Mobile Working Killing The Office Romance

Traditionally, the office environment has been the target of Cupid's arrow with many people meeting their partners at work, especially in the approach to the festive season. But while the rise of mobile working may well see the end of the traditional office romance, the signs are that mobile devices are in fact improving both peoples' personal and working lives.

Overall, 87% of those questioned said they have seen an improvement in their work/life balance as a result of using them.

The survey commissioned by Damovo, has revealed that as mobile technology improves more people want to carry out their work away from the office.

Over three quarters of respondents said the main benefit they wanted from mobility was the ability to work from home or to have greater flexibility to work from a non-office location.

The survey asked over 100 Northern Ireland workers in the public and private sector, how they are currently using mobile devices (eg. Smartphone, PDA, laptop) at work and their attitudes towards using them. 72% of those surveyed deemed mobile devices to be 'very important' to their work.

The survey revealed that currently voice-calls remain the most important mobile application during the working day followed by Internet access and mobile email. Interestingly, attachment viewing and editing were not seen as important, however this may well change in the future as the number of devices with these capabilities increases.

Richard Taylor, NI Business Manager Damovo, said: "It is clear that more people and organisations are seeing the benefits mobility can bring. With increasing technological advances people will be able to do more things with fewer devices, which will provide many businesses with a great opportunity to reduce costs, drive productivity and most importantly have a happy workforce."

Full survey results:

1. How many mobile devices do you use for work?

• 1 (51%)
• 2 (38%)
• 3+ (11%)

2. How important are mobile devices to your work?

• Very important (72%)
• Quite important (20%)
• Negligible (8%)
• Not important (0%)

3. Have mobile solutions improved your work/life balance?

• Yes (87%)
• No (13%)

4. What mobile applications are most important to your working day? (ranked in order of importance)

• (1) Mobile voice calls
• (2) Internet access
• (3) Mobile e-mail
• (4) SMS text messaging
• (5) Attachment viewing
• (6) Attachment editing

5. Other than standard voice calls, what mobile applications would prove most useful to you in the future? (ranked in order of importance)

• (1) Mobile e-mail
• (2) Internet access
• (3) Voice-over IP (VoIP)
• (4) Instant messaging (IM)
• (5) Attachment viewing
• (6) Attachment editing

6. What is the main benefit you would want from mobility?

• The ability to work from home (52%)
• Greater flexibility to work from any non-office location (29%)
• Greater collaboration with work colleagues and customers 12%)
• The ability to carry out work from one device (7%)

7. How do you currently carry around your mobile devices?

• In your pocket (48%)
• In your bag (29%)
• On your belt (15%)
• Other (8%)

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Posted to the site on 19th December 2006