How 3 companies turned remote work into a competitive advantage

Employees today need flexibility. From visiting client offices to working while traveling, there are dozens of everyday scenarios where teams need to be able to work productively on the go. Fortunately, a new breed of tech solutions is here to save the day. Properly equipped, employees can continue working seamlessly as they move from location to location throughout the day — and from smartphone to laptop to tablet, and back again. Recognizing this development, savvy companies are jumping in to embrace mobile work. And they’re being rewarded for it; studies show that remote workers are often more productive than their in-office counterparts. One British telecom firm, O2, experimented with a company-wide remote work day in preparation for the London Olympics — and found that 88% of its 2,500 employees reported being at least as productive as when they’re in the office, while 36% claimed to be more productive working remotely. But embracing work flexibility is often easier said than done. Obstacles abound for organizations trying to support mobile work, from accommodating a growing number of devices and platforms, to ensuring employees have easy access to important files and services (even with spotty Internet connections). What’s more, traditional technologies — like on-premises servers, FTP, and email — are ill-equipped to handle these challenges with any degree of grace. These obstacles can be easily overcome, though, when approached in the right way. Many companies have successfully integrated mobile work into their day-to-day operations, transforming it from a limitation to an advantage. In our new whitepaper, Breaking the barriers to mobile productivity: How companies are getting work done with Dropbox for Business, we feature three such companies:

• Centric Projects, a construction company whose employees spend more time on job sites than in the office
• Appen, a a speech technology company whose business depends on quickly and reliably sending very large files from remote locations to headquarters
• Wolfgang Puck Catering, the event planning and dining services arm of the renowned chef’s business, whose sales team regularly uses tablets to present marketing materials to clients during site visits

The whitepaper discusses how these companies use technology like Dropbox for Business to be more flexible, more mobile, and more productive — and how yours can too.