High Style magazine, January 2005: Feature on mobile technology and the business traveller

Business travel isnt nearly as glamorous as people think. It can be lonely, tiring, and many company executives complain that they rarely see more than the airport departure lounge or the inside of their hotel.

Or thats how it used to be. Now, however, thanks to advances in mobile technology, business travellers can work as effectively from beside the hotel pool, aboard a yacht or while sipping a mocha latte at a local taverna, as they could from their hotel room or conference facilities, or indeed their own office.

Clem Chambers, CEO of financial Web services specialist ADVFN, even managed to trade international shares while on a gondola in Venice recently.

The companys PDA Mobile service delivers live financial information to mobile phones and personal digital assistant (PDA) devices, so that executives can check share prices in real time when away from the office. In the past, people have often sold their shares before going away on business because they wouldnt be able to get a feel for the market as easily without constant access to prices, Chambers explains..

With the ADVFN service, however, travellers can track the movement of share prices over the course of a day, enabling them to make astute buy or sell decisions as though they were at their desks with access to live news feeds. Customers can choose to subscribe to a mini Web site, which allows them to quickly browse charts using a portable device, or receive real-time quotes by SMS message to their mobile phones. The former option costs 29 a month, the latter 25 pence per quote.

Meanwhile, Mike Tobins PDA synchronises his PDA with his companys MS Exchange server every five minutes when he is away from the office, allowing him to be up to date with his business as soon as he gets off a plane. I respond to my emails and make my calls in the cab on my way to the meeting Im going to. This means I can claw back some time to explore the region when the meeting has finished, he says.

Tobin is CEO at an IT services company, Redbus Interhouse, which provides business applications and IT services from data centres in London, Paris, Milan, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. This role requires him to be on the move constantly. As a busy company principle, though, Tobin cant afford to waste time finding his way around a new destination, so another facility he values is a handy new device that enables him to turn his PDA into a satellite-based navigation system.

The product, TomTom Navigator, is a GPS (global positioning system) receiver and software package that communicates with mobile phones or PDA devices using Bluetooth [a fast wireless connection that enables data transfer between two adjacent devices]. Says Tobin, I just keep the receiver in my top pocket and my PDA guides me around the town.

Tobin is very choosy about the hotels he stays in too, as he likes to catch up with the office when jetlag leaves him unable to sleep, so that his daylight hours are less pressurised. This relies on being able to dial into his companys network or the Internet from his hotel room.

I would never stay in a hotel that didnt offer high-speed access in the room, he says, recalling how productively he spent his night hours in Washingtons Intercontinental hotel on a recent trip. Generally I try to stay awake as long as I can on the first night so I can adjust to the local time the next day, so as soon as I got to my room I logged on to the Internet via the free wireless network and was able to work as though I was in my own office.

Being able to do this while outside the hotel room offers even more freedom, which is why many hotels are now implementing what are known as WiFi hotspots right across their premises. Already prevalent in the US and the UK, with take-up starting to spread through Europe, these high-speed wireless communications hubs enable anyone within a reasonable radius to connect to the Internet or their office network at a very high data access speed, without having to physically plug in their laptop.

Where such facilities are provided throughout a hotel, business customers are able to remain connected whether they are in a meeting, waiting for someone in the hotel reception, watching a sports match in the bar, or relaxing by the pool. Many airports, train stations and city-based cafes now offer WiFi facilities too, making it easier and easier for business travellers to be just as productive when they leave the hotel grounds.

The difference between WiFi connectivity and the GPRS and 3G high-speed data connectivity services provided to mobile phones (and to PDAs with GPRS or 3G adapters) is the speed of the network connection. While GPRS is now widely available, its data connectivity speeds rarely exceed about 40 kbits/sec, whereas a WiFi hotspot provides true broadband speeds of 300 kbit/sec, making Internet access and data download effortless.

Until such connection speeds are more ubiquitous, most mobile business applications that are being taken up in any volume are light applications - demanding only modest levels of data transfer.

This is where Blackberry devices have done extremely well. These allow executives to receive emails automatically on their PDA or mobile phone. With Blackberry and applications like it, users are sent a light version of their emails (without large attachments, for example), so they can scan them quickly and reply to any that are urgent. Anything else can be dealt with when closer to a faster connection, or back at the office.

Blackberry has done a great job of raising peoples expectations about what can be done in a mobile environment, says Simon Green, sales manager at UK mobile technology specialist ESE. Now people want more.

He points to ConnectAnywhere as an example. This is a software-based service available on PDA devices such as HPs new iPAQ h6340 (which combines a mobile phone with Windows Pocket PC functionality), and the h4700 (which has a high-quality screen designed for easier Web browsing). Designed to support both GPRS and WiFi connectivity, ConnectAnywhere enables travelling executives to access critical business information while waiting for a flight, in the back of a taxi, with a customer or even on the beach.

The technology, which ESE provides as a complete, managed service at a cost of 1.75 per day per user (including the handsets), could be used to give business travellers rapid access to anything from email to customer management software.

Another application with great appeal to busy business travellers is unified messaging software that pulls together business messages of all types (emails, faxes and office-based and mobile phone voicemails) so that these can be reviewed together as a single set of messages using the most appropriate medium at the time. Sophisticated solutions enable voice messages to be converted to emails, or vice versa, and faxes to be turned into email attachments that can be printed out locally. This makes message management and message filing much easier.

Alcatels OmniTouch software (which costs about 140 per user, for each of three possible modules) provides all of the above functionality, enabling business travellers to access all messages on the device of their choice. It also includes clever filtering and message management facilities, so that users can choose to divert some calls, and record others. As well as making it easier for business travellers to keep in touch wherever they are, this also enables them to mask when they are away if this is important.

Whats even more exciting is that these solutions really are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what will soon be available. Business travellers already have more freedom than theyve ever enjoyed before - to function at 100% of their capacity no matter where they are - but as mobile connectivity speeds become faster and more prevalent, the range of portable business productivity applications coming onto the market will know no limit. Without being tied to an office or hotel room, executives on the move will be able to manage customer data, file reports, host virtual conferences, discuss and present Powerpoint slideshows, and clinch complex deals.

With their business in their briefcase, perhaps travelling executives will find themselves able to recapture the magic of foreign trips, sneaking a camera, beach towel and tourist guide into their overnight bag among the suits and paperwork.

Other handy mobile tools to seek out:

1. The DocuPen from Plano Systems - a handheld scanner in the form of a pen, which can scan an A4 document in just four seconds, to be later downloaded and saved, or printed
2. Logitechs Digital Writing System a pen which enables handwritten notes to be captured and stored digitally, for on-screen editing and archiving
3. A voicemail to text service from SpinVox, so you never have to listen to voicemail again
4. The latest smart mobile phones and combined mobile phone/PDA devices, including the Nokia 9300 Communicator, the Motorola MPx, the Panasonic X700, the Orange SPV C500, the palmOne Treo 600, the Sony Ericsson P900, the Sendo X and the Samsung D710
5. Other Blackberry-like applications such as Vistos ConstantSync, providing mobile email and more

GPRS and 3G mobile data cards that give PDAs and laptops the ability to receive data wirelessly using the high-speed mobile phone networks that are now becoming available in more regions. Try Vodaphones Mobile Connect data card or Oranges 3G Mobile Office Card.