Connecting the dots

Forget laptops and mobile phones - the next generation of communications technologies such as instant messaging and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone systems are coming to a business near you.

If your only exposure to so-called collaboration technologies has been through watching your kids use instant messaging to chat to their friends on MSN Messenger, or making free VoIP calls using Skype, you could be forgiven for thinking these are child’s play.

The reality is your business could benefit from these technologies for the same reasons your kids like them: they are fast and easy ways to communicate. They aim to help all employees collaborate - whether they’re in the office or on the road.

Both IT companies and telephony carriers are working on offering voice and data collaboration tools to their corporate customers - and their selling points tend to be around instant communications, time saving and efficiency.

For example, VoIP telephone systems with 'presence awareness' can let you know whether the person you want to call is at their desk or on another call, saving the time and cost of playing voicemail tag.

Of course, the addition of a new technology - and particularly a new way to communicate - brings concerns about productivity. Just as with staff access to web browsing and email, you need to know that staff are using tools such as instant messaging for work rather than chatter. But with the right management policy and tools in place, there are potential productivity gains to be made.

If you are looking at introducing company-wide solutions, whether it’s an instant messaging program or mobile access to employees, you will need to build functionality into your computer network. But there are other collaboration methods that don’t require work at the network level.

Mobile devices

Microsoft has built out-of-the-box unified messaging and presence-awareness into its latest email server product, Exchange 2007. In a Microsoft environment, with the addition of Windows Mobile Email, mobile workers can access their Outlook email or other Office software such as Excel from a hand-held Pocket PC device.

The decision about whether a hand-held device or a laptop is more suitable for your mobile workers is one that comes down to exactly what they do and how long they tend to spend working out of the office, says Vodafone Australia product manager for data solutions Neil Aitken.

'If you tend to just refer to documents such as Excel spreadsheets, a hand-held device such as a BlackBerry could do the job,' he says.

'But for editing and re-attaching the document to an email, you’d need something like a Pocket PC with the Windows Mobile email service. You’d tend to use a laptop if you have a lot of document editing to do and you need that full-screen capability.'

The choice between a laptop and hand-held also comes down to the amount of time you’d spend using them. If you tend to have a few spare minutes, a hand-held device such as a BlackBerry allows you to check emails without spending time powering up a laptop and logging in to check email. If, however, you have a solid chunk of an hour or more downtime at a client site, a laptop would be more suitable to the work you’d probably want to do in that time.

Although the Windows Mobile email service requires Exchange 2003 or 2007, organisations that aren’t running an all-Microsoft-shop have other options - for example, the BlackBerry with all the major email programs, including Groupwise and Domino.

When considering hand-held devices you’ll need to factor in not only the cost of the handset itself, but also charges associated with email and other data transfer. Vodafone offers an 'all you can eat' data plan of $50 per month, but calls are an additional charge.

The 'always on' capability of devices such as the BlackBerry saves time, as does the ability to work in your downtime. 'The average user saves about three-quarters of an hour a day,' Aitken says.

Micheal Axelsen CPA, a director with BDO Kendalls and chair of CPA Australia’s information technology and management centre of excellence, has some words of warning about these devices. 'Businesses that use mobile technologies such as this need to consider whether they will really achieve the promised benefits.

Although there is a great deal of potential for productivity benefits, discipline and focus are required to achieve them. The most common complaint in business is information overload.

These devices encourage quick, short emails and it is very easy to agree to do something, and then forget about it as it is buried in your email,' he says.

Axelsen says there are also security issues, as small devices can be easily lost. 'With BlackBerrys, which have all emails on them, the implications of a lost device are clear for the security of business data. For instance, they may also store data on third-party hardware, which may violate non-disclosure agreements,' he says.

Teleworking

Given there is a newer generation of workers increasingly wanting to strike a better work/life balance, employers are beginning to look at technology alternatives that will help them attract and retain top talent, says Nora Freedman, IP telephony analyst at IDC.

'Solutions designed to provide the ability to retain and attract high-quality workers with teleworking tools that facilitate and encourage information-sharing and team-working, and [speed up] decision making,' she says, 'will increasingly become a differentiator for top employers that employ knowledge workers.'

One telephony vendor aiming at companies with teleworkers and home-based workers is Mitel, which has enhanced the ease-of-use and integration of its Teleworker solution with collaboration and unified communications applications.

Plugging into any broadband connection, the Mitel Teleworker solution provides support for the Mitel Your Assistant Softphone (a software 'phone' that runs through a PC) without the need for a VPN connection.

It also provides the flexibility of a softphone, combined with powerful enterprise features such as 'presence and availability', secure IM, file transfer, video, data sharing and full collaboration over an enterprise-grade communications platform or one for smaller business environments.

While mobile products can offer more flexible working arrangements for employees, inform-ation security is an issue.

'Keeping information secure has always been a challenge when using laptops,' says Mitel Australia managing director Gwilym Funnell, who says the company has developed encryption-protected document sharing and communications solutions for employees working away from the office.'

Security is not the only issue. While telecommuting can promote work/life balance, it can work against it, if not managed well, says Axelsen. 'Some harried parents are able to stagger their working day through telecommuting.

