Get out of the office and live free!

I have always been very keen on the technology industry. This is the playground where mankind comes together to construct new products and toy with new ideas that will make life easier, better, longer, healthier and more entertaining. The latest developments in the consumer and business technology arena has got to be cloud and tablet computing. A couple of months ago, The Economist painted a lovely picture of the smart phone: it is no longer just a telephone or a mobile computer - it is an exo-brain. What tablet computers have gone and done is bring you a magazine sized brain-in-a-bag. And this is life changing.

Here's how the iPad/iPhone has changed my life:

    I now "see" how far away the bus is from my bus-stop
    With a security camera, I can peak at what's happening at home, live.
    My friends know where I am and vice-versa via Facebook check-ins
    I can retrieve my email wherever, whenever
    I can track marketing campaigns of my clients at any time
    I have a thousand books, magazines, presentations, portfolios etc in one lightweight device to call-up and search on-demand
    With Bento (a database software), I have made CRM, a diary and an accounting system both mobile and cloud-hosted.
    CNBC is always with me, news, videos and real-time ticker tapes allow me to monitor my portfolio within a few touches

And yet these are only a few of the more commonly used applications I call up within the course of a day! With more and more of computing power being processed by a cloud, life becomes increasingly mobile.

Here's a dream: I'm hoping one day the workforce will work together at cafes instead of offices.

So we understand how powerful cloud computing and tablets are today, what will be the trend for the future? I foresee more companies converting more and more of their data to be used on a cloud. Cloud computing releases the anchor a workforce is straddled to and gives the executive more buoyancy to be engaged in revenue making activities.
In the past, price was a large factor restricting technology acceptance. Today it is not so. With an abundance of software to choose from and cheap hardware, today's businesses have more choice than ever before. The only thing that hasn't changed is technical knowledge - true, most of these softwares are easy to use on the client side but administratively, it still takes a trained technician to piece things together.

There will be more collaboration, more data sharing. Within a few touches, a sales person knows the credit history of a client. Marketing is able to gather feedback via intranet forums with the rest of the company. There is more strategic thinking and more cohesive planning. With cameras and check-ins, confidence and trust empowers a company to let their staff go mobile.

This is the 21st century workforce, and though it is in it's infancy, it will not take very long for the masses to adapt to this new way of life.

So my friends - power off your laptops, hold your mouse high, and demand your bosses hold the next meeting at Starbucks instead of the stifling boardroom. And slowly, but surely, we will all start to enjoy the independence, freedom AND productivity that technology can bring.