Work is an activity, not a place

FEATURE - Industry Innovation Article – Denis O’Shea, founder Mobile Mentor

Mobile Mentor exists to empower people to achieve more with technology. Traditionally we focused on industries with predominantly mobile workers like healthcare, but after COVID-19 we are seeing that remote work has been normalised in all industries. This changes the way organisations secure and support their workforce and creates a very exciting opportunity for us. 

We secure devices – laptops, tablets and smartphones – and we help people to be more productive in the way they work. We do this by partnering with industry leaders like Microsoft and wrapping our services around Microsoft 365, which is the productivity suite of choice for most healthcare companies. 

I started the company in 2004 because it was painfully obvious that setting up a smartphone required technical skills and time that busy people did not have. You needed to know two email server addresses, you needed a special cable to sync with your laptop and you needed to read a manual. Too hard. 

Our first service was called ‘mentoring’ and we spent an hour with each person who bought a new smartphone, doing all the set-up and personalisation. That was a roaring success and we rapidly grew to 250 people and delivered our mentoring service to over one million people! 

Of course, smartphones became simpler and people got smarter. Over time we developed more services for the enterprise market where security and support are really important. In addition to smartphones, we’ve added tablets, laptops, and software like Office 365.  We also develop custom apps – essentially providing the tools for the remote or mobile workforce.

Work is an Activity

In healthcare, work happens on the go, from nurses caring for multiple patients to physicians making rounds, and care workers visiting at home. Emails are answered on phones, and laptops travel from home to the office and many other locations.

In 2021 work is an activity, not a place.

But supporting employees to work from anywhere and from any device requires new technology. Fortunately, that technology exists today. With modern device management, healthcare companies (and others) can support and secure all devices, including personal or BYO devices. 

Workers can use their own smartphones and companies can secure Android, Apple, and Windows devices all from the same system. The name of the technology is Microsoft Intune and it is part of the Microsoft 365 suite. However, it’s not the technology itself that is interesting… it’s the outcomes it provides

Our Vision of Modern Work

• Employees, volunteers, and workers of all types can use their personal smartphones to email and work on office files like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Data is secured within the app itself, leaving the user in control of their personal device
• Clinical data is secured on all devices. Clinical workers need extra security to keep patient data safe – accidents happen. The new technology can secure Android phones, iPhones, tablets, mac and Windows computers. This allows clinicians to work on their preferred device and from wherever they need.
• Pagers are retired. Long live smartphones. Smartphones can receive pages and allow clinicians to respond via chat or over the phone all on the same device.
• Data can be securely accessed from any internet connection using modern two-factor authentication. Cutting account breaches by 99.9% with modern authentication.
• Finally, more time to focus on patients. When information is available where work occurs, clinicians get to spend more time with patients. And really, this is the true goal of all healthcare organisations.

Looking towards the future

More flexible ways of working is a global trend that is here to stay. Fortunately, it is already normal for the Mobile Mentor team, so it is rewarding to be able to support customers on their transition to a remote and mobile workforce. We believe there is a huge opportunity ahead and we are excited about working with clients who want to embrace modern endpoint management.  

With a cloud service model, we can serve customers anywhere in New Zealand. We can secure your devices, apps and data.  We can answer your calls and emails and provide productivity advice. 

Our team is spread across eight locations in three countries which means we are used to remote, out of office work situations. So, we get it. We understand all these challenges because we had to overcome them ourselves. 

Welcome to our world.

Watch the eHealthTV webinar on Cybersecurity in Health with Denis O'Shea as a panellist on Wednesday 26 May 12.30pm. Register now.