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In less than a decade, cloud-based services and mobile devices have dramatically changed the enterprise landscape and how business travelers work.
Now dependent on cloud-based collaborative applications to run their businesses, enterprises must support bandwidth intensive applications such Salesforce.com, Microsoft Office 365, Google Drive, Box.com, WebEx, Skype, etc. People that were traditionally tied to the office are now working from almost anywhere, thanks to smartphones, tablets and the millions of Wi-Fi hotspots that are springing up all over the globe.
Collaborative business applications are the key to staying productive on the road. However, many of these applications are so bandwidth intensive that cellular connectivity can be too slow, and if workers are traveling abroad the cost of access can be prohibitively expensive. That’s why business travelers are turning in droves to Wi-Fi.
Last year, business travelers reported carrying as many as three devices while travelling, according to an iPass survey, including both a smartphone and tablet. According to Informa UK, almost three-quarters of all tablets shipped in 2013 had Wi-Fi as their only source of connectivity, leaving workers with no other choice but to seek out Wi-Fi hotspots in order to be productive. In other words, receiving the full benefit of mobile business rests on whether workers can find and use high-quality Wi-Fi.
Forty one percent of business travelers reported that a lack of wireless connectivity rendered them unproductive at least ten percent of their work day, every day, according to an iPass survey. This is equivalent to roughly 250 hours, or more than one month of lost productivity every year for each mobile worker. What’s happening here? How can such a huge gap exist in the needs of global connectivity? Most importantly, what can be done to fix this problem?
Business travelers look for Wi-Fi at a variety of locations that have varying levels of network quality, security, and cost. They have no way of knowing what to expect when connecting. Will they get dropped from their video conference? Will the connection be too slow for their intended application? Quite often business travelers can’t connect for these reasons, resulting in lost productivity. Additionally, most hotspots are proprietary to their location, which forces mobile workers to set up accounts and log-ins at multiple access points, conceding private information like their cellphone number, credit card details, or LinkedIn and Facebook credentials. This is a significant issue for business travelers who require a trustworthy network connection that adheres to corporate security policies.
Clearly, Wi-Fi needs to be more reliable than it has been in the past. Roaming from hotspot to hotspot should work the way cellular roaming does – simply and seamlessly, from any device, and be practically invisible to the user. Business travelers must have confidence in the hotspots they connect to and know that each one is robust enough to support enterprise computing.
What is needed is a global network of reliable and easily accessible Wi-Fi hotspots that is accessible with a single account. This would solve the friction that today’s business traveler encounters. It’s a win-win that can’t be ignored: business travelers get fast and seamless connectivity, enterprises see an uptick in productivity while maintaining privacy, and Wi-Fi network operators can earn new revenues by opening up their hotspots to support roaming, all allowing the mobile workplace to continue to evolve.
Steve Livingston is SVP of carrier development at iPass, and leads sales and marketing for the company’s service provider business. Livingston is an innovator in the mobile telecommunications industry with more than 30 years of experience. During his tenure as CMO at CellularOne, it set the industry benchmark for mobility services and mobile marketing until its acquisition by AT&T Wireless, where Livingston went on to lead enterprise and data offer marketing. He then was a founding executive at Bytemobile, a leading Web and video optimization solutions provider for mobile operators. He also served as CMO for MBlox, the world’s largest mobile transaction network, and most recently as general manager of Windows Phone strategic partner marketing at Microsoft. Livingston has served on the board of the Mobile Marketing Association, as a member of CTIA’s Wireless Internet Caucus (WIC) Leadership Council, and as an advisor to the AmberWatch Foundation. He was also a founding leadership member of the Center for Marketing and Technology at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkely.
