The past year may have offered numerous challenges, blurring the lines between work and home for many, but in requiring people and companies to adapt the way they operate, new models are being implemented and flexible working is becoming more mainstream.
Deloitte’s chief executive Richard Houston has announced that UK staff can now choose when, where and how they work in the future. And while Facebook has reopened its office doors once more, it’s also announced that any employee who could do their job remotely, can now request to do so in the future, expanding remote work to international borders and piloting a new way of working.
Hybrid working is an approach that gives people the flexibility to work from different locations, be it the from home, on the go, or in the office. But it’s important to have the right technology to be able to support this.
This hybrid model is, however, more than an adjustment in a day-to-day schedule, and working in an agile way requires the right set of tools. As hybrid work pulls people away from desks and office cubicles and into more dynamic spaces, the need for a PC that can keep up with nomadic work has never been greater. Collaboration tools are important – as are cloud computing solutions that allow people to work seamlessly and productively from any location. To meet the new demand, HP has developed the world’s first pull-forward convertible PC, with added secure cellular connectivity, delivering everything the modern worker would expect from their phone, tablet and PC into one powerful, flexible and streamlined device.
For enterprise leaders in particular, hybrid working presents a new challenge – understanding and addressing how to keep teams focused, while also protecting their data and devices, yet still giving them the freedom to work wherever and however they are most productive. A cellular-connected PC is becoming a critical component in the way teams collaborate. HP Elite Folio’s 5G, LTE, Wi-Fi 6 connection ensures that teams are always on, always connected to the cloud and – importantly – free from the connectivity and privacy challenges that working on the go has posed in the past. Its integrated privacy screen and camera handles the security aspect, for example, meaning work can be done in confidence, whatever the location.
Another of the main barriers to successful remote working pre-pandemic – and one of consumers’ biggest pain points – has always been battery life. It’s an all too familiar scene: sat in a coffee shop, trailing charging cables across tables and strangers, straining to reach the nearest plug socket while answering conference calls – and given the available technology, it should be a thing of the past. In fact, 60 per cent of people say that longer battery life would be the most important feature when it comes to buying their next laptop.
“Identifying trends and customer pain points is crucial,” says Stacy Wolff, global head of design and sustainability at HP Inc. “We develop technology that’s informed by the insights we gain from our customers.”
And with that in mind, HP has developed a way to power hybrid-style work. With 24.5 hours of battery time on a single charge, managing conference calls, presentations and watching TV shows are all possible without having to search for a plug socket. Better yet, HP’s Fast Charge technology means powering back up to at least 90 per cent takes only 90 minutes.
Transporting equipment with ease is another pain point HP addresses: “Naturally, device portability is more important than ever, and so too is high-level performance when working from any location.” Wolff continues.
“Design, innovation and functionality are key at HP, and they go hand in hand. The importance of how a product looks and feels cannot be underestimated, and these considerations take place early in the process of developing our products.”
One of those considerations that would impact performance was to use the latest Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ computing platform to deliver a quieter, fan-less device, without compromising on performance and battery life.
“As the world embraces a hybrid working model, enterprise leaders are searching for solutions that offer their employees mobility and security. Delivering always on, always connected PC experiences – especially in a thin, light and portable form factor – requires innovation and collaboration,” says Miguel Nunes, senior director of product management at Qualcomm Technologies Inc. “Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 is built to enable superior mobile computing experiences for businesses, students and consumers alike, and we’re proud to bring multi-day battery life, incredible performance and highly secure, reliable cellular connectivity to HP’s Elite Folio.”
There’s no doubt that, propelled by the pandemic, the way we work has changed irreversibly. Now the working population has taken stock of the way they want to work, the control they have and how best to collaborate and be productive. Hybrid working is most definitely here to stay. The only thing that remains is to make sure we’re equipped to take it on.
Find out more about HP Elite Folio, here.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
