Today I took a trip through the modern history of the British Raj (known locally as Southall) to visit a client on the other side. All the way, I've seen coffee shops and I've now deserted my usual Starbucks and Fuller's pubs for a few office moments in Costa.
All three chains offer WiFi, coffee and seats and an ambience that's a little less austere than the office - than our office at least. But all is not perfect. Similar issues hunt me down wherever I set up my "office".
The market for accommodating the modern virtual office is huge and growing faster than ever now that
the iPad and its fellow tablets are encouraging all manufacturers to aim for lighter travelling machines with better battery life,
the link from the office to the Cloud has the bandwidth to support a sensible amount of home- our out-of-office working.
Suppliers like VMware, Citrix and LogMeIn are offering the infrastructure that will let us access even the most uncooperative legacy software without actually having to sit in front of a desktop PC.
So now it's perhaps time for the hotels, pubs and coffee shops to meet us half way - especially if they want our valuable trade.
We need:
Fast WiFi with fast login. I know it seems pretty obvious, but maybe the message is getting lost in translation. When we visit sometimes maybe two our three places a day, supplying the credentials to set up a new account each time really can get to be a bit of a pain. Then there's the process of copying some access code off a till receipt, or a board stuck on the wall - it can all get a bit much. Another issue here, and later when the machine is logged in, is the response times. Some systems are clearly running low on capacity because they are becoming a victim of their own success.
Power points. Yes, I know I mentioned the wonders of improved battery life about two minutes ago, but most of these tablets are not perfect yet: they don't actually support a full working day - plus a few entertainment extras - all on one charge. And the laptops... some of them may have started to respond to the new challenge that tablets present by improving battery life, but most have quite a way to go yet!
Slightly quieter areas. Probably things are improving, but there is still the danger that the backdrop to your business phone call is a little serious rock music, or someone else's job interview. Not ideal. It wouldn't take that much: a little cleverly position carpet; or a planned room with one end for the louder kind of socialising and the other for the virtual office crowd.
