This blog was designed to serve the Workshifting community with relevant information contributed by the community, and when appropriate mention our services.  However, every now and again a really interesting and useful fact lands on my desk that I feel compelled to share.

The graph represents Citrix Online's internal use of GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar compared to our Average Travel Spend per Head Count.  The reduction in our Average Travel Spend is significant as our use of online meeting tools has increased (special thanks to Scott Allen).

I thought it would be useful to pull back the kimono and show internal data that demonstrates the value of online meeting tools.  I feel like I should add the disclaimer, "...individual results may vary".  However, I don't believe that to be true.  There are many choices as it pertains to Workshifting tools, and plenty is being written about adoption.  Once put into practice, whatever your tool of choice, the impact can be significant.

However, ROI for online meeting services is not always measured by a reduction in travel expenses.  In many cases your travel may increase because your use of the tools has allowed you to interact with an even greater number of clients and potential clients.  If you're that person, ROI could be measured in terms of an increase in Leads, Gross Revenue or Bookings.  For many others, ROI is defined by Productivity and Family Time.

The point is not to pigeonhole yourself into one or the other.  Select the tools that best serve your needs and the needs of your team.  It's your adoption of the tools into your life that makes them effective, not vice versa.  

How do you measure the effectiveness of your Workshifting tools?

I am on a long work related trip right now.  Actually, I have four different business trips that end with the beginning of the next.  This workshifting trip will keep me away from home for 65 days.  So, naturally, I have travel on the mind. 

I have been thinking about how to remain productive while traveling, and I will probably be sharing some of the things I have learned with you in the next few posts.  Yesterday, I was at Denver International Airport and decided to post a review on TripIt, an application for travelers that allows you to easily and seamlessly build trip itineraries.  I have used this app for a long time, and find it very useful.

If you can't view this video, you can check it out over on my Vimeo channel.

Have you used Tripit or similar apps?  What are your thoughts?

Photo Credit: 704 Race

Like most of you, I travel ... A TON.  Last year, Melissa and I traveled about 55% of the year.   I absolutely adore traveling! We purposefully built our business this way.  However, one of the very difficult elements about traveling so often is being able to effectively manage your bookkeeping while on the road.  During the course of our travels last year, we became very serious about finding the best online tools to help us with this incredibly annoying problem. 

On Saturday, we are departing for a very long 62 day workshifting trip that will take us through three continents.  I thought it might be helpful to post a little video on what we use to keep our accounting in order while we are on the road.

If you can't view this video, head over to my Vimeo channel.

The three applications that I discussed during the video are:

• Shoeboxed
• LessAccounting
• FreshBooks

Are there other apps that you use?  What are some of your favorites?

Photo Credit: The Shifted Librarian

Last week I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Steve Bristol and Allan Branch, the founders of Less Everything.  Our company uses both Less Accounting and Less Time Spent, two cloud based, small business applications that the duo has developed.  (Disclosure: I would make love to both of these apps if they were women, and Melissa would approve).  It led to a lot of great internal discussions regarding my proclivity towards cloud based business apps. 

I am a massive proponent of cloud based technology for a variety of reasons, but namely because that's where I feel we're headed so why not dive in head first now.  I decided to post a video talking about why I'm big on cloud computing, which cloud based apps I use, and of course why I feel these applications empower workshifting.

Cloud-Based Apps I use for my business:

Gmail - Mail Server
Google Calendar - Team Calendar
Google Docs - Collaborative Docs/Spreadsheet (Blog Post Backup)
Less Accounting - Easy Accounting Program
Less Time Spent - Track Time and Expenses on a Client Basis
Basecamp - Project Management System
Batchbook - Customer Relationship Management
Box.net - File Sharing and Collaboration
Protoshare - Website Wireframing Application (For Internal & Client Projects)
Yammer - Twitter for Business
Google Wave - Collaborative Workspace
TinyChat - Video and Chat for Multiple Users (Team Meetings)
ConceptShare - Collaborate on Design Direction

What cloud-based apps do you find useful for your day-to-day needs?

Today we have a guest post from Sean Ryan.  Sean is a research analyst with IDC focused on mobile enterprise software.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS), may be another buzzword for the road, but there is a very real shift underway towards adoption of SaaS-based solutions for mobile devices. This includes SaaS-based solutions with mobile client add-ons, such as the case with Salesforce.com for the BlackBerry and the iPhone. It also includes SaaS-based mobile middleware platforms that extend multiple enterprise applications to mobile devices, as is the case with vendors like Antenna Software and Spring Wireless.

Many factors are contributing to the MaaS trend, but here are a few of the biggest drivers:

• The flexibility of enterprises to easily scale up and scale down users based on an on-demand subscription pricing model.
  
  
• The ability for enterprises to start small, in terms of number of users deployed and cash outlay, with certain apps and then grow them across the organization. This equates to being able to run a pilot on your own terms without time constraints or an obligation to purchase a set number of seats at a given time.
  
  
• A lightweight client can often be provisioned down to devices over-the-air (OTA).
  
  
• The challenges unique to mobile deployments -- e.g., limitations of wireless connectivity, limitations of small form factors, and the variety of smartphone Oses -- are a real headache for already overburdened IT departments to deal with, as they require different skill sets as well as different management and security tools. It is much easier to farm this out to a vendor that specializes in mobility.
  
  
• It is becoming very difficult for developers to keep up with the array of mobile OSes that are viable candidates for mobile workers -- i.e., BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian (Nokia 60, etc.), iPhone OS, Google Android, and Palm webOS. Combine this with the multiple versions for each OS along with different hardware reference designs, and the complexity is overwhelming unless the company takes a draconian approach to drastically limit the types of devices it will allow employees to use. Again, a vendor specializing in mobility can do a much better job of staying on top of a rapidly moving, complex space. In most cases, the near real-time updating of OS versions, bug fixes, etc., can be included in the service-level agreement (SLA).
  

While mobility as a service is not widely deployed today in large enterprises, it is expected to grow rapidly in the coming year.

A recent IDC survey of 309 IT and business professionals for large enterprises in the United States and the United Kingdom, responsible for enterprise mobility purchase decisions, found that only 9% of organizations have already embarked on a large-scale deployment of mobile SaaS-based solutions (see pie chart). However, the same respondents indicated a growing acceptance of this delivery model for extending enterprise applications to mobile devices. Almost 40% of organizations plan to deploy a SaaS-based mobile solution in the next 12-18 months. Another 19.7% have already done a pilot and plan to roll out a larger deployment in the next 12-18 months. Furthermore, 15.5% of organizations have no plans to roll out any aspect of mobile SaaS-based solutions in the next 12-18 months, with another 8.4% that did run a pilot but have no plans to roll the solution out to other employees.

Of course, this does not mean that all on-premises solutions will be displaced, as many organizations will likely run on-premises solutions for certain applications that may need to be more customized or strategic in nature, or deal with data that is very sensitive, particularly if it is in a highly regulated industry. But, overall, the advantages of a SaaS-based model for mobile deployments align well with the needs of mobile workers and the IT departments supporting them.