Mobile devices boost accounting company

Mobile technology offers staff a more satisfying work-life balance

Accounting firm BDO Stoy Hayward has completed a £2m rollout of mobile devices to enable its 2,500 UK staff to work remotely.

The project is intended to help maximise worker productivity, as well as promote a better work-life balance.

Graham Knight, head of technology at the company, says both internal employee surveys as well as client feedback showed that empowering staff to work remotely was highly desirable.

‘Our employees spend a significant amount of time at client sites, which usually means they cannot access our corporate network. Mobile technology gives them the flexibility to work their own way, get more done, provide a better service and have more time to dedicate to their private lives,’ said Knight.

The company has rolled out about 1,200 3G mobile office cards, up to 450 BlackBerry devices and more than 1,000 smartphones to its workers.

To ensure that no sensitive data is ever put at risk, Knight has configured the 3G connection so that users can securely connect to the corporate network when out on the road.

‘Security is very important in our line of business. With access via the 3G card, we don’t touch the internet,’ he said.

The latest BlackBerry models which are being used allow for remote administration.
‘If people lose their device, then we are able to completely wipe all of the data on it remotely, as well as configuring things such as passwords,’ said Knight.

He says the response from staff has been good so far. ‘It’s not often you get to work on an IT project that gets a lot of good comments back from people.

‘When you allow people to work remotely, it does a lot for staff retention. For many, it’s as desirable as a pay rise, in terms of the job flexibility it gives them,’ he said.