For example, so-called 'day extenders' are now working 6.00 am to 8.00 am at home. The they go into the office at 10.00 am and leave at 4.00 pm to work at home from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm). This allows them to avoid peak-hour traffic, meet their parental responsibilities, and stay in the workforce and deliver the benefit of their experience to their employers.

'However, there is a very real danger to the stress levels for such day extenders. A constant regime of working at any hour of the day or night ensures that it is difficult to ‘switch off’, and this may have implications for the mental health of employees,' warns Axelsen.

Instant messaging

Although free online instant messaging clients such as MSN Messenger and ICQ have been popularised by home users wishing to chat with friends online, the 'big brother' enterprise-grade instant messaging (EIM) is on the rise.

According to research firm IDC, the EIM market is expected to grow to $624m in 2008. IBM claims its Lotus Sametime EIM product is the leader in IM, with nearly 35 per cent market share and almost 10 million corporate users.

Lotus business unit executive Jonathan Stern says that in the corporate environment, IM is about more than just messaging. Tools such as 'presence awareness' allow users to indicate their status to others wishing to get in contact. 'The individual’s current status such as ‘busy/in a meeting/away’ gives important information to other co-workers,' Stern explains.

'Knowing whether someone is in the office by simply checking awareness dramatically cuts down on time consuming things like voicemail, phone tagging and email trails.'

On top of its messaging and 'presence awareness' capabilities, Lotus Sametime also includes web conferencing, application sharing and 'click to call' VoIP - the ability to initiate a call from the Sametime program. Sametime 7.5.1 was released in April. It includes native point-to-point video conferencing plus enhanced support for Linux and Macintosh.

For employers worried about the potential for misuse of instant messaging, IBM’s Stern says that it needs to be subject to the same policies and monitoring as email and web surfing.

'IM is another communication tool, and as with telephone and email it could be subject to misuse on occasions,' Stern says. 'Similarly IM can be monitored in the same way as email and web surfing. Transcripts can be saved and archived.'

Though part of the rationale of collaboration tools is allowing users options for how they’d like to communicate, employees can switch off IM or ignore messages if they prefer not to communicate this way. 'However, as Generation Y enters the workforce they will expect to work with this kind of technology,' Stern says.

Axelsen points out that the potential for incessant chat interruptions for staff while concentrating on tasks needs to be considered in light of the potential benefits.

'Self-discipline and an ability to close off from distractions is required. Although some Generation Y workers are comfortable with constant distraction, certainly not all staff will be as comfortable.

'Similarly to email, non-verbal cues are lost when converted to text, and a chat tool that encourages quick responses guarantees that messages will be misconstrued. As well, unlike email, it is quite difficult to ‘recall’ an instant message sent to the wrong person,' says Axelsen.

Web-based collaboration

You don’t need to buy a top-shelf enterprise-grade solution for your business. There are quite sophisticated collaboration tools available quite cheaply and in same cases, free. These can be a good way to trial new technologies to see if they work.

Google offers a web-based productivity suite, Google Apps, which includes email, IM and voice chat, calendar, word processing and spreadsheet applications. A free version of the service has been available since August 2006, but in February Google launched a $US50-a-seat premium edition, which offers integrated tools and support for large businesses.

Google hosts everything on its website; there’s no hardware or software to install, download or maintain. It allows centralised access to web-based tools including Google Calendar - so you can share your schedule with others in the business.

It also includes Google talk, a free instant messaging and VoIP chat application. It uses your company’s domain and provides professional addresses such as jsmith@your-company.com - which is accessed through its webmail program Gmail.

The Premium edition also includes 10 gigabytes of storage per account so you can store and access documents online - useful for those who want to access work documents from their home computer or on the road.

Google Apps also allows users to collaborate by sharing documents and spreadsheets using its own word processing and spreadsheet programs. They are pitched as alternatives to Microsoft Office, although power users might not want to give up the sophisticated features of Microsoft’s Excel.

Stand-alone solutions

There are also a few stand-alone devices or software that can help employees who work on the go without expensive and complex technology being required. SanDisk makes several secure storage devices appropriate for mobile employees. This avoids any security risks or concerns associated with lost or stolen devices, or employees using insecure networks to dial into the company’s network.

SanDisk also makes a Cruzer USB Flash drive, which can use fingerprint security to ensure the safety of information. The 1GB capacity model costs $45. The company’s U3-based products allows users to carry software programs and data on the same flash drive that carries company files, making any PC (work or office) like their own.

For example, you can plug it into any PC and work, use Skype, and when it’s unplugged, it leaves no personal data behind.

There are also online services that allow users remote access to their desktop PC from anywhere in the world via a web connection. Citrix offers a 90-day free trial of its GoToMyPC Corporate, while Log Me In offers its service to home users for free.

The future?

It’s evident that many new technologies are emerging to improve office productivity, but - and this is a big but - it’s how they are actually deployed within the office environment that will prove their usefulness.

Axelsen says: 'Although the positive potential of mobile collaborative technologies is clear, the implementation requires consideration as to whether it works for your business.

CPA Australia’s IT and management centre of excellence has adopted the subject of tele-work as a major theme for 2007/2008, and is sponsoring a research program examining the potential implications of new collaboration technologies.' Watch this space.

Reference: May 2007, volume 77:04, pp. 48-51

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