Don’t Rely On Your IT Staff To Understand Digital Nomads

by David Mould of Techdirt / Aug 26

Most of the challenges faced by the consultant on the road generally have to be solved by the consultant. In my experience IT staff are geared up to office based workers as they typically don’t travel themselves.

One of the largest concerns has been the weight of a typical laptop. Most of the executives and sales team have small lightweight machines but barely use the features. The delivery team usually receives larger laptops that have the power but compromise on weight and portability. A good sized laptop with good computing power at a decent price point would go a long way to solving my travel needs.

The second significant concern for the average “Road Warrior” should be ergonomics. I have played with carrying a fold out Bluetooth keyboard, normally used with PDA’s and Smartphones. This gives me the ability to lift up the laptop onto the usual set of telephone directories found in the room and still be able to use the keyboard. Combine this with the now standard wireless mouse and I have a reasonable analogue to the home office setup.

If it was possible to separate the laptop screen from the laptop body and setup on an optional stand thus allowing me to create a monitor like layout, this would make those hours on the laptop easier on the back and shoulders. The other option would be to incorporate a micro projector that would allow the display to be projected onto a suitable surface.

The simplest consideration and one that I feel I have solved is the use of a USB drive and a U3 drive.

Being away from the office and outside of the corporate network severs the ties to the knowledge network most consultants rely on at some time. I could not now do without my USB drive, so much so I have moved from my initial 40Gb through 80Gb and now use a 120Gb as standard.

This allows me to carry all of the files that I need:

· Documentation

· White papers and case studies

· Code snippets

· Email archives

Also with the addition of VMware I also have a proof of concept / development / testing / demonstration environment in the palm of my hand. No need to have connectivity.

The second drive is the U3 drive that allows me to extend any machine I have access to so I can use applications like Skype and have PIM software in my pocket.

Where possible I try to use Google applications to take the burden off of network needs. If I can get an internet connection then I can work. It is worth noting that the Australian Defence Force allow gmail for almost 80% of their traffic when the realization was that only 20% of email traffic was sensitive enough to be encrypted. Combine this with office like applications and calendars and there are enough links back to the office water cooler to at least allow simple communication to agree a time to discuss in a more secure environment.

The natural extension to gmail that has been very useful is the use a Symbian based email application, I use Flurry. The biggest benefit to the company is that all of these services are free. This more than makes up for any perceived lack of function when compared to more costly SaaS offerings and services like Blackberry.

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