The digital revolution changed the way we work forever. Is your organisation keeping up? Here’s a quick guide to the four most popular digital workers, and how IT support can help your company make the most of the tech boom.

1. Which type of mobile
worker are you?

2. The digital revolution changed the way
we work forever. Is your organisation
keeping up? Here’s a quick guide to the four
most popular digital workers, and how IT
support can help your company make the
most of the tech boom.
On the go, away from our desks, we can now be more
productive anytime, anywhere. Here in the Asia Pacific,
we check our phones as often as every seven minutes.
With information, entertainment, even communities
around the world at our fingertips, work’s naturally just
a few taps away too. As early as 2010, research firm
Forrester reported that 34% of workers telecommuted
at least once a week, working from home, a coffee
shop, or other locations. While a common definition is
still in the works, a mobile worker seems to be anyone
who spends at least 10 hours per week away from his or
her main workplace.

3. Can’t figure out your type?
It’s all about the base.
Your base — that is, where you work from — says
a lot about which kind of mobile worker you are and
what it is you need. If you spend most of your time in
a company office and occasionally work from home or
a third place, you’re an office-based mobile worker.
If you’re on the field for, say, sales, IT, or around
a corporate campus and do most of your work in
someone else’s office, then you’re a non-office- based
mobile worker. A home-based mobile worker means
working out of a home office, only appearing in a
corporate office for meetings or work sessions.
Yet a millennial fresh into the workforce and a digitally
savvy Baby Boomer will have different needs. Different
roles, different habits — the world of mobile working is
as richly diverse as the individuals that populate it.
See if you can see yourself among them.

4. Type 1
Upwardly Mobile Millenials

5. Distinguishing Marks
Weapons of Choice
Apps that Appeal
Confident one-handed
device use
Abundance of apps
iPhone, Android phone,
as a personal device
Many mobile apps for
social networking, online
shopping, other personal
uses
Apps for work email and
intranet access
You are in your mid-20s and work primarily from an
office, possibly as an executive assistant, clerical staff,
sales associates, customer service rep, or starting an
entrepreneurial venture. You are a digital native who
grew up with smartphones; your device boasts an
arsenal of apps for both work and play — connected
(or not connected) to office email, intranet, and social
media as you choose.
THE IT FACTOR Your mobile device is personal and, as
such, is likely not supported by corporate IT. Regardless,
however, you do expect company support for your
smartphone and app needs.
And why not? As an Upwardly Mobile Millenial,
you belong to the group that, according to
Forrester, is only gaining momentum since the digital
exodus began. In 2010, only 16% of all corporate
employees were considered upwardly mobile millenials;
this number swelled to 30% in 2015, almost double in
just five years. When anyplace can be your workplace,
IT policies that support personal device use and
out-of- office productivity are on the money.
Upwardly Mobile Millenials

6. Type 2
Mobile Movers and Shakers

7. Distinguishing Marks
Apps that Appeal
Double-handed typing
Leather device case
Out-of- pocket,
work-related app from
a mobile app store
Advanced collaboration
and conferencing apps
beyond e-mail and intranet
Are you a GM, C-level executive, or supervisor? Do you
travel often as a company representative, a figurehead,
and work out from a personal device in combination
with one the company provided? If so, then you belong
to what Forrester has identified as the smallest but
fastest-growing mobile workforce segment — the
Mobile Mover and Shaker.
THE IT FACTOR A leader in your profession, you do
not wait for the solution to be handed to you — you
get it yourself. You spend at least one to two hours a
day on your device that’s critical to your productivity.
You don’t feel that your company IT needs to
support you — your personal device already features
a few handpicked, out-of-pocket apps, mostly for
teleconferencing and collaborating with colleagues.
Unlike Upwardly Mobile Millenials, IT sees you as an
official mobile worker even if you use your own devices
and apps. Perhaps you should interact more with this
department; they’re ready to help you out, and their
support may iron out a few kinks you thought were just
part of digital life. After all, if not the boss, you’re a
boss — you already bought your own device, might as
well get the most out of it.
Mobile Movers and Shakers
Weapons of Choice
Self-selected, self-purchased
mobile device
Smartphone with access to
core corporate resources

