Phil Jones is managing director of Brother UK, the technology and communications company that supports agile, collaborative working.

—

Who can we seek inspiration from when it comes to agile working? It seems to me that big businesses are looking to start-ups.

According to our research, a fifth (22%) of start-ups in the past three years had no permanent office, but based themselves in coffee shops to keep overheads low. We dubbed this trend ‘Cappuccino Commerce’. Visit your local coffee shop and you’re bound to find at least one person busy on a laptop or tablet, having a meeting over coffee, or making a business call on their mobile.

However, temporary office spaces are increasingly used by businesses of all sizes, not just growing start-ups. Research of corporate IT buyers conducted in January 2013 showed that 29% of corporate businesses planned to open temporary office facilities for short, fixed or project-specific periods of time.

This flexible approach to working is a symptom of our ‘always on’ culture: essentially we do business wherever we choose to lay our device. The challenge larger businesses face is rolling out the technology to support this agile ethos to all employees, while fitting into existing IT structures.

IT teams are now tasked with integrating portable technology with existing office equipment, as employees need a genuine ‘portable office’ so they can produce and share work as they would in the office.

For more information on technology to support agile working visit www.brother.co.uk/mobile-workforce

Phil Jones, MD Brother UK