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Managing the change to connected mobile working

It's worth it

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 work differently.

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.

Copyright © 2007, IT-Analysis.com

Originally published in the T-Mobile "Business in Focus" customer magazine

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