8. Type 3
Road Warriors

9. Distinguishing Marks
Weapons of Choice
Apps that Appeal
Work ID or corporate logo
on front lapel
Working shoes
Rugged, non-consumer mobile
device, often tablet-type
Device is locked down tight
with control under the IT team
Specialised, industry-focused
applications
Native apps on a single plat-
form for specific activities
e.g. sales apps, deliveries,
transport/distribution
“automatic vehicle
location” app
Does the open road excite you? Is your desk time
limited to when you’re sitting at someone else’s?
Is your day made up of specific tasks as a courier
and delivery service, field sales employee, retail
service, or field service technician? Do you operate
in the transportation, retail, healthcare, service, and
manufacturing industries? If so, then you are a Road
Warrior and belong to the elite group that Forrester
found accounted for 13% of corporate employees
in 2015.
THE IT FACTOR The devices you use are specialised,
with native, industry-focused apps on a single
platform. Supported as an official mobile worker,
corporate IT makes all the decisions, purchases,
and upgrades needed by the work you do —
giving you all the support you need to fulfill
the very definition of mobile.
Road Warriors

10. Type 4
Intelligence Officers

11. Distinguishing Marks
Weapons of Choice
Apps that Appeal
Well-stamped passport
and well-documented
receipt file
Sleek carry-on luggage
Often use different types
of mobile devices to access
work-related apps for
e-mail, collaboration and
video conferencing
Cross-platform mobile apps
Do you travel often to liaise with partners and
customers? Spend a lot of time collecting, reviewing,
and analysing information? Are email and collaboration
the most used among your stable of programmes? If
so, then you are an Intelligence Officer, likely engaged
as a consultant, financial service professional, or
banking exec, estimated by Forrester as comprising
30% of the mobile workforce.
THE IT FACTOR As an Intelligence Officer, information
is your business — Corporate IT supports you as an
official mobile worker by reimbursing you for the slew
of devices you need to keep in touch with contacts and
to gather, distil, and secure data. You prefer using a
smartphone that’s company sanctioned to access work
files, though you also prefer cross-platform mobile apps
for email, collaborating, and video conferencing. You
are IT’s golden child — anything you need, just ask.
Intelligence Officers

12. To support mobile workers
properly, what work they do
and how is as important as
where they work. Which devices
are most useful?
Is more than one necessary?
Which programmes and apps
will they find most useful to
their tasks? If the company
encourages personal device use,
how is data and correspondence
monitored and secured?
Opportunity
doesn’t knock.
It swipes and taps.

13. Today, a smartphone is as
ubiquitous as an identification
card. And with millennials in the
Asian Pacific region spending
an average of 22.4 hours on
them, the mobile lifestyle
shows no signs of slowing. The
opportunity for productivity is
extremely high — but only with
the right support from
IT departments.
Flexible working
opens the gates
to a mobile future.
6

14. Smart Work Gateway by Fuji Xerox
Smart Work Gateway or SWG is a new
way of working. It changes how you
manage your workplace and helps you
reimagine operations and streamline
communications, setting a new
benchmark in usability.
With SWG, you can boost flexibility, remove barriers,
and give yourself the freedom to organise how
you wish to work. Change how you plug in, sign on
and connect to your workplace from any location
you choose. Free up your time, be productive and
spend your time on work that is meaningful to you.
Importantly, in today’s world, SWG allows you to
achieve this while adhering with compliance and
security policies. Simply put, it is an employee-
and customer-centric approach to change the
environment you work in.
References
1 Millennials in Singapore spend almost 3.4 hours a day on their mobile phones: Study. Sraitstimes.com. Nov 2015
2 Social Media for Travel Brands. http://wearesocial.com. April 2016.
3 On the move how mobile employees are changing the workplace. hermanmiller.com
4 What Type of Mobile Worker Rules Your Company? CIO. Shane O’Neill. Feb 2011.
5 ap.blog.dimensiondata.com/getting-started- or-taking- the-next- step-on- the-journey-towards- mobility/
6 How the Best and Brightest Millennials Live, Shop and Dream, Adweek 2016
7 Success with Enterprise Mobility: Mobile Task Workers. BradAnderson. Sept 2014.