The total mobile office

There was a time when the very act of stepping out of the office consigned you to a communications dead zone.

Today, of course, it’s all different. Step onto a train or into your nearest cappuccino bar and chances are you’ll be sharing a space with half a dozen people taking work related calls, entering data into personal digital assistants (PDAs) or logging onto the office email system via their wirelessenabled laptops.

Wherever you are these days, you can take the office with you. And depending what you’re prepared to carry in your pocket or briefcase, you can not only take that allimportant call from a potential customer but also answer email, review a Word file or enter information into a CRM system. In other words, being in a specific location – i.e. the office – is no longer a prerequisite for doing serious business.

This won’t be news to you. The question is how do you choose the right solution for your business in terms of connectivity and hardware?

HANDHELDS AND LAPTOPS

According to Paul Stonadge, enterprise data services executive at mobile network operator Vodafone, mobile data users can be segmented into two broad groups: those whose prime objective is to keep a check on their email and those who require the full functionality of their workplace computer and network while away from the office. “If all you need is email then the best solution is probably a handheld device,” says Stonadge. “On the other hand, if you are likely to be out of the office for some time and you need to do a lot of work from a remote location, then the only real solution is a networkenabled laptop.” T

he business units of the major mobile operators – Vodafone, Orange, O2 and T-Mobile – cater for both these user groups. All four not only supply email enabled phones but also 3G cards that will plug your laptop into the mobile networks.

EMAIL ON THE MOVE

A glance through the average mobile catalogue will reveal a small army of phones that have the capability to send and receive email on the move. Most are for light mail users only. However, if email is important to the way you do business you need a device that is designed for that purpose. One clear market leader has emerged – the BlackBerry.

Manufactured by RIM, it is designed to deliver email in real time using data compression to keep down costs. They don’t pretend to be PDAs, instead they are positioned as cuttingedge email devices with some PDA functionality. As a bonus, the new models are also pretty stylish phones.

The thing that differentiates the BlackBerry from its competitors is the fact that it ‘pushes’ email to the user. In practical terms, this means that rather than requiring you to log on to an email application every time you want to check for mail, the BlackBerry system provides a real-time flow. When an email lands on the office server, it is pushed on to the BlackBerry inbox via your mobile network.

And there are other attractions too. “For example,” says Simon Ainslie, director of business data at T-Mobile, “it can be difficult to set up PDAs but BlackBerrys tend to work straight from the box.”

However, it should be remembered that BlackBerrys are designed for the corporate market and to take full advantage of the system you will need a dedicated exchange server added to your email system. However, there are versions of the BlackBerry that will work with non-corporate email systems such as Hotmail and Yahoo and these are becoming popular.

BlackBerrys have their limitations, though. At the moment they only run on the slower GPRS networks (not a huge handicap) and while they allow you to view attachments, you won’t be able to edit or alter them. BlackBerrys are currently supplied by Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and O2.

CONNECTED PDA

For those who want email on the move and some of the functionality of, say, Microsoft Office, a PDA offers a flexible and pocket-sized alternative to the BlackBerry.

PDAs come in two distinct flavours – those with Microsoft Windows operating systems and those that use the Palm OS. The vast majority of PDAs do not boast any direct means to connect to mobile networks but you can use them to collect email or surf the web by hooking them up to mobile phones. The connection between the two devices can be made wirelessly using a system known as Bluetooth (both phone and PDA must be equipped with Bluetooth chips) or by lining up their infrared ports to transfer data.

However, some PDAs have built-in communications facilities. For instance, O2’s XDA has full Microsoft PDA functionality, as has T-Mobile’s recently launched MDA range. Both of these run on GPRS networks but not 3G. There are certain advantages to running Microsoft or Palmbased machines. For one thing, they come equipped with an Outlook application that can be synched to your office system, enabling staff on the road to share not only emails but calendar and contact details just as you would if everyone was in the office. You can also download attachments.

A variation on this theme is Orange’s SPV C500 smartphone, which although not quite a full-blooded PDA runs Outlook and will synch with the office system.

To do this your office network must be running Microsoft’s Exchange Server. But as Mike Grady, SME group manager, business solutions at Orange points out: “Many businesses have Exchange Server anyway, so the investment has already been made.”

LAPTOPS

PDAs are a great solution if all you want is to manage contacts, input a limited amount of data or edit files on the move. However, no-one would pretend they are a substitute for the office computer. If that’s what you need, then the only solution is to pack a laptop when you hit the road.

