Leader: Flexibility's best

Today sees silicon.com announce our latest special report, all about flexible working. It's a catch-all phrase, based around all types of technologies, but one which we believe is valid.

In the spring of this year the UK introduced flexible working rights legislation for parents and, even without that, there has been a general shift in the attitudes of companies and individuals meaning the traditional nine-to-five, five-day week is rare.

But whether we are talking about people working from home, hot-desking at a central location, out on the road or even telecottaging (remember that expression?) from community sites, our position is that the right technology married with the right approach can deliver the corporate Holy Grail - staff who are more productive in their jobs and yet happier doing them.

It's a bold claim and one a lot of providers are fond of making. Recent news stories shows the marketers at large and small service providers, equipment companies, system integrators, consultancies and elsewhere are as concerned with flexibility as your average ballet teacher.

We know that accessing email and corporate applications while on the move (whatever the access technology) can be a boon, that being able to work and collaborate late one night to make that family engagement the next morning is useful.

The warnings, however, must be around those who are being dragged kicking and screaming into this new age. We're not so much talking about end users as those IT and telecoms departments who will only concentrate on the basics for fear of failure or - worse still - see access to applications outside traditional working hours as merely an extension of those hours.

Flexible working is as much about a state of mind and approach as a proposal to the CFO or technology to answer emails while on the train to work. We must all remember that.