The death of the office
Sean Farrington asks whether remote working capabilities will spell the end of the office/home divide
Tablet PCs and smartphones sell in their millions, which is not especially surprising given today's technological culture.
The transition from gadgets at home to gadgets for work (the consumerisation trend) means there is a new generation of workers – an iGeneration of employees, if you will – who bring their own personal devices into the office and use them for work.
This is part of the evolution towards mobile working and is proving rather advantageous for businesses.
I have read claims that the current generation of workers is considerably more productive than the generations that preceded them.
Most of the people we speak to believe mobile technology is not only useful but crucial to their business. Most also agree that mobile working should be supported by making more business-related apps available and easy to use on mobile platforms.
We're so used to having sophisticated mobile applications and devices at home that we're starting to demand them in our working lives too.
Often the technology many of us have at home is more impressive, with better functionality, than the devices supplied by some employers.
There are many reasons for employees to work flexibly or from home – from family emergencies, extreme weather, heavy traffic or even during events such as the Olympics, which may prevent employees getting to their workplace.
A significant percentage of people aged 25-34 whom we surveyed believe the future of office-based working is limited to five years or less, which suggests that remote working may be the way forward.
Is it possible that productive remote working might perhaps kill the traditional workplace? Arguably, many people can do the same job just as effectively from home.
It will be interesting to see how the next few years pan out. Will people begin to eschew the working regimes that previous generations have accepted?
Sean Farrington is UK managing director of QlikTech