With the announcements coming out of the EU this week on the elimination of roaming charges in the region, it got me thinking about how essential it is in this day and age to be connected at all times.
It wasn’t even that long ago that when you left the office, and certainly the country, you were pretty much disconnected until you were promoted by an emergency and you began the hunt for an Internet connection. Thanks to mobile technology, those days are behind us. Now you just have to deal with the hefty bill upon your return.
The applications we use on a daily basis require constant connectivity for us to be able to perform simple functions. Standard applications such as Word processing are now online with Google for work or Office 365. Offline access isn’t even an option for some of these.
Then there are the new business apps like Salesforce, productivity tools like Asana or communications tools like Slack, which all require you to be online to access the tool at all.
On top of this, business is becoming more mobile as a rule. At DocuSign, we have customers in 188 countries, which means we have to travel, a lot! My record phone bill for a business trip is £1,500, owing to the fact I visited 7 countries in 10 days. This experience actually forced me to change my mobile phone provider to one that was more sympathetic to those who travel, even though the signal with the provider isn’t as strong where I actually live.
Consumers have spoken: roaming charges are not an option for modern life and the EU has thankfully responded in kind. Over to the providers to make this work!
Business is Global. Trust is Local.