Corporate mobility – enabling a more flexible working culture
As the mobile revolution takes off, how can businesses best manage the evolution of the mobile worker? Craig Manson shares the approach Canon has taken to equip their staff with everything they need on the go.
Our simple mobile phones were once the only tools of mobile technology available, however, as we enter into a new dawn of corporate mobility – employees are demanding more sophisticated and faster services to allow them to communicate efficiently, regardless of the physical location.
At Canon, we recognise that mobile solutions can solve a very real business need, by making our sales team more effective, productive and able to deliver better customer engagement through having access to a range of data, information and services while on the move.
Nine months ago, Canon implemented new technology to meet the needs and demands of a mobile workforce when we introduced remote working for our Adelaide employees. The Adelaide office is the perfect example of embracing a mobile culture with only three out of 50 staff work full time in the office and the remainder operate in the field or work from home.
With the recent development in technology, including cloud and mobile services, enterprises now have the tools to be able to expand their mobile workforces to offer their staff flexible working practices. Increasingly, employees and workplaces are adopting fluid working hours and spending more time working out of the office; therefore, it’s critical for management to embrace mobile technology in order to promote productivity.
A recent study (Citrix global survey 2011) showed that businesses that are quick to adapt to flexible working environments are experiencing significant improvement in productivity, with gains of up to 20 per cent for many organisations.
In addition to improvement to their bottom line, enterprises are increasingly seeing the benefits of establishing an activity-based mobile working environment, not only in terms of output but also in improving employee morale and thereby staff retention, as they are associated with having a more flexible working culture. Flexible working conditions are increasingly important for employees and are becoming a means for companies to attract and retain top talent.
Canon customer, Yarra Valley Water, is embracing this approach, completely refurbishing its office and implementing the technology needed to operate an open plan activity-based working environment. No manager will have their own office, there will be informal break out areas and each employee will be equipped with the right technology to enable them to work from wherever they choose within the office environment.
This type of environment will help improve collaboration between teams and encourage productivity.
Generation Y has also had an effect on the ‘mobility movement’. Having grown up using mobile devices and the internet at a young age, most ‘millennials’ are IT-savvy and increasingly putting demands on their IT department to facilitate their own technology, as they expect the convenience of what they are familiar with in the workplace.
While some organisations do recognise the benefits of mobile technology and flexible working environments, there is still a degree of reluctance to embrace it, with the biggest contributing factors being issues around IT policy control and security. With the right approach, the management of tablets and smartphones does not have to place a burden on IT. Instead of discouraging employees from bringing their own personal devices to work, IT managers now have the opportunity to move with this trend by implementing technology infrastructure and processes that are adaptable, secure and scalable.
Creating an effective mobile environment requires a significant cultural shift and it’s important for organisations to take the time to look at how their business is evolving, working out how technology can align with the business, changing it for the better and making it more competitive. An important step, which is often overlooked, is ensuring that organisations are looking beyond the technology itself to how it is being implemented and adopted by staff. Technology is only as powerful as the people who use it.
It’s important that the deployment of mobile infrastructure is not just about implementing technology for technology’s sake. Corporate mobility should be about creating better outcomes for our business by increasing efficiencies and boosting productivity.
Implementing and managing mobile technology in the workplace provides a real opportunity for Australian businesses to drive change and innovation and it’s clear that as the mobile revolution takes off, businesses need to embrace a flexible workplace culture if they want to stay ahead of the curve.
Download the whitepaper The New Dawn of Corporate Mobility.
Craig Manson is the Director of Business Imaging for Canon Australia and is responsible for the sales, services and marketing activities for production print and office solutions. Craig has been with Canon for seven years and was the Managing Director of Canon New Zealand before relocating to Australia in 2009 to lead the Canon Oceania go to market strategy and Consumer and Business Marketing teams. Craig took over full responsibility for Canon Business Imaging on 1 October 2010.
