Accessing the corporate network on the road or at home are key tools in ’empowering’ the workforce. But while some businesses are rolling out enabling technologies, most of those early adopters are already linked to the notion of mobile working, such as RAC, the UK roadside car rescue service, and UPS, the global parcel distribution network. For the rest, the message is taking time to get through.
While some businesses in the UK have become enthusiastic and sophisticated adopters of mobile and remote working technology, most of these have had two strong reasons for doing so: they employ large numbers of remote or mobile workers; and second, they need to constantly find differentiation and new
RAC, the UK roadside car rescue service, and UPS, the global parcel distribution network are two good examples. For other types of business, however, the mobile business message is taking more time to get through.
“We are not yet seeing businesses rushing to bring mobility to the enterprise,” admits Richard Hanscott, vice president of business solutions at Orange, the wireless operator. “Mobility is the great ‘missing link’ in making the empowered enterprise a reality. And these missing links are holding business back.”
He believes that will soon change. Rational fears about reliability, the high costs of support, the shortcomings of wireless security, and disagreements over technological standards will eventually be overcome. Then, organisations seeking greater efficiency and competitive advantage will rush to invest in mobile working applications.
Hanscott, speaking at the Information Age Empowered Enterprise conference in London in January, believes that the rate of adoption of previous technologies provides a good model. “Once, our business information systems were confined to the office and the workplace. Then, with the Internet, we started to extend our customer-facing systems out into people’s studies and spare rooms,” he says.
“Now we can contemplate a much more significant shift, one where we understand that work is something we do, and not somewhere we go. This is the empowered enterprise – a business in which mobility is an integrated extension to its infrastructure.”
Jos Dujardin, director of ebusiness solutions for UPS Europe, said his company took a “bold decision” to roll out the new generation of wireless technologies for its army of van drivers and package sorters and scanners, but only after careful consideration. “Technology is part of our DNA. It is part of our culture. We are always looking for new ways to do things better and get things done. We are very confident in wireless technology.”
Dujardin believes that UPS needs to take measured risks to differentiate itself from its rivals. “We sit in the same traffic jams as DHL [a rival courier] and the rest; we fly the same planes; we have a similarly dedicated workforce. Only with technology way can we make a real difference.”
Peter Skilton, head of strategic technology for RAC Motoring Services, a company in a similarly competitive market where finding differentiation is a constant challenge, offers a simple message for the wider business community: embrace mobile working technologies and you will improve employee morale, raise productivity and cut costs.
From the perspective of these early adopters, mobile technology has been a great success, and more risk-averse organisations should follow sooner rather than later. “There’s a darker side to evolution – the dinosaurs and the dodos who didn’t make it,” says Orange’s Hanscott. “The business world is a ruthless environment, where the survival of the fittest is an everyday reality.”
“We are not yet seeing businesses rushing to bring mobility to the enterprise,” admits Richard Hanscott, vice president of business solutions at Orange, the wireless operator. “Mobility is the great ‘missing link’ in making the ’empowered enterprise’ a reality. And these missing links are holding business back.”
But that will change. Rational fears about the high costs of support, the shortcomings of wireless security and disagreement over technological standards will eventually be overcome, giving way to a rush to roll out mobile working applications as businesses seek to steal a march on their competitors.
The rate of adoption of previous technologies shows that the trend to remote and mobile working will eventually be unstoppable, says Hanscott, speaking at the Information Age Empowered Enterprise conference in London last month. “Once, our business information systems were confined to the office and the workplace. With the Internet, we started to extend our customer-facing systems out into people’s studies and spare rooms,” he says. “But now we can contemplate a much more significant shift, one where we understand that work is something we do, and not somewhere we go. This is the ’empowered enterprise’ – a business in which mobility is an integrated extension to its infrastructure.”
Sceptics will learn from the positive feedback of their contemporaries. Jos Dujardin, director of ebusiness solutions for UPS Europe, said the company took a “bold decision” to roll out the new generation of wireless technologies for its army of van drivers and package sorters and scanners, but only after “careful consideration”. He says: “Technology is part of our DNA. It is part of our culture. We are always looking for ways to do things better and get things done. We are very confident in wireless technology.”
He accepted that UPS needed to take measured risks to differentiate itself from its rivals. “We sit in the same traffic jams as DHL [a rival courier] and the rest, we fly the same planes, we have a similarly dedicated workforce. Only this way can we make a real difference.”
And Peter Skilton, head of strategic technology for RAC Motoring Services, a company in a similarly competitive market where finding differentiation is a constant challenge, offered a simple message for the wider business community: embrace mobile working technologies and you will improve employee morale, raise productivity and cut costs.
But there will always be those that ignore such advice. “There’s a darker side to evolution – the dinosaurs and the dodos who didn’t make it,” says Orange’s Hanscott. “The business world is a ruthless environment, where ‘survival of the fittest’ is an everyday reality.” But for businesses brave enough to embrace change, the rewards will be great.
