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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/financialservices/0,3800010322,39167842,00.htm

BlackBerrys juicing up work/life balance
Case study: More than a Standard Life - and better productivity to boot...

By Gemma Simpson

Published: Friday 13 July 2007

Standard Life has increased productivity and improved its staff's work/life balance by embracing home and mobile working.

The company has dished out more than 900 laptops and a further 900 BlackBerrys to staff worldwide.

Billy Campbell, manager desktop services at Standard Life, told silicon.com: "Mobile working has enabled Standard Life to provide technology to staff to increase productivity by allowing them access to data which previously they could only receive in a fixed office environment."

Campbell said: "Mobile solutions, like the BlackBerry, provide business users with the ability to communicate with ease from whatever location they find themselves in, without needing to locate access points or negotiate security systems to access corporate email or data."

He added: "From a personal perspective, it has allowed a better work/life balance allowing me to do parts of my job from home rather than from the office."

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Campbell said Standard Life chose BlackBerrys because they offered ease of use and the ability to get data to management or executive staff securely, along with the capability to wipe any important information off a device if it is lost or stolen.

The company has several flexible working methods, such as working from home and hotdesking, where staff in certain areas have no fixed desk or desktop PC, as well as wireless connectivity through BlackBerrys and laptops.

Standard Life is planning to extend the capability of the BlackBerry service with extra software and peripherals being made available, in addition to the traditional email and personal information management data.

Campbell added: "Some users have already expressed an interest in giving up a laptop in favour of a BlackBerry with some of the new technologies we have shown them."

Recent research from RIM found an average BlackBerry user converts one hour of downtime to productive time each day and ups their overall team efficiency by 38 per cent.