With many staff out in the field, local authorities are at the forefront of the move to mobile IT. And for the technology to pay off, staff must understand that old ways of working are gone for good. Lindsay Clark reports. The attraction of mobile technologies to government agencies is compelling. Wireless deyices enable a huge range of public sector employees engaged in work such as social care, policing and environmental health to combine working in the field with compiling information back in the office. Social workers, for example, will typically drive to visit clients, make notes on paper about each meeting and then type up the notes on a computer once back in the office. The advent of wireless data networks, lighter and cheaper laptops and mobile devices such as the Blackberry, could allow social workers to compile more information while they are with their clients and spend less time driving to and from the office. Using mobile technology in this way, among thousands of workers, offers the government a massive efficiency saving while improving services. It could be a big winner in the battle for the Gershon targets, which expect every public sector body to make a 2.5% efficiency gain by 2008.
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