The evolved distribution of the work force is pushing organisations to adopt a mobile work style, according to Citrix collaboration VP and general manager, Bernardo de Albergaria.
The ability to have a work force that is not necessarily tied to a central location has allowed has changed the way talent can be sourced for a job that a company is looking for.
“Talent used to be much more monolithic in terms of location,” Albergaria said.
“Now we’re able to find talent not only in the main places where the work is based.”
Technology improvement has also acted as catalyst for the growth of mobile work styles.
“Through the use of SaaS or remote access applications, we have the ability to access and use all of our productivity tools in the same way as if you were in the office,” Albergaria said.
The technology challenge
The journey towards mobile work styles has not been an easy one. Albergaria said there have been both technological and managerial obstacles.
“From a technological perspective, it was virtually impossible to have the same productivity on the road because all of the tools were only available at the office,” he said.
However, that changed over time with better remote access technologies to be able to leverage office resources.
While office technologies became increasingly available while on the movie, Albergaria said the trend now is that people do not want to use the technology that is provisioned at the office.
“People now want to use the more consumer oriented products that have been developed with the end user in mind,” he said.
“In most cases, the enterprise lags in terms of usability and productivity when compared to consumer products such as apps,” he said.
Since the technological issue has been more or less solved, Albergaria said the challenge now is more about the attitude and managerial approach.
“There is still a lot of distrust around productivity when the worker is not under direct visual supervision by their manager,” Albergaria said.
Patrick Budmar covers consumer and enterprise technology breaking news for IDG Communications. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_budmar.
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