The future office – simplified, mobile and without IT?

By pandu

Frank Ohrtman over at the Wimax.com blog has written an intriguing post about how WIMAX (wireless broadband) has the potential to rid offices of the IT department. His idea is to get your staff laptops with a wimax account and an intranet and you no longer need to setup an office network or a server. Its a great idea and is very feasible. It will likely benefit small businesses with less than 10 employees in the beginning. But given a few more years, even larger companies could function without an internal technology department!

So this got me thinking how the internet could impact the future office. With high bandwidth that is accessible anywhere, the telecom company could become your future IT department. Throw in some web application and web based storage which are already available from Google, your essential software needs are fulfilled. Many software vendors like salesforce.com and Intuit are also offering web based business apps like CRM and accounting packages. Get an intranet and webex account from weboffice.com and you can hold staff meetings and share news virtually. The only thing missing is video conferencing and a voicemail system – these services are already available and will become more widespread with increasing broadband. So with all this technology, you can work from anywhere, anytime – all with the help of a laptop and wireless broadband! The future office is looking great indeed!