Managing the change to connected mobile working
By Dale Vile, Freeform Dynamics
Published Thursday 25th January 2007 11:30 GMT
Background
Mobile working is nothing new. Travelling sales people and tradesmen
have been with us for as long as anyone can remember and, in industry
today, we have many more examples of workers operating outside of a
fixed base - consultants on projects, accountants conducting audits,
engineers on construction sites, and so on, not to mention managers
roving from office to office as they go about their business.
Against this background, it's interesting to consider why everyone is
talking so much about mobile working at the moment, given that it's
essentially a very old concept. So what is it that's changed to put
the mobile working conversation back on the management agenda?
In order to understand this, we need to consider some of the other
changes that businesses have gone through over the past couple of
decades. To begin with, for example, organisations today are now much
more dependent on information technology, and access to IT systems
has become either a mandatory part of many job functions or a key
enabler of efficiency and effectiveness. Another trend that's had a
huge impact is the degree to which everything is becoming connected
electronically - people to people, business to business, market to
market, etc.
The great thing about these trends is that people sitting at their
desks or operating in some other location within the business are now
much more plugged into both the immediate work environment and the
wider world in which they and their business operate. Sending an
email to query an order to a customer in the USA or a supplier in
Korea from a desk in the UK is now something people take for granted.
The inclusive approach
Along the way, though, the mobile workforce has often been left out,
as use of IT and communications has traditionally been dependent on
being in a location that has physical access to the necessary
systems. A big part of the discussion going on today, therefore, is
not so much to do with implementing mobile working per se, but
getting existing mobile workforces properly connected so they can
participate in business processes and communications as efficiently
and effectively as their office and depot dwelling colleagues. The
business logic for doing this is pretty much the same as it has been
for automation in general - better business visibility, increased
accuracy of information, more effective decision making, shorter
process cycle times, and a general lowering of operational costs and
risks.
Having said this, providing mobile and remote access capability to
solve the mobile worker disconnect also creates new opportunities,
such as allowing previously fixed parts of the workforce the freedom
to work from home or other locations. Businesses may be interested in
enabling this for cost reasons, e.g. cutting office space related
overheads, or flexibility reasons, e.g. allowing users to better
dovetail their work and personal time, something which can increase
both productivity and employee loyalty. Whatever the drivers,
enabling connected mobile working is what it's really all about in
the modern business environment, and this is such a natural extension
of the other trends we have been discussing that moving in this
direction is inevitable for most businesses.
Given this inevitability, it is probably worth thinking sooner rather
than later about how the introduction and use of mobile technology
will be managed if you are not doing so already. Otherwise, solutions
will creep into the organisation in an uncontrolled manner from the
bottom up through individual workgroups and users, potentially
creating unwanted conflicts, risks and costs.
So what needs to be considered for those who want to be more
proactive about embracing the change?
Managing change
Well, the first piece of advice is to create the right environment.
While some advocate building a grand plan for how mobile and remote
access is going to be rolled out across the business, this is not
always the best approach. For one thing, the thought of doing this
can be quite daunting, meaning it never gets started. More to the
point, however, it's an impossible task anyway as both the business
and technology parts of the mobile working equation are subject to
constant change. It is therefore far more effective to put an
operational framework in place that will allow specific requirements
and opportunities to be addressed as they arise.
In terms of the framework itself, there are essentially three
dimensions to it. The first is concerned with technology
infrastructure, which deals with application access mechanisms,
security, systems management, monitoring and so on. We then have the
process and policy dimension, covering everything from how equipment
and services are acquired and deployed (e.g. whether/how personal
devices will be used), through how users will be trained and
supported, to the way in which costs and expenses will be budgeted
and accounted for as people begin to workdifferently.
Finally, there are the more cultural and personal considerations,
such as ensuring the right level of social interaction within the
workforce to avoid employees becoming isolated, and providing advice
and guidance on how to maintain the appropriate work/life balance in
the face of technologies like mobile email that can easily take over
your life.
Pulling together these various dimensions can be a challenge if you
try to drive it purely from within one department, so a good place to
start is to coordinate activity at the management team level across
the relevant disciplines. In practice, this means getting IT and HR
management collaborating with line of business managers to work
through the implications and requirements, together with involvement
from financial management so the necessary investments may be
appropriately understood and prioritised. It is worth emphasising the
earlier point, however, that the aim of such coordination is not to
come up with a grand plan or the definitive strategy, just a policy
and operational framework within which specific initiatives and
activity can take place. The detail can then be added as individual
projects are funded and executed.
Still unsure?
If having read this, you are still unsure about whether it's worth
spending the time considering how mobile working related developments
will impact your business and how to deal with their introduction, we
can only advise that you check out what your workforce is up to right
now. The chances are the impact is already occurring.
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