NSW Business Chamber chief information officer and CIO Executive Council member, Karen Scott Davie
Staff who attend overseas conferences, for instance, are given a seminar on how to use their devices safely and effectively, explaining how to lock them down with multiple strong passwords, how to switch off roaming data to limit costs and what to do if devices are lost or stolen.
“We combine security instruction with explanations of the potential cost to the business,” Scott Davie says.
“We educate them on security and privacy, as well as show them the benefits to their bottom line. It’s also about promoting a culture of responsible use — no one here wants to be known for having the highest phone bill in the organisation.”
In-depth: How to create a successful mobile project.
Since rolling out iPads to the Chamber’s executive team five months ago, Scott Davie says she’s had many requests for iPads from the rest of the company.
“Our sales team wants them, our lawyers want them, everybody is asking about them,” she says.
“We’re trying to hold back the tide, but I’m not sure how long we can do it.”
Nor is sure she sure that she wants to. Already Scott Davie has seen measurable productivity increases from organisation’s mobile workforce. Now the iPads are starting to make a noticeable difference, particularly in meetings and project planning activities.
“During meetings people take notes on their iPad and then e-mail them instantly,” she says.
“They [the iPads] actually speed up the time it takes to do projects, because you’re not taking notes by hand and then having someone e-mail the action plan a day or two later, after everyone has already forgotten what items they’ve committed to do.
"Now, by the time everyone walks out of the meeting and gets back to their desk, they’ve been e-mailed the minutes and know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing. This gives us access to quick decision-making, which is important.”
She also says the iPads deliver Green IT benefits.
“We’re saving a lot of paper just in terms of note-taking,” she says.
But the device’s note-taking benefits go well beyond paper and actually enable managers to improve how they track the history of projects. Instead of a notebook with pages of handwritten notes, on an iPad you can see all your notes very quickly.
“You can index them, you can search them and they’re stored in way that makes it very easy to keep adding to them," Scott Davie says.
"This is a very simple way of keeping track of what’s going on with many different projects. And we do a lot of projects, so that’s a big benefit for us.”
“Aside from putting memos or project plans into a prettier format, we’ve certainly found that even with just a few members of staff having iPads, the productivity and time-saving benefits are huge."
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