The simplest way to connect a laptop to the web is to use one of the so-called 3G cards supplied by the mobile phone companies. Designed to slot into laptop PCII ports, these devices will enable you and your computer to access the internet at speeds of around 300 to 400 megabits per second across 3G phone networks – in other words, they are just a tad slower than a standard broadband connection.

However, that’s not the whole story. The mobile networks have concentrated their broadband roll-out on urban areas and there are whole swathes of the country where data speeds are limited by an older network technology known as GPRS. It’s not unusable – speeds are just under those achievable on a 56kbs dial-up modem – but anyone used to broadband will notice a marked reduction in performance.

And unless your forays out of the office never take you beyond the reach of conurbations, you will need to access the mobile networks using both GPRS and 3G technology. For instance, on a train journey between London and Glasgow you could pass out of 3G coverage into GPRS and then back again a number of times. 3G wireless cards are designed to make this transition seamlessly by automatically switching band according to network status. In other words, you won’t lose your connection.

So how do you decide between email enabled phone, BlackBerry, PDA or laptop? As Phil Ledward, head of business data at O2 points out, your decision will come down to a number of factors. “It’s a case of what you do, how often you do it and whether or not you want to store information locally,” he says.

WIRELESS LAN

In addition to providing web access via mobile networks, some 3G cards can also offer WiFi, aka Wireless LAN functionality.

Put simply, WiFi is a technology that connects your computer to an internet access point using radio signals. There are now thousands of these access points (more commonly known as hotspots) across the UK, situated in cafes, hotels, airport terminals and motorway service stations. The biggest UK suppliers of these access points are BT Openzone and The Cloud.

To use a WiFi connection, you have to be within a bubble of connectivity that radiates around the access point over a distance of up to 100 metres in the open. Once inside the ‘live’ area you can enjoy access speeds up to 10 times faster than any of the mobile networks can offer.

O2 and T-Mobile already include WiFi functionality in their 3G cards, along with software that allows you to switch from GPRS/3G to Wireless LAN. They also bundle WiFi charges onto your mobile bill. Orange is planning to introduce WiFi functionality in its next generation of cards while Vodafone offers software to seamlessly switch between network and hotspot connectivity for those who supplement their 3G card with a separate WiFi Card. If you want WiFi access through a PDA, O2’s XDA III has the technology on board.

But it’s important to stress that you don’t need to be a mobile phone company customer to take advantage of Wireless LAN. Standalone WiFi cards can be bought for between £30 and £50. Most of them plug into laptop PCII slots but you can also buy versions designed for USB ports. Belkin and Linksys are the main suppliers. If you have a Centrino chip in your laptop, you won’t need a card as these devices are already WiFi enabled.

And with a card or Centrino chip you can take advantage of any WiFi hotspot, although in most cases you will have to pay. This can be either on a pay as you go or subscription basis and can be quite pricey. It may be more cost-effective to buy your hotspot access as part of a mobile operator’s bundle.

Until recently, one major disadvantage of WiFi was that it was useless while on the move. That is beginning to change. T-Mobile has WiFi enabled selected London to Brighton train services (the hotspot is the train), Lufthansa offers connectivity on flights and Boeing is building Wireless LAN functionality into new jets. In short, it is becoming a real alternative to the mobile networks.

VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS

So all your ducks are in a row. You have a brand-new laptop armed with a mobile network and wireless connectivity. Thus, you can enjoy all the benefits of your office IT system while sitting on the 8.15 to Victoria. Well, you’re almost there, but not quite. To complete the technological jigsaw, you will also need a virtual private network or VPN.

Ask a technician to describe a VPN and the chances he will scratch his head, think for a minute and then say something along the lines of: “A VPN is a kind of private tunnel through the public internet, enabling remote users to connect to their office applications securely.”

If that sounds complicated, the good news is that from the user’s point of view, a VPN connection couldn’t be simpler. You log onto the internet from a remote location – using either a landline, mobile connection or WiFi hotspot – key in a URL, enter a password and username and heypresto, you have full access to the office network. The software – usually supplied by an internet service provider (ISP) – does the rest and ensures that the connection is secure, whether enabled by wireless or fixed-line networks.

The costs can be bundled as part of your ISP service. For instance, Alan Ryan of business ISP Easynet cites costs of £27 per user (home ADSL access, plus VPN functionality) a month, plus a £1,500-a-year connection fee for the business itself, again with connectivity and VPN included.

If security is a particular issue you can upgrade from standard VPN to a system known as MPLS in which your data is routed not across the public internet but through a telecoms company or ISP’s own network. As Ryan explains, “MPLS is more secure and you can prioritise the data running across it. For instance, you could give voice data more bandwidth than email data. You can’t do that with ordinary VPN.