 64K RAM. Laptops have become smaller and lighter, but now new devices, such as notebooks and palm-size portable hard drives, with capacities as large as 500GB, are competing with the once-favoured laptop. Flash drives are also relatively new to the market, with the first commercial product release in 2000 promoting USBs of 8MB. Now they are available in a range of capacities and have been conveniently reduced to the size of a paperclip. The 10kg laptop is but a distant memory. With technology helping us become increasingly mobile, more employees will be able to work efficiently while travelling or in the comfort of their own home. Research by the Future Foundation established that more than half the population (55%) in the UK want to be contactable at all times. It is true that more people are using this increased development in mobility to take portable devices home with them and even on holiday to maintain a constant link to the office. Nevertheless, portable devices are effectively helping people to manage their time more productively so that we can then spend more time at home with our families. Will we ever need to visit the office again? As we are developing into a more mobile workforce, an issue that continues to be highlighted in the media is security. Laptops, PDAs and portable hard drives are easily lost, mislaid or stolen. They are relatively cheap and easy to leave lying around. Businesses need to ensure they have a comprehensive policy to encourage staff to look after data devices that store vital information. Additionally, they need to take steps to protect the data on that hardware such as file encryption and creating password-protected folders. Firewalls in laptop ports could also help to mitigate the risk of theft. Business mobility continues to evolve, with technology companies producing smaller devices with larger capacities. More people are able to spend their time productively while travelling and can even work in the comfort of their own home. Employees today actively use flash drives, mobiles and hard drives in work and at home and are now seeing the benefits, with more of us choosing to work from home. With more people doing business on the move and the increase of technology companies producing portable, time efficient devices, will there be anyone left at the office? Copyright ? 2008 Reed Business Information - UK. All Rights Reserved. |