Recently, I was due for a conference call with a colleague, based on a presentation that he was to make at a customer event. His deck hit my inbox a few minutes before our conversation and we had a very productive discussion on it. Now, while this seems like a fairly mundane part of my work life, there is a back-story to what went behind our call. This colleague happened to be running between meetings across the city at the time and was on his way into the office when we were scheduled to speak.
He was faced with a combination of his laptop at his desk, him in a cab and an impending call with me. The only way he was able to get the presentation to me was by accessing his laptop remotely through his phone and sending it to me, just in time for our call.
Now while this was a regular working day, I often find myself in this situation on weekends or holidays or when I’m generally away from my laptop. An urgent call comes in that needs reference documents saved on my laptop. That said, enterprise mobility technology has advanced to a level where this is no longer a problem for me.
With the Remote File Access feature, I’m able to view and download documents and other critical information stored on my computer library. As long as it’s connected to the internet, my laptop is connected to me, no matter how far away I am from it.
But what happens when the data you need is too confidential to save on your laptop and better off residing on your gated corporate server? Having the ability to securely access this data from corporate intranets and file servers can be hugely useful.
Combine this with the ability to join conference calls directly from the calendar and you become mobile in more ways than one. Your smartphone now allows you to convert an email into a conference call, dial you in for it and enter the attendee code with a few simple steps. But just as there is an app for everything for the average consumer, there are apps for everything for the business user as well. So conference calls can also be made easier through the use of apps such as Cisco Webex while presentations and reference documents can be uploaded to Dropbox through a mobile app.
Just like this, there are a number of situations, when the C-suite needs to take a break from their vacation and step into business critical situations.
Imagine a scenario where the CEO of the company is out on his/her annual vacation and an important, long pending deal comes through. Contracts need to be reviewed and decisions made. In today’s competitive environment, can the company afford to delay the deal since the decision maker is out of office? Simply put, no. Once again, mobile technology can come to the rescue but this raises issues of how to keep highly confidential documentation secure.
To strike the perfect balance between personal and corporate data, partitioning your personal and corporate profile on your smartphone or tablet is a great idea. Containerization offers greater flexibility while retaining full control over business data and prevents any unauthorized sharing of vital business information externally.
Even in situations that are less critical, staying connected is top priority for any CXO. Desktop enterprise instant messaging solutions including Microsoft Lync and IBM Sametime are the more unobtrusive ways of doing this.
But today’s technology allows these to be extended to the smartphone which ensures you’re not staring at your laptop through a vacation but at the same time optimizing communication and collaboration. Integration into the corporate directory for fast lookup and the ability to see the availability status of colleagues, Enterprise IM delivers more effective communication and powers faster decision making.
Damage controlAll things considered, however, working while on vacation can pose some challenges too (aside from the disgruntled family). There is always the possibility of losing your smartphone on the beach or forgetting it at the last restaurant you visited.
Data leakage and theft are pertinent concerns in such a scenario and unanimously, that is any CEO’s worst nightmare. Even if the unsuspecting finder of the device is able to unlock the corporate side, the ability to wipe the device clean is precious.
There are various options available across devices and operating systems. BlackBerry Protect is a free of charge service that’s built into the BlackBerry devices and allows a user to self-serve via a web portal for functions like locking, wiping, locating on a map, displaying a message on the device screen and resetting passwords for lost or stolen devices.
But let’s take that thought one step further and apply it beyond the C-suite. Lost devices can be a security menace at any level. As field staff often require to access corporate applications and input data into those, access controls and advanced security features become even more critical.
So, as ironic as it seems, CXOs can only truly be on vacation when they know that work is only a few finger swipes of a smartphone away.
(The author is Managing Director Blackberry India)