Be like Batman: why a super-mobile workforce is imperative

The reality of time pressures today, is that we all feel like we spend our days chasing something, whether its sales or deadlines, but it’s the chase that seems to rob us of our time and has become a new age criminal. While no one discredits the value of office bound workers, it is this growing need to get more done in less time and more efficiently that has created the need to establish a force that can act as independent agents and go to war on work.

However, you don’t exist in a comic book, TV sitcom or alternate reality and probably don’t begin your crime busting days by slipping down a super-fast tube into an underground cave that has been kitted out with the most sophisticated and high-end technology and gadgets available. It has therefore become all the more important to know what arsenal is at your disposal. Let’s review…

While some of us may think we can drive like Batman, the truth is, we need not go racing off into the big yonder. In fact, with mobile internet connections – particularly as Wi-Fi and 3G hotspots become more pervasive countrywide – we are able to connect, retrieve work, communicate and update at faster speeds and in less time than the Batmobile could ever hope to travel.

The explosion of the internet and the reality of “always connectedness” — which underpins the cultural shift towards a mobile workforce — means that you can shoot out communications and resolve any issue or elicit faster decision making quicker than Batman could use a rip-cord to scale a tall building. Racing down the street in the Batmobile or swinging from a rip cord may well have the flashy appeal, but connecting remotely is instantaneous and saves more time, which is an invaluable advantage today.

Similarly, fueled by the latest technology advancements, there has been a call to simplify communications and subsequently we are witnessing an increased uptake of unified communications (UC) and convergence in a bid to have one medium, one number, one voice box, one email, etc.

The road to achieving this overarching goal of one-time-one-place accessibility and communication has given life to the concept of presence. This may sound superfluous, however, like the Bat signal this presence provides our colleagues, piers, customers – and whoever else wishes to communicate with us – with systematic access to our immediate availability as well as alerting us that our attentions to a communication or presence is requested.

This presence is instantaneous, like the Bat signal, however, more effective as details or requirements can be shared at once and in less time. This is not to mention that our presence has farther reach than that of the Bat signal, as with the Internet, our communications are not geographically bound and we have access to almost every corner of the world.

Further to this, as most of us are not built 6ft and strong, carrying our entire arsenal everywhere we go – as with Batman’s utility belt – has become counterproductive. The collective weight of all of the communication tools and gadgets that we make use of is bulky and inhibiting, which for a long time left a void in the technological advancements available to us – until now. While smartphones have been around for a number of years, it was the success of the application-rich iPhone that really set the market alight chiefly due to the flexibility and functionality that these tools offer the mobile workforce. Therefore, like Mac Gyver’s pocket knife – if used properly – your smartphone enables you to converge all of your communications through one ‘ultimate’ device.

This ability brings true one-time-one-place-one-point-of-contact to the fore, making always-connected, on-demand and simpler communications a reality and subsequently provides you with an enormous boost to your productivity. You may not have the skill to escape a locked room before a bomb blows up with nothing but your pocket knife, but having a smartphone ensures that you will have the flexibility to define your presence from wherever you happen to be.

Couple these tools, with the addition of a Bluetooth headset – which offers crisp and instant voice communication connections, whether via a desk phone, mobile phone and/or softphone or other IP-based telephony – and you can gain a stronger integration of your communication devices. If Batman can get away with hassle-free, hands-free communications then why shouldn’t you.

So while you may not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, or escape any dangerous situation with a pocket knife and a piece of twine, as the new, super, mobile taskforce, you are raging a war on work and with the right tools and a set plan and objective, you can win!

Image: Mike K via Flickr.