Shaban Nabulisi, a programme manager for Ericsson, has whole-heartedly adopted the mobile worker lifestyle. Although he has a physical office he spends less than 50% of his time there, and he works with a team of 15 people spread around the globe. He relies on his laptop, PDA and mobile phone to stay in touch and up to date with his team, his customers and his business.
“In our business environment you cannot afford not to be connected and mobile. Our customers are more and more educated about what technology can do and are looking for value-add from partners. The service we provide, tools, methods and processes, is part of this value-add and it requires us to be mobile and connected.”
For customers and team members it is irrelevant where Shaban is - they know that they can contact him, and that he can access the information he needs to help them. This level of mobility not only adds to the high levels of service Shaban and his organisation deliver but also shows to clients that they are at the cutting edge of technology themselves - something which Shaban feels is important in today's business environment.
When working on a project Shaban needs to connect to team members around the world to discuss and share files and other information.
“Connection has become a habit - I connect as soon as I can, wherever I am. My laptop and PDA come with me everywhere so I can always catch up with what the team is doing wherever I am and whatever the time.
“I connect at my workstation in the office, but also from client offices, coffee shops and as soon as I get home. I have a Cisco wireless router at home so I can log on anywhere in the house to catch up with e-mails or share and discuss information with my colleagues around the world.
“It is addictive to be connected - if I can't then I feel that I am no longer part of the team, and that I may miss out.”
Mobile working has changed the concept of what a team is in the organisation. Rather than a set of people who sit together to collaborate on a project, virtual teams are now the reality, according to Shaban. Only five of his team are locally-based, with a further 10 or so located around the world. But this team of mobile workers collaborates effectively to deliver projects to clients, working flexibly to overcome the issues of distance and different time zones. Although Shaban has met most of the team members in person, and feels that it is important if possible to establish face to face relationships early on, his day to day contact is via e-mail, phone call or Web conference.
But with all this connectivity everywhere and at any time, how does Shaban switch off? The truth is that in busy periods, when new projects are being delivered, he does not.
“When I am the single point of contact for the client I expect to be contactable 24/7 for escalation of issues, changing requirements and questions.”
However, he points out that it is important to set expectations and to introduce and utilise the wider resources of the company. As projects move into a maintenance phase, he hands over to a wider team that can manage ongoing operations - allowing him to relax and get some sleep at night. Shaban is keen to stress that mobile workers must set relaxation time as a personal objective. When things are really busy you may not get this personal time, but you must relax when things are less busy.
“One of the unexpected effects of mobile working for me has been the change in people's attitudes to out of hours work. Even two years ago people would call after office hours, but would apologise for disturbing you. I suppose about 5% of my work was out of hours. Now it is more like 20% and people no longer apologise - they expect you to answer their calls and e-mails whenever and wherever you are. The concept of 'Office Hours' is dead.”
And this is reflected in Shaban's advice to other would-be mobile workers: “It is really important to set expectations, both with clients and with your own organisation. Make sure you sell the relationship with the whole organisation including the support functions so that you can hand off to them when needed.
“Also, I do encourage people to be mobile and connected in the way they work, but it is important to make time for personal life. Connectivity is a burning habit so you need to allocate time for breaks, for peace of mind and for family and to re-energise.”
Looking to the future, Shaban is excited by the prospects of more and better ways to communicate whilst mobile. Although current mobile video conferencing, mobile TV and other video technologies are not really of the quality and reliability to be used as business tools he looks forward to the day when they are. He also sees the mobile worker lifestyle increasingly seeping into the everyday consumer lifestyle as the man-in-the-street starts to use and benefit from the ability to connect with friends and family with any device from anywhere at anytime;
“Will people use mobile connectivity in their personal lives? Absolutely - work and personal lives are rapidly converging into one mobile connected life.”
Networkers at Cisco Live! will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre from 1 - 4 December 2008. The central theme of this year's event is 'The Power of Collaboration'. Visit http://www.networkersafrica.co.za for more information.
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