On the road again: What life's like for mobile workers

Some might think it invasive, others that it is no more than gimmick, but for some knowledge workers, mobile data actually makes them more productive. Stewart Baines talks to two bosses in love with technologies that help them work on the road.

The thought of email reaching you wherever and whenever fills some people with dread. But for many of today's knowledge workers, permanent connectivity is an unconditional blessing. Rather unlike most heralded technological developments, mobile data can actually make you more productive rather than just increasing the workload.

That's the message from Steve Butcher, a consultant for Microsoft integrators Avanade, and Jim Hanson, associate director of PR firm Noiseworks. In their very different ways they have embraced mobile working.

Steve Butcher is a principal consultant in Avanade's .Net practice, where he advises on mobilising enterprise software. Avanade, a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture, was set up to implement Microsoft's enterprise systems for mid-sized and large organisations.

When Avanade was formed in April 2000, it consciously configured itself for a virtual office: of its 200 staff in the UK, only 10 work within an office and they are predominately back room workers. Everyone else works from client sites, on the move or is based at home. "The whole company was set up to work remotely," says Steve. "It was intended to be a proof of the pudding for our clients."

Steve is often the company's test bed of new technologies, whether they are to be recommended to clients or to be used in-house. His device armoury is well stocked. On a weekly basis he uses an Orange E200 smart phone, an Orange M1000 wireless PDA and an Orange 3G data card which he plugs into his laptop.

On his way to a client site, he accesses his email on his smart phone. Recently he's been recruiting new staff and gems up on them before each interview by accessing their CV's from his wireless PDA, the M1000. With Outlook implemented on both the smart phone and PDA, it is synchronised with Exchange server every hour so that he can switch between devices without losing track of correspondence.

Most of Steve's time is spent between client sites and doing the rounds with the business development team. On client sites, he may spend three or four days a week at the same location for months. Despite this, he often finds it difficult to get permission to access the company LAN, so before he tried out the Orange 3G/GPRS data card he had to wait until he got home before he could read his email.

Unlike most potential users, he's using 3G as his main internet connection. "I can't guarantee how a customer's LAN works and whether I'll be allowed access to it so I need my own connectivity," says Steve.

Steve uses a combination of his devices to get the job done. "On my PDA and smart phone I can get a lot of the administrative stuff done before I get to client sites. And with the 3G data card, I can just get into an office, boot the laptop and away I go. Admittedly, GPRS and 3G are not really designed for being the main connection," he says. "And we're quite the exception. My GPRS bill is quite hefty even though we're advising clients how to enable mobility without becoming heavy users of bandwidth."

The applications Steve uses are all mobile-enabled, from the Microsoft Office suite and Outlook through to the company's own adapted version of Microsoft Project. Within Office 2003, the Avenade team can collaborate on documents irrespective of device. Project is also similarly distributed as Steve works with developers all over the world in locations like Mumbai and Madrid.

Instant messaging has become an important tool for Steve to stay in touch with his virtual team. They all use Live Communication Server, which logs their instant messaging sessions. IM clients are installed on the smart phone and PDA, but Steve tends to only use messaging when he's in front of his laptop, largely because of the need to speed type. "If I want to message when I'm on my mobile, it's so much easier to send a SMS."

When the Avanade team wants an audio dialogue, the free P2P VoIP software Skype is their tool of choice. Steve even uses Skype on his Microsoft-based PDA to make free IP-based calls when he's within a BT Openzone hotspot or at home working, piggybacking his wireless DSL router.

"A lot of our clients are getting interested in VoIP, particularly for remote workers so it's important for us to try it. I'm really impressed with the call quality - it's not PSTN level but it's not far off."

Steve, like most of the Avanade consultants, is given a budget to buy whatever equipment he needs to perform his duties. At home for instance, he used the budget to set up an application and file server which he can log into from on the road.

"Our working life was just as virtual when we set up four years ago but it was much harder to do without mobile data than it is now. I don't think I work any fewer hours now but I do manage to get a lot more done," says Steve.