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If it's a good day, Joe Nex won't have to deal face to face with any of the 240 field employees he works with at Terasen Gas.

"I only see them here when they've got an issue with the technology," says Nex, an infrastructure support technician at the Vancouver-based gas distribution company. "Otherwise they're mobile from start to finish, and they don't need to come in."

It's a scenario that's becoming increasingly common. While IT departments used to focus almost exclusively on "fixed" systems such as desktop PCs and servers, companies are experiencing a mobile computing boom. Instead of tethering people to a desk, computing technology and network-based resources can now go with workers to where the work is.

London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research Group now classifies nearly 40 per cent of all workers in the U.S. and Canada as "mobile," meaning they routinely do at least 20 per cent of their "core business functions" remotely. International Data Corp., meanwhile, predicts the number of mobile workers will soar to more than 850 million worldwide in 2009 from 650 million last year.

Much of the growth is coming as the technology finds its way into the hands of non-executive staff. A Mobility Market Monitor report earlier this year found that executive-level workers now make up just one-third of the average corporate mobile staff at U.S. companies. The report said the percentage of firms with mobile administrative personnel is expected to rise sharply, from about 36 per cent today to about 46 per cent by the end of 2008.

Nex is at the forefront of this trend. He supports the technology for about 180 mobile workers who troubleshoot gas lines and emergencies throughout British Columbia as well as systems for another 60 general field supervisors.

"They download their work orders [to laptops] and upload completions," Nex said. "It's cut out all the paperwork and gives us real-time data on where the resources are and what they're doing. They are so much more productive."

The concept of gas workers toting state-of-the-art laptops and handheld computers would have been unthinkable not long ago. But Nex says it's the beginning of a mobile IT revolution that's affecting workers in diverse jobs light years removed from the original power-suited road warriors.

Ken Dulaney, vice-president and an analyst at Gartner Research, says companies need to think of the supply chaintaking raw materials, transforming them and getting them to clients quicklywhen evaluating the productivity benefits of mobile technology.

"Almost everyone agrees on the benefits of faster supply chains," he says. "Underneath that supply chain is an information chain. That information chain must also be continuous if it is to support a continuous supply chain. But often that information chain is broken when users are in the field. To streamline the information chain, mobile technologies are required."

Indeed, a study by Cisco Systems Inc. and economist OMNI Consulting Group LLP found that the use of mobile data services increased global workforce productivity by an average of 13.4 per cent per week for a full-time worker. OMNI highlighted a number of examples from its research:

Insurance field claims adjusters handling an additional 7.4 claims per worker per week and improving payout ratios by an annual yield of 6.4 per cent per adjuster using mobile devices and wireless networks.

The use of RFID wireless technology in the manufacturing and logistics industries eliminating 5.9 per cent of logistics errors for any given warehouse operation.

Health care and pharmaceutical field sales representatives conducting an additional 8.3 physician briefings per week when given mobile data and voice access.

Mobile computing has come a long way in a relatively short time. Once a niche market, notebook computers outsold desktop PCs in the U.S. for the first time last year, according to research firm Current Analysis. IDC says the number of people working in the field with laptops and other mobile devices is expected to make up more than a quarter of the global workforce by 2009.

Part of the reason is price. C-Level executives were the only ones assigned laptops when the hardware cost thousands of dollars, but Current Analysis figures show the average retail price of laptops in December 2005 was $1,735 (U.S.), and by January it had crashed to $1,251.

Design breakthroughs have also made the hardware more portable, reliable, and able to perform on par with what users have come to expect from their desktop PCs. Notebooks with mobile versions of AMD's Athlon, or Intel's Celeron and Pentium 4 processors, can now deliver PC-type power in portable systems that can run for several hours on a battery charge.

"There's now very little performance difference between a laptop and a desktop," said Trent Punnett, senior vice-president of marketing and corporate development at Vancouver-based Sierra Wireless. "For the applications people use most often, such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, e-mail or surfing, that gap has really closed."

It's not just the hardware that's driving the mobile revolution; better connectivity is also opening the doors for mobile workers regardless of whether they use a laptop or a handheld.

Making a connection is getting easier all the time. It's rare today to find any national hotel chain that doesn't offer at least wired LAN access in room, and wireless WiFi has become almost as ubiquitous. Cities such as Fredericton have built free WiFi systems, while Toronto is planning to install WiFi access points on streetlight poles. Via Rail and some municipal transit systems offer wireless access to riders, and Boeing's Connexion system allows high speed connectivity for as little as $10 (U.S.) at 30,000 feet.

When WiFi hotspots aren't available, workers can turn to satellite Internet or cellular data networks. For the past two and half years, for example, Terasen Gas crews have been using an external 1x modem, a mobile phone band with up to about 100 kilobit-per-second speeds that is widespread in rural areas. The company's supervisors are now testing the new, faster Telus EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) network that allows them to download big files such as maps and schematics faster. It's accessible in a number of Canadian cities through Sierra Wireless AirCards and offers bandwidth of up to 700 Kbps.

"The continued erosion of barriers between wired and wireless infrastructure is driving higher adoption rates of mobile hardware, software and services," Carmi Levy, Info-Tech's senior research analyst, says. "More mature network infrastructure makes it easier to self-deploy mobile solutions...[and] third-party support from carriers has improved to the point that mobile services are no longer considered a sideline. This is where the meat of the market is headed."

Handheld devices are benefiting from the same advances in speed and network access as laptops. ABI Research predicts shipments of smartphones will double in 2006, hitting 123 million and giving them an unprecedented 15 per cent share of cellphone sales.

