Change is necessary in every business. It is only through adaptation that any business can meet the challenges of tomorrow, and this requires a willingness to understand the ever changing world of technology. If any organization wants to be successful, it must make itself profittable, it must adapt this change. Information Technology, or IT, has brought about a significant change in a businesses structure regarding integration, standardization, simplification and modularity. By applying these properties to a business , that business is able to meet and satisfy the needs of their customer base. In recent years, this shift is undoubtedly occurring. Software technology is one area slated as the next big thing. An example of this can be seen in something as simple as a pad lock for protection. Thanks to technological advances, pad locks have been replaced with electronic locks, controlled by software that utilizes biomechanical scanning of a person’s eye or fingerprint by means of image processing powered by electronics. Predictions for this growth are endless. One area to consider to guarantee company growth would be the mastering of software development.
At the same time, business must keep in mind that software and technology are only one side of the coin. Consumer responsiveness is the other. Business should keep in mind that for their software and technology innovations to be profitable and successful is that they should fulfill consumer needs. Sometimes, consumers may not immediately recognize they have such needs. Only when they discover that a certain software or technology can help solve their problems would they realize that they need such innovations. Who would have known that mobile phones and tablets would become necessities? This is probably foresight of their developers (Vogelstein, 2008).
A Mobile World
Given all the conveniences people are enjoying today, people will never want to go back to a world without them. The internet and mobile technology (especially phones) have become so much part of their lives, they practically spend much of their lives attached to these devices (Robbins). Despite their indispensability and useful, today’s mobile devices have still limited functionality. True, they provide productivity tools, but these are mainly related to personal communication, planning and socializing, entertainment, and information search. Some devices are capable of using small application software like word processing, spreadsheet computation, presentation preparation, and photo editing. However, people need more than fancy personal digital assistants or PDAs (Niccolai and Gohring, 2010). They need truly productive tools. The limitations stem mainly from the limitations of the devices themselves. One will need to add external device to maximize their utility. Adding such devices however can stifle one’s mobility. One will end up practically lugging along a full-fledged computer.
The future of IT thus will be in cloud computing (Knorr and Gruman, 2012) or storage (Stern, 2012). Providing consumers with remote access software or technology could truly empower and liberate them.
This shift in technology—to becoming more and more mobile—has been occurring for a long while now. It is in this area that the future of technology—or future profitability in technology—may lie. Business should start considering developing resources in this area either as developers of software and technology in this field or being optimal users of the technology. Either way, business would be able to increase their productivity and presumably also their profitability. Remote access services will make a difference not only in the way people conduct business but even in the way they manage their personal lives. Remote access services would allow greater connectivity among people while ironically they may not have to be in the same place at the same time. Remote access is the future of information technology. (Tai-hoon, Hojjat, & Dominik, 2012)
Convergence of Mobile and Office Technology
Cloud storage and other remote access software and technology (Stern) are indeed the direction for mobile technology and office productivity to converge. They would allow users to have access on the net what they would otherwise have to install in huge office devices like external hard disks and desktop or laptop computers.
At present, these remote access services and technology are limited to being storage spaces. One can upload files to these services and download them elsewhere or on other devices. These services do allow people to be more mobile. They allow people to access huge files one the net.
However, these services are not yet capable of having application software on them. They cannot be used as one would use a hard disk on desktop or a laptop. They are not office computer servers.
One can only imagine how empowering to users when these cloud and remote access services begin performing like services. Anywhere in the world could be part of a person’s office or even home office.
Mobile technology is changing people’s lives the way electronic phone services (ATMs and phone billings and payments) and the internet had in the past. They have replaced the way people do things—from physically falling in line at a bank, using ATM or phone, and now e-banking. Such technology innovations have allowed banks to be more productive. They are able to serve more people and in turn more people are able to access their services more conveniently. Today, in the US, more than 50% of payment transactions are e-payments; no paper work needs to be done to transfer money from one end to another. This paradigm shift is remarkable. It is the kind of paradigm shift that we may expect with remote access technology. New technology quickly became a part of people’s lives. Now, mobile technology and social media are making the same impact. In spite of their limitations, mobile phones and similar devices are connecting people in various ways—including for meetings and for video conferencing. Today’s technology merely hints at the possibilities in the future. (Park, Victor, Cho-Li, & Taeshik, 2012)
Remote access technology is not only the future of the technology. It is the future of enterprise. (Dickson & DeSanctis, 2011)
Benefits of Remote Access
The chief benefit of remote access services and technology is that it would allow enterprises to have virtual offices. That means business will not need anymore to rent or own real office spaces or buildings. That would mean enormous savings for enterprises.
The other benefit or remote access services and technology is that it would allow enterprises to maintain lesser equipment and devices. A company with its own internal network and servers may not need to maintain these anymore as they would be able to enjoy these services online.
Correspondingly, should an enterprise still need some office space (as may be required by law), they will not need much; remote access technology would have saved them the space. Because of all these savings in space and equipment, enterprises could also enjoy savings in operations and maintenance costs like fuel, electricity and water.
Employees could also benefit from the technology. For one thing, they no longer need to work at the office to do everything they need. They can access everything on the cloud. They will also enjoy savings in transportation expenses. They can enjoy the best of two worlds: having work and having more time for the family. Ironically, because of their less travel time, they could be more productive as they may have more time for work as they may have more time for their families. Of course, companies will have to institute strict measures that all these work feasibly.
It is already happening today but remote access could allow a company to have greater access to talented employees from around the world. With the use of remote access technology, both the enterprise and the employees are better empowered. They can work smoothly as though they are working in an office with access to a dedicated server. Also, work can be done practically 24/7.
Shifting Paradigms and Mindsets
It is important to note that the remote access technology being discussed here should be thought of a very different technology from what is available today. Analogy with existing processes and technology are meant to show only what kind of tasks the new technology could fulfill. That said, software developers should undergo a shift in their thinking or paradigms. They should think of what work processes that could be unloaded from today’s technology that could be uploaded to the cloud.
Similarly, both business and individual users should undergo the same shifts in their thinking. They should realize that this new technology requires a very different way of doing things. They may need to change certain habits or even behaviors, especially with regard to managing work.
One can only imagine what kind of opportunities remote access software and technology would open to. Definitely, it would lead to real globalization of enterprise operations and truly benefit society especially at the individual level.
References
Dickson, W. G., & DeSanctis, G. (2011). Information technology and the future enterprise. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Knorr, Eric and Gruman, Galen (2012). What cloud computing really means. Infoworld. Retrieved on 8 Dec 2012 from http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031
Niccolai, James and Gohring, Nancy (28 Apr 2010). A brief history of Palm. PCWorld. Retrieved on 8 Dec 2012 from
Park, J. J., Victor, C. L., Cho-Li, W., & Taeshik, S. (2012). Future Information Technology, Application, and Service. New York City (NY): Springer.
Robbins, Benjamin (19 June 2012). Mobile technology for business – why do you need it? The Guardian. Retrieved on 8 Dec 2012 from
Stern, Joanna (26 June 2012). What is the ‘Cloud’? ABC News. Retrieved on 8 Dec 2012 from
Tai-hoon, K., Hojjat, A., & Dominik, S. (2012). Future Generation Information Technology. New York (NY): Springer.
Vogelstein, Fred (1 Sep 2008). The untold story: How the iPhone blew up the wireless industry. Wireless Magazine. Retrieved on 8 Dec 2012 from
