Three countries, 6 airplanes, 3 hotels, 4 offices, and 4 currencies in 6 days. That is a basic summary of this analysts European journey earlier this month. The question is, did technology and connectivity allow me to be productive despite my ever changing surroundings?
In Yankee Group’s 2010 Fastview CIO Priorities Survey, improving employee productive was named a top 3 strategic priorities among CIOs of large enterprises. It’s also a top priority of most managers today no matter what department they are in, and my boss is no different. So as a mobile worker, I thought this was the perfect experiment, with myself as the test subject, to see how the tools and technologies that we talk about all the time really hold up for a worker in constant motion.
As with any experiment, the first step is to make sure we have all of the supplies we will need. So as I headed to the airport for my transatlantic flight, I made sure I was armed with all the tools I would need – e-reader, laptop (the netbook stayed home on this trip in favor of the full laptop because I needed access to too many files and systems), blackberry (corporate liable device), iPhone (personal device on a carrier with global coverage, at least through roaming, and music player), assorted chargers and plug adapters, and a USB storage stick with the main presentation files I would need just in case. And for those wondering, yes my laptop bag with all of this stuff is heavier than my suitcase with my clothes for the week.
Now back to that transatlantic flight, its an overnight flight so while I am curious about inflight WiFi (not available) I don’t think too much about it as I should try and get some sleep to hit the ground running when I land. I do breakout the laptop till dinner service so I can peer review a colleague’s research report which I finish and now need to send back to him, okay so maybe in-flight WiFi would have been handy. For now sending emails has to wait so we turn to my E-reader and iPhone for the music as the devices of choice except for dinner when I watch a really bad movie. I did get a couple of hours sleep too so in terms of productivity that flight wasn’t so bad except for the lack of Internet connection.
Time to change planes and on the way to the next gate I grab a quick breakfast and look into airport WiFi. It’s pretty pricey in Europe and my mobile broadband card doesn’t work here so now its time for the cost benefit analysis. My blackberry shows me that with the US not awake yet I don’t have that much new email and nothing with attachments that I really need to work with. My next flight gets me to my destination just a few hours into Boston’s work day so its not worth the WiFi charges yet. I can wait till I get to the hotel. Flight number 2 boards and while I could use a nap, I need to work on a presentation for a session I am presenting at. So laptop it is for the 2.5 hour flight (okay I did get a 30 minute nap in too but really a tired Sandra is no fun for anyone and its only 11 AM CET).
Get through customs in record time and off to the hotel. The United States is awake and has had its coffee so by blackberry is buzzing with new emails all seemingly asking me to review something or for my opinion or insight. I answer the quick ones in the taxi and of course delete the junk – rule 1 of staying productive on the road is eliminate as much noise and junk mail as possible so you don’t lose important things in the mess.
Check into the hotel and get my handy little free WiFi access code, good for 24 hours, or so the card says. CONNECTIVITY TIME! Into the room and set up the laptop, charge the blackberry and iPhone and freshen up a bit before getting down to business. Hotel broadband isn’t the fastest but it will do and allows me to finally send out the work I did on the plane rides over. Also take the time to check my schedule for the rest of the day and a big employee productivity booster jumps out at me as I notice that most of my calls are scheduled for the afternoon, East Coast time, which means evening for the girl in northern Europe. All the calls are for some very cool upcoming research from Yankee Group so don’t really want to miss them so late night calls it is for me besides, working late will mean less work to catch up on later and that is a good thing.
After a quick dinner and a nice walk to clear my jet-lagged brain, time for some calls. Free Wifi means the most cost effective way of doing these is Skype or my softphone. First call is a Yankee Group bridgeline so softphone it is. Broadband quality leaves a bit to be desired in terms of the voice quality this is likely compounded by forgetting my really good headset so we make do. Calls go well and I get a lot done. Being productive on the road is a piece of cake with the right tools and resources. Although it is now midnight local time and I have to be up in 6 hours to present to a room full of communications sales executives.
Day 2 in Europe and blackberry, iPhone and I go off to have breakfast. Nothing major has happened in the last 6 hours and I check my voicemail but can’t return any calls due to the time difference. Good time to break out the e-reader and get a few minutes of down time in while my coffee kicks in. Have a great day of meetings and a really interactive presentation with a client at their offices and now two hours to kill till dinner so back to the hotel and my free WiFi. Except even though I still have time left on the WiFi clock it isn’t working because I sent and received to many files. Okay that’s a little bit of a hiccup but no worries, back down to the front desk for another WiFi access card and ready for the next round of work and conference calls. By the time I leave for my next stop, London, I have maxed out my hotel WiFi account 3 times. Not really meant for the high volume worker I guess.
Next stop, day 3, London. At least here I will be working out of the Yankee Group’s London offices which means real high quality Internet and phone service. Now is the time to buckle down then and take advantage of the resources to pump out as much work as possible, in between service provider meetings around London. All in all, London was a productive stop as a mobile worker. Only hiccup here was missing a complete BBM message from a colleague also in London who missed out on having a lovely Thai dinner with us. Sadly that is only to be blamed on user error (me) for multi-tasking and actually getting absorbed into my live conversation and not paying close enough attention to the BBM messages. I now owe my co-worker a pint or two at the local pub to make it up to him or will have to hear about it for days to come by all in all still a productive and good day.
End of day 4 means another trip to the airport for another flight to another country. Rome is the next stop and this stop is a whirlwind. Arrive at the hotel very late so back to just corresponding with people via mobile phone and blackberry. Having two different devices helps out now because two devices means double the battery life and after a full day of meetings and calls in London and then a late flight and taxi ride in Rome battery life is the roadblock of the day. The batter life drama leads to the next discovery of my hotel, limited outlets. I always travel with plenty of plug adapters in Europe but don’t have that many outlets to choose from so do the best I can to get all devices charged up before my last full work day in Europe begins and maximizing the battery life of all devices – laptop, blackberry, iPhone – is going to be critical.
Day 5 is back to back to back meetings all over Rome but all goes well and thanks to good battery management make it back to my hotel at the end of the day with enough juice left in at least one mobile device to head out to dinner without being totally cut off from the world. Time to enjoy one last night in Europe before the trip home.
It’s that last trans-Atlantic flight that really has me longing for WiFi on this plane. After 3 movies, 2 magazines and a finishing up a book I still have 2.5 hours to go thanks to heavy headwinds and I am running out of things to entertain me. This would be the perfect time to really get some work done or at least be able to surf the Internet but alas no connectivity means access to limited resources. Guess I will see what others movies I can find to entertain me.
So after that European adventure, what are the big mobile worker discoveries for this analyst? Connectivity really is king. Good and productive days were those when I had access to the decent quality and bandwidth connectivity for all of my devices and the most frustrating days and times were when I had limited or none (plane rides). Battery life / power was also my best friend or worst enemy depending on the day and location. So while many people may long for a single device, having at least two devices (and in my case more than that) with me allowed for much more flexibility because when one device ran out of juice I still had options. As for overall productivity, I certainly managed to be very productive despite being away from my primary office location but I may have over done it by regularly working both European business hours and US business hours because I arrived back in the States exhausted and fighting a cold. So the real takeaway is with the right tools and resources and a desire to actually be productive, working from the road – even an ever changing location – can actually make for a very productive work week!
