'Be flexible, not addicted', warns Citrix

For a company whose lifeblood is access management and solutions, Citrix kicked off its iForum in Edinburgh today with a slightly unexpected warning about becoming too dependent on always-on access to information.

There were also some compelling arguments for greater adoption of remote and flexible working models presented in the keynote address.

However, Lewis Gee, the company's UK VP, joked during the opening keynote that he had even been forced to confiscate BlackBerrys from all visiting execs from the US. Joking that if he didn't "they would all be sat down the front tapping away on them".

"The BlackBerry has become an incredibly successful device but it is also incredibly compulsive," he said of the gadget whose addictive qualities have led many to dub it the 'crack-Berry'.

He said for all the benefits of being 'always-on' people must remember that is only an option, not a necessity.

"There is an off-button on these things," he said, waving aloft one of the few devices which had not been confiscated.

The smattering of ringtones which chirruped, whistled and played throughout the presentation suggested this may indeed be a piece of news lost on many attendees at iForum.

Of course there is far more to remote working than the headline grabbing BlackBerry device.

Among the more positive notes during Gee's opening address were strong messages on the benefits of flexible working when done responsibly. Gee claimed Citrix customer HSBC now has 1,700 staff working remotely and cited another customer who effectively paid for its entire remote working infrastructure by being able to keep staff online when heavy snow had prevented them from getting in to the office.

David Titcombe, IT manager at Swindon Borough Council social services, said a contract with Citrix as well as the remote access afforded by tablet PCs and 3G data cards from Vodafone has increased productivity, efficiency and staff moral among the council's social workers.

Titcombe said he is aware of concerns about 'always-on' remote worker technologies stopping people from switching off from work but he said "social workers are like that anyway. They are 24/7 people".

As such he believes it is important to remove as much of the hassle as possible from their working day. Swindon social workers can now securely enter data straight into their system from site visits with no need to return to the office and replicate the data from hand written forms as they did previously.

The only Citrix exec in the auditorium at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre to dodge the