Staying Productive While On Vacation

The title seems a bit of an oxymoron, right?

The year-end is the perfect time to plan vacations with family and friends. Well, not exactly, if you are one of the many executives who cannot afford to switch off.

There will always be that one critical call, mail or crisis that needs to be handled by the C-Suite even when they are on vacation.

Imagine a scenario where the CEO of the company is out on his/her annual vacation and an important, long-pending deal comes through. In today’s cutthroat competition where time is a luxury, can the company afford to delay the deal since the decision-maker is out of office?

What happens when the next-in-command needs access to some critical information? The CEO is out of office and only he/she can share the same. Would the next-in-command respond to the client saying: Sorry, boss is out of office? Atrocious – that’s what you would say if you are in the client’s position.

But there are some very innovative features and solutions to stay on top of work even when you are enjoying your holidays. Let’s have a look at them.

Strike the right balance: To strike the perfect balance between personal and corporate life, partitioning your personal and corporate profiles on your smartphone or tablet is a great idea. Compartmentalisation offers greater flexibility while retaining full control over business data and prevents any unauthorised sharing of vital business information externally.

Remote File Access: With this feature, smartphone users can view and download documents, pictures, videos and other critical information stored in their computer libraries. You can access your libraries remotely as long as your computer is connected to the Internet.

Share and review: The Screen Share feature in BBM or other such apps would enable users to share their photos and browse/review business documents in a secure and seamless manner. Instant Messengers can also be used to chat with people who matter most or to hold a quick discussion.

Data security in case of lost/stolen devices: While surfing or skating, there is always the possibility of losing your device or data. Be well prepared to face the situation instead of mourning the loss of your precious device and more importantly, the data. Data leakage and theft are pertinent concerns in such a scenario. However, there are various options available across devices and operating systems. For instance, BlackBerry Protect is a free-of-charge service that’s built into the BlackBerry devices and allows a user to self-service via a web portal for functions like locking, wiping, locating on a map, displaying a message on the device screen and resetting passwords for lost or stolen devices.

About the author: Sunil Lalvani is the MD of BlackBerry India.