The agile, networked worker
- Article 2 of 3
- The Agile Workforce, December 2002
Which technologies will enable employees to remain connected to corporate data – regardless of their location?
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Timely access to corporate data is the lifeblood of most organisations. Deals fall through because information is not available at a critical moment in the sales process. Conversely, the most ambitious of targets can be reached if the right person has the right information at the right time. Indeed, improved access to corporate data is now the expectation - not the hope - of many employees.
Most, however, lower these expectations when they are out the office, working from home, on the road or in the field. Even laptop users expect to work with slightly dated information until they can locate a phone line for their modems. Yet advances in technology are making corporate information pervasive to many workers when they are travelling, at home or otherwise away from their desktop PC.
The main issue is connectivity. Without some kind of physical connection to a network, access to corporate systems and data has been impossible. Even the advent of dial-up connections (either to the Internet or to remote access servers), failed to address vital issues of security, price, speed of access and availability of phone points.
“Enterprises have invested huge amounts of money in modem pools around the world to provide their mobile workers with Internet access and access to their own networks,” says Dr Hong Chen, CEO of Internet-based mobile office communications services specialist GRIC Communications. “But these are hard to manage and are expensive to maintain,” he adds.
GRIC Communications' MobileOffice technology is designed to provide organisations with worldwide Internet access for their mobile workers in the form of an outsourced service. Subscribers to GRIC's MobileOffice are provided with a constantly updated database listing local access points in cities around the world on their laptops, together with security services that include virtual private network (VPN) support so that they can connect securely to their company's network, firewall technology to prevent unauthorised access to their machine, and intrusion detection software that can spot attempts at unauthorised access.
However, while GRIC provides cheaper and almost-global Internet service to its subscribers, it is still a dial-up service and so comes with restrictions on its speed and how it is accessed; for example, GRIC MobileOffice needs to be dialled over a phone connection. If there is no wall socket nearby, there is no Internet access for the conventional laptop user with a modem card.
Phone challenges
Mobile phone technology addresses some of these issues, but introduces others. Many mobile phones have infra-red ports or have optional data cables so laptop users with the appropriate equivalent connections can use their mobiles to provide the phone lines for their modems. However, infra-red is notoriously fiddly and short-range, requiring a line of sight between laptop and phone to work, while cables are usually non-standard, require software drivers to work and are an additional item to be packed - and potentially, mislaid - on business trips.
The emergence of laptops and mobile phones equipped with Bluetooth, however, is making it far easier for mobile users to connect their devices. Bluetooth is a short-range wireless system for connecting personal devices to each other without the need for cables. It requires little power and no large aerial. Rather than having to connect up the phone to the laptop, the Bluetooth user can leave the phone in his or her pocket while the computer accesses the phone wirelessly.
Bluetooth's low power requirements mean that it can also work within PDAs. Pocket PC- and Palm OS-based devices are already available that can browse the Internet and access corporate networks over a VPN using Bluetooth connections to mobile phones. Some phones - such as Handspring's Treo Communicator - are also Pocket PCs or Palm OS devices. These 'smart phones' provide similar capabilities to PDAs and mobile phones in a single, integrated device.
Dean Murphy, chief technology officer at wireless consultancy Satsuma Solutions, says there are arguments in favour of both approaches. “For some, it's easier to have an all-in-one system. You only have to give the employee one device, he or she only needs to carry one device, they cost less than the two devices combined, and are smaller. But the all-in-one systems tend to compromise in both areas - they're not as good a PDA as a dedicated device, and they're not as good a phone as a dedicated phone.”
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