"First-generation, limited-function personal digital assistants (PDAs) are rapidly dying. In their place, multifunction smartphones that offer broadband speeds over next-generation wireless networks allow road warriors to get more done in more places," Levy says. "The success of technologies like the BlackBerry underscores just how critical this new class of device and service has become . . . The arrival of Microsoft and Nokia will help expand this market from its current niche status to commodity status."

At Bad Boy Furniture Warehouse Ltd. in Toronto, for example, the delivery crews now use Web-enabled cellphones or PDAs powered by a system from Cube Route Inc. to download route data, notify the dispatcher of deliveries, and record information such as loading times, mileage and travel time. Cube Route also offers add-ons such as a business intelligence module for monthly analysis of the fleet's performance, and an order management and customer service module.

And at Royal Bank of Canada, mobile computing has created a new way of doing business with customers. Mortgage specialists can now meet with clients in their "comfort zone" instead of at a desk at an RBC branch. The concept of meeting with clients anywhere takes a lot of stress out of the process for them, said Doug Crowe, vice-president mortgages (Ontario) for RBC, who oversees 200 mobile specialists.

He adds that the flexibility allowed by mobile technology can make it easier for a company to hire skilled workers. "It attracts people to the job who enjoy this kind of work, are outgoing and like the idea of flexible work hours. They have a laptop and everything they need is on board. It may mean evening meetings on a Saturday at a building site where new homes are being built, but it allows them flexibility in terms of a work-life balance too."

Chris Langdon, Telus Corp.'s director of wireless business solutions, agrees. "I think that's the overarching trend in the workplace," he says. "People are more likely to be mobile now...and there really is a productivity boost, because when you're away from your desk you're still connected, whether it's taking notes or getting an instant message about something that needs immediate attention. When I see soccer moms with PDAs, I know [mobile] technology is simple enough that anyone can use it."

While it sounds as if everyone in the IT industry is starting to sing from the same mobility song book, Bob Fortier says not all companies are allowing their staff to go mobile at the same pace. "There's still a big resistance from managers who want to see their people in the office," says Fortier, president of both the Canadian Telework Association, and InnoVisions Canada, which advises companies about how to set up off-site workspaces.

Gartner's Dulaney says that along with cost and difficulty envisioning mobile applications, management resistance is a key problem. "That attitude is what causes companies to fail. Customers want businesses that can work any time, any place. They must get the best workers at the lowest cost, and that may require mobility."

Levy says some of the hesitation is warranted, though, and that companies need to be careful when considering mobile technology.

"CIOs and IT managers must watch out for ongoing administration costs that can drain the lifeblood out of even the most visionary mobile deployment," he says. "Secure virtual private networks (VPNs) and distributed network infrastructure can add layers of cost to already-overstretched IT budgets. IT must know the returns of specific mobile technology implementations before moving ahead with mobile projects."

For example, he says that because the price between desktop and laptop PCs has never been smaller, many companies are starting to buy mobile machines without understanding their lifetime costs. "Upfront cost is only a minute component of total cost of ownership. Higher failure rates than desktop computers drive higher service costs and increased downtime. Security risks associated with corporate data walking out the front door on a laptop's hard drive must also be quantified."

Levy says the key to the successful mobilization of any workforce is identifying what types of work are best done remotely, and making sure the appropriate resources are there to support mobile workers regardless of where they are.

"Many businesses get the technology part right, but fail to anticipate the unique support needs of a mobile workforce," he said. "For example, is a nine to five help desk sufficient to support the road warrior whose laptop loses connectivity in a distant hotel in the middle of the night? Should the help desk even be providing this support at all? These questions must be asked, and answered, in advance of any deployment."

For those who get it right, there are clear benefits. Fortier says mobile technology can reduce overhead costs such as office space and fixed IT infrastructure as more staff work off-site or share desk space.

Those who work from home also tend to feel more productive than they would be in an office, according to a survey done for California-based Internet security company SonicWALL Inc. The survey of 941 remote and mobile workers in Europe, North America and Asia, including 100 from Canada, found that 76 per cent of employees believe that working remotely aids productivity and helps them maintain a flexible schedule.

In March, a U.S. Telework Coalition poll of companies that allow employees to work remotely found that, "internal resistance was fairly common at the outset for many participating organizations; however, resistance turned into support once management saw the benefits first-hand." It added that those surveyed reported unexpected spinoff benefits, "including greater flexibility for employees to relocate to other parts of the country, greater ability to maintain business continuity in response to natural or man-made disasters, lower turnover rates and better performance for teleworking employees, access to a larger number of qualified applicants, and fewer layoffs for teleworkers than their office-based counterparts."

According to IDC, Asian countries have the largest number of mobile workers today, followed by the U.S. and Western Europe. But change is brewing, and by 2009 it says more than 70 per cent of workers in the U.S. will be in the field in one way or another.

"Shortened business cycles and tightened competition will compel companies of all sizes to explore and proceed with technologies and processes that make their work forces more agile," Levy says. "Work smarter, not harder, is the new mantra. Mobile technologies facilitate this new reality of business."

"It really doesn't matter what you wear, where you are or how messy your workspace is," Fortier added. "It's about getting the job done. You know the next generation of kids is not just growing up with the Internet, they're growing up with mobile connectivity. Instant messaging was a distraction; now it's a business tool. Just wait until those kids get into the workforce."

Info-Tech's Levy sees it this way. "Some leaders still cling to the notion that workers must be visible in the office if they are to be optimally productive. Proponents of a mobile workplace scoff at the notion and say large, expensive head offices will soon be a thing of the past. The truth, and the future of the workplace, is likely somewhere in the middle."