Today’s technology allows employees to work effectively from almost anywhere. A study carried out couple of months ago by IDC is forecasting that the world's mobile worker population will pass the one billion mark this year and grow to nearly 1.2 billion people – more than a third of the world's workforce – by 2013. Is it hard to believe?

There are many different types of mobile workers – from sales reps travelling the up and down the country through new mums working from home to companies owners who keep an eye on business after hours. Also a security guards or IT technicians, who work at one site, but move around as well as managers on a business trip to trade fairs, are considered mobile workers.

It's vital that mobile workers are properly equipped with reliable technology. The basic kit includes a mobile phone, a laptop computer with Internet access. But there are so many products and services available on the market, that we have prepared a quick guide to the mobile technology.

1. Smartphone – it’s more than an ordinary mobile – equipped with powerful processor, plenty of memory, large screen and most importantly running on operating system that allows users to install and run wide range of advanced applications. There are many different mobile operating systems – Symbian (running on most Nokia smartphones), Blackberry OS, iPhone OS, Android, Windows Mobile, Linux, Palm’s webOS, Samsung’s Bada, Maemo, LiMo.

2. Push Email – it is an email delivery system with real-time capability to “push” email through to the smartphone as soon as it arrives, rather than requiring user to poll and collect or pull email manually. There are two main push Email systems – Blackberry and Microsoft Push Email.

3. Mobile Broadband – is a high-speed internet access through the mobile network. There are different ways to connect to the mobile broadband:

• USB modem, plugged in to the PC, laptop or netbook;
  
• Mobile phone – 3G handsets provide great browsing experience
  
• Some smartphones can also act as data modems connecting a personal computer to the Internet.

4. VPN - or Virtual Private Network, provides secure remote access to your corporate network. AccessMyLan from O2 provides complete secu re access to office resources from any mobile device via the O2 high speed data network. It enables staff to access documents, applications and e-mail from anywhere using their laptop or a Web browser.

5. Car Kits – allows the employees who need to drive to stay in touch with customer and colleagues. There are many models on the market from the simplest plug&play ones to the sophisticated kits, which can read out the text messages.

6. Fixed Line and Broadband with Static IP – O2 offers this perfect solution for remote offices or home based employyes, especially for companies using MS Exchange server, VPN, SAP or similar, point to point constant connections.

7. Two Way Radios – are reliable and very cost efficient way to communicate among company based mobile workers.

As we call ourselves a Mobile Technology Experts – we can provide any of the products and services above.

So if wish to provide more mobility to any of your employees or yourself, please contact Commercial Wireless for more details.