Why a Mobile Office makes Business Sense

The current financial crunch has taken a heavy toll on today’s business environment and has forced corporations to seek nontraditional ways of minimizing costs while concurrently maximizing productivity and general efficiency. One of the heaviest contributors to total fixed costs is of course office space.

Most people commute or drive to work eventually making their way to some sort of permanent working space whether it’s an office or a desk. For an office worker, typical deskwork includes processing documents, emails and phone communication, while daily interactions with co-workers take place through scheduled or ad hoc meetings in fixed meeting rooms or other building areas. Dealings with customers and suppliers is done through fixed building assets including communication and computing devices as well as meeting areas (your or the customer’s office; your or the customer’s conference rooms). Managing the warehouse (if you’re unlucky to have one) is of course another burden that translates to a fixed cost (add to that the inventory costs; if your forecasts were misaligned with market realities then you have quite a situation). Your general building costs which are always reflected in your Year to Yield and annual income statements are in the short term independent of your business reality and are thus always present whether you’re in business, or quietly going out of business.

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Mobile communication networks are moving to a common ip based transport technology that will eventually offer ubiquitous coverage, smooth interaction between different standards (connected anytime, anyplace) converged communication services (the same service adapted to your location and whether you are on the go or sitting somewhere) supported by a common network . This means for the operator reduced operation (opex) expenses (common infrastructure, common serviced and reduced operation and maintenance costs), implying a better price tag on offered services.

Fixed office functionality is slowly expanding to the mobile environment through a host of new applications (ex. wireless whiteboards), stronger communication devices (ex. Nokia E series smart phones, Blackberries, iphones and android platforms etc…), adapted products and solutions (ex. Microsoft office (mobile),Sybase ianywhere, Unified Communications mobile solution, Automobile office technologies etc…) and increased access bandwidths (for ex. HSPA+, Long Term Evolution, Mobile WiMax etc…).

Ubiquitous radio access converged with the fixed phone system means that you can start your work day at home or at your preferred location and move as required without disrupting the workflow. You can process all your documents remotely (emails, proposals, tenders, offers) through your company’s vpn , make and receive calls while stationed or on the go, book teleconferences at home or in your car (while taking all necessary traffic precautions) and agree to meet with customers in cafes, posh restaurants or classy hotel lounges. Of course airline bookings and hotel reservations are already a gas with web bookings and e-tickets and can easily be managed from a mobile office.

 Support of backoffice applications such as CRM and ERP is taken for granted and just in time deliveries and mobile tracking systems can vastly improve your inventory management and reduce, if not eliminate warehouse requirements.

World Economic realities imply that financial efficiencies and corporate streamlining will continue to be a predominant force in the next couple of years. Luckily enough communication technology is progressing at such a rate, that if present mobility trends continue, the mobile office will become indispensible factor of day to day business, resulting in improved productivity and rendering fixed office costs a thing of the past. Finally a fully mobile working environment will enhance economic efficiency through reduced frictional unemployment, since relocation will no longer be an employment condition.