Demand for flexible working prompts growth in mobile technology

The desire for flexible working amongst staff has resulted in more businesses in the south west moving towards new mobile technologies, an IT study has found. Carried out by Stem Group and Plymouth University, the South West Business IT Survey 2012 reveals that many companies are now looking into new technologies like the Cloud and mobile computing as a result of a demand from employees for flexibility on where and how they choose to work. The survey has identified that staff having the ability to work from anywhere has cut down dramatically on the number of days lost to illness, bad weather and problems such as no transport and child care. Of the companies surveyed, 80% said they supply staff with laptops and 70% provide mobile phones to employees. Although IT budgets still only account for 1-5% of a business’ budget, companies are moving in a “positive direction”, prioritising improvements in productivity and business processes. The survey predicts that during this year, they’ll be a further increased demand from the workforce for greater flexibility in their working environments, and that tablet computing will become more widely adopted. Dr Nigel Jackson, Associate Professor at Plymouth University Business School, Reader in Persuasion and Communication, said: " Over the past 12 months we have found that environmental concerns and improving business processes have become dramatically more important than last year.