Ultimate Road Office?
The Ultimate Road Office?
A great number of professionals are now seeing the amazing value that a mobile office can bring. From salespeople to consultants rushing to their next seminar or presentation, using your road vehicle as a mobile base for organisation is fast becoming the way forward. One of the best ways to make use of your car in this situation is to find a way to maximise the space you have. People have used special compartments with Velcro fastenings that can be fitted inside the trunk, and therefore easily used to compartmentalise all of the materials and resources that you need in your busy life on the road.
Other examples of using the vehicle space well include utilising the glove compartment more effectively, and stuffing it full of quality healthcare products. People who use the road a lot find their health waning if they are not careful. Using vitamins and other supplements, as well as basic first aid materials, is essential. Finding a way to store them effectively is one of the key skills needed of you are using a ‘mobile office’.
However, some people have taken the whole thing one step further. They have designed vehicles specifically made for professional life on the road, vans that are, essentially, truly mobile offices, with the space and resources that enable the user to have a base from which to work while on the road.
Take Scott Jones’ vehicle, for example. Jones is s a CEO, he operates Escient Technologies. He is a very busy man, and he uses a very special vehicle to allow him to keep in touch when he is travelling. This vehicle makes it easy for him to ‘stay in the office’ even when he is on the road, miles from his usual desk. The vehicle is a Chevrolet Extended Van. He has tinted windows on the outside and a second office on the inside.
Jones is a philanthropist and an accomplished entrepreneur in the field of high tech equipment and applications. Widely recognised as a key figure in voice mail, he is credited with bringing revolutionary technology to the multiple user field of voice mail applications.
He has also been instrumental in helping many technology firms get off the bottom rung of the ladder and get started in the field. One of these companies is Bostech, which is an e-commerce country that is based in Indiana. Taking all of this into account and his own work with his own companies, it is no surprise that his friends and colleagues describe him simply as a ‘busy man’.
Resources
A busy man needs the kind of resources that enable him to make the most of his time. Knowing this, Jones and his team worked to create a vehicle that could be used as a true mobile office. They called it ‘Digital Wheels’. Looking like any other black Chevy van from the outside, it is only when the back doors are flung open that you see the amazing array of incredible high tech machinery and hardware that makes ’Digital Wheels’ Jones’ office on the road. When Jones does business, electronics and hardware that are found in the back of the van are the nerve centre that allows his work to be done.
All of the many tasks that we face on a daily basis are easily managed from inside the Digital Wheels van. So Jones wants to reply to an email? Easy, he has all that he needs to check every aspect of email communications in the van. This means coordinating his email campaigns, or replying at length to important emails that concern the many concerns that he manages.
He can take phone calls as easily as you or I can when we use our bricks and mortar offices. Conference calls can be conducted from the back of the van easily and effectively, with no disruption or fuss. When it comes to searching the web (remember his niche) Jones can do this just as easily as if he were sitting in his normal office. And if he wants to sit down and watch a web presentation or some video that is pertinent to his job, he can kick back and do this in the comfort of the Digital Wheels vehicle.
Full Meeting Potential
What is more, he also has the facilities inside the van for a meeting. This is a real meeting, with a conference table that allows up to eight people to enter the van and hold a discussion, just the same as if they were meeting up in Jones’ real life offices. Imagine the scope of the activities that could take place in the back of the van. Having the conference table and the high tech equipment means that Jones can hold meetings with many clients and associates, without being anywhere near where his company is located. The potential is huge.
His Internet access is second to none. He has high speed Internet access that is totally mobile. This means that the high speed access he enjoys in the office is replicated in the van, even while the vehicle is moving. Again, this brings explosive impact to his business dealings. He is not limited by speed or access potential.
Add to this a colour laser printer that allows him to print out key documents while on the road, and you can see why, when it comes to document handling and management, Jones has nothing to limit his activity.
He also enjoys a phenomenal touch screen interface in the van, which enables him to access all of the audio and video services that the van has installed. This is true functionality, with Jones being able to draw on any of his resources without having to endure fiddly interfaces and downtime.
There are also three LCD screens that are at the cutting edge of viewing technology. These screens allow every person who is in the van (including the driver) to view anything that has been called up onscreen. The potential for meetings and presentations is incredible.
Add to this hands free phone technology, a GPs system to rival most any other system on the planet, and three onboard telephones, and you can see why Jones and his staff think they have cracked the mobile office problem.
The system works well, because it allows Jones to conduct real meetings while on the road. All aspects of the meeting can be conducted for within his van, including presentations, and full discussion of all the key issues a meeting brings up.
The office also allows Jones to communicate with anyone on the planet who has a telephone or Internet connection. This allows him to manage his business while on the road, as well as talk to people who help him to do business while travelling.
He finds it useful when commuting to and from his home office, and also prefers to use the van rather than fly, simply due to the functionality that he enjoys while inside it.
Not Just Work…
He also uses the van for family life, entertaining his son while on the road. So it is no surprise that the van comes with a complete home cinema set-up, with full audio and visual Nirvana for him and his son to enjoy. It has digital quality television reception, even while on the go. In addition to this, it has a rear-mounted CD player unit, so that everyone in the vehicle can hear music while the van is moving.
An interesting problem that can come with vehicles like this is a down-to-earth issue, that of suspension. The shock absorbers on the vehicle are heavy duty and this is due to the fact that a simple bump in the road could cause problems to all of the equipment in the van. It would be no good to Jones, for example, if he lost the telephone connection, or his email access. So the makers of the van took this into account.
When it comes to price, there is a shock in store. Jones was asked recently how much the vehicle cost. He replied in a cryptic fashion, stating that Digital Wheels cost more than a Rolls Royce but less than a Lamborghini. This prices the modifications required to the Chevy out of the reach of most companies. However, the van does allow Jones to take eight staff members with him on the road to a meeting or a conference. It also allows him to be in touch at all times. Obviously, his company feels he is worth it.