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

Jim Hanson is a different kettle of fish. PR professionals may be quite comfortable promoting new technology but few can claim to use it properly. Jim appears to be an exception as he has embraced mobile data with aplomb.

An associate director with Noiseworks, a medium-size high-tech public relations firm he set up with managing director Nick Hayes, Jim's job responsibilities are split between operational management such as supervising cash flow and business development. The latter means he's out of the office for over half the week.

Much of this time is spent in the US, Europe and at trade shows: not exactly the ideal conditions for keeping on top of office-related operational issues. Jim estimates he spends three of every five days out of the office.

Understandably he used to waste a huge amount time in his working week, travelling and waiting for meetings.

"I used to get up in the mornings and have my PC booted before I even turned the alarm clock off. With so many US clients, I'd have all this overnight email traffic that needed immediate actioning. If I was going to be out of the office all day, I'd get up early to delegate everything possible before doing what I could," says Jim.

"Then I jumped in the car, rushed to a meeting, found I'm half an hour early and so sat there twiddling my thumbs. I can't believe how much time I was wasting. I'd get home in the evening and there would still be a full day's work to do."

Two years ago Noiseworks equipped all their staff with non-wireless Handspring Visor PDAs. However, four of the senior staff, including Jim and Nick, took Handspring Treos with voice and GPRS-enabled.

"The Treo 600 is the best technology I've ever purchased, even better than my iPod and I love that. It lets me work all day," says a zealous Jim.

"When I go to an exhibition to drum up new business, instead of just turning up on a stand with no background knowledge of the company, I can check my email correspondence with them, or search through our client management database.

"I [used to] bump into existing clients and they'd want to know why I hadn't actioned an email they had sent me earlier in the day. In PR, you're expected to act very quickly."

Jim uses Snapper Mail to extract, convert and synch between his Treo and an office-based Lotus Notes server. The app basically shoe-horns an enterprise mail system into the small screen and limited memory capability of a Palm-based smart phone. It links directly into Documents To Go, which refits spreadsheets, Word docs, PDFs and JPEGs and makes them editable.

"It's really fantastic. So much of my work revolves around reviewing documents - proofing press releases, cashflow and expenses spreadsheets, press clippings - and I can review them all on my Treo," Jim explains.

Noiseworks employees also use another Palm application - Pylon - to access the company contact management system. Pylon lets them update client records and re-post them to the database. "All these together mean I can get on with my work anywhere. I can turn up at a stand and actually know what I'm talking about - or at least appear to."

One of the challenges Jim faces is that he is rarely in the same office as his business partner Nick; the two often spend weeks without seeing each other. To aid communication, they both have Skype set up on their laptops and use it to make international calls back to the office. In the office is a dedicated Skype terminal as not all of the firm's PCs have soundcards and suitable headsets. Sometimes Skype is used to conference in people working from home, too.

Unlike Avenade's Butcher, Jim is not too enamoured with 3G cards and laptops. "If I'm travelling and I've got a lot of work to do and I need to use the laptop, I'll just use a hotel connection or a wireless hotspot... I can usually find a free one," says Jim. "Even so, I don't tend to take the laptop out much. I can do most of what I want to do on my Treo. I'm quite proficient at Palm handwriting these days."

"So many technology innovations like email have just made me work harder. Mobile data has made me much more useful and helped to reduce the amount of time I spend working. The Treo is a life saver. My work/life balance has improved dramatically. I used to sit in the office waiting for an email late into the night - now I can go home and deal with it on my Treo while I have dinner with my family."