IT strategy - Gonna get myself connected.

(From Financial Director)

Byline: Tom Berry, deputy editor of Financial Director.

Our lives are dominated by mobile technology: faster connections, wireless broadband, 3G and the irresistible rise of smaller, more powerful machines. The commuter trains and coffee bars where business people would read newspapers and magazines are now inhabited by executives wirelessly synched to back-office systems through their laptops, and workers tapping out emails frantically on their PDAs or glued to Bluetooth headsets.

Over the Christmas period, the mobile devices multiply as the latest smartphones, handheld devices and wireless gizmos are exchanged by loved ones. Some of the latest devices have MP3 players built in, email capability, video messaging, texting and personal organisers: apparently, they can also be used to make phone calls.

Recently, one public relations executive even described a new gadget as a 'one-device solution', implying that it will solve all business problems at a single stroke.

Mobile devices are the electronic equivalent of the Swiss Army knife, equipping staff for any business eventuality when they are away from the office. But the convenience and benefits of mobile technology have a worrying side effect as the boundaries between personal and professional lives for many mobile junkies are becoming blurred.

According to analysts and vendors, the mobile workforce is revolutionising the way we do business. They say employees are now empowered by technology; we can check emails on the train, take conference calls from the garden or tweak budget forecasts while in bed.