Office gear on the go - cellular technology and portable electronics

Nation's Business, Nov, 1989 by Steven Advokat

Office Gear On The Go

Cellular technology has put working America on the road. Here is a sampling of portable office machinery now affordable for millions.

It's Sunday noon, and locksmith Craig Brummel is at work. He already has helped two customers and is in his van talking by telephone to a third. "On some Sundays, we go all day long," says Brummel, of Royal Oak, Mich. "When people call with emergency work, they want to know you're going to take care of them."

Insurance agent Dane Gussin, of West Bloomfield, Mich., eases into his 1987 Jeep, hits a button, and listens to his telephone messages.

"I average driving about two to three hours a day," Gussin says. "Even if I'm driving between appointments, my clients have to be able to get me."

More and more business men and women are discovering that the office can go almost anywhere they go. With the spread of cellular technology and the widening array of portable electronic equipment, increasing numbers of workers no longer are required to spend certain hours in an office to do their jobs.

The technology also can improve operations for companies already on the road. Some courier firms, for example, have equipped vehicles with computers, which are linked to the office by cellular telecommunications. Drivers get assignments on their computers, print hard copies on attached printers, and go from job to job without having to return to home base. Vehicles with such equipment can be tracked wherever they are. In addition, using computers in vehicles for purposes such as inventory control can help keep costs down.

"The whole concept of work as we know it is changing," says Stuart Crump, co-author of The Portable Office (Acropolis Books, $16.95). "There is a better way than lining up at 9 a.m. and again at 5 p.m. getting to and from work. This new concept involves work performed when and where it's most convenient to perform it."

Adds Michael Meresman, editor of The Mobile Office, a new publication scheduled to debut by year's end: "We're definitely moving away from the standard office working situation. The trend is for people to make better use of their time and have a more flexible work situation. Mobile electronics definitely helps that."

Electronics companies have taken note of this growing market by developing products and services for people who want the convenience of being able to work wherever they happen to be, whether it's an airport, plane, train, automobile, or blanket on the beach.

In just the past two years, manufacturers have introduced such items as pocket telephones--some weighing less than a pound--along with battery-powered portable computers, facsimile machines, printers, answering machines, copy machines, and even papershredding devices, all of which can be operated almost anywhere.

One concept of the ultimate mobile office is a specially outfitted Cadillac limousine offered by General Motors. The limousine--called the "Trump Cadillac" after multimillionaire Donald Trump--comes with two cellular telephones, hands-free intercoms, a 110-volt electrical outlet, a mobile fax machine, a remote-control television, a video recorder, a paper shredder, and a price tag of $80,000.

You don't have to be Donald Trump, however, to afford the equipment that allows you to work from your own car or truck. Here is a sampling of portable-office products now within the reach of millions of business people:

Cellular Telephones

Cellular-phone technology is often called the linchpin of the mobile office. Without it, much of the other high-tech portable equipment would be essentially useless.

The technology allows calls transmitted over special frequencies to be handed off automatically from one broadcast "cell," or geographic area, to another while phone users are driving. The technique, which became commercially available in 1984, has vastly extended the range, usefulness, and economy of mobile telephoning.

In 1987, consumers bought about 300,000 cellular phones. Last year, sales reached 350,000. "Expectations are that next year 4 million people will own cellular phones," says Al Blackford, vice president of sales for California-based Cellabs, which sells cellular-phone adaptors that enable facsimile machines and computers to be operated from a vehicle. Industry analysts predict that, as prices and usage fees continue to fall, more than 12 million cellular phones will be in service in the U.S. by 1995.

The development of cellular phones has made it possible for the largely idle time spent commuting in cars to be used more productively, such as by calling customers, arranging appointments, and conferring with associates.

But talking with clients and colleagues is only a small part of doing business. Exchanging information from machine to machine while on the road is also becoming easier because of modems and miniaturization. Modems are devices that allow computers to "talk" to other computers over the telephone. Miniaturization of electronic components permits devices to be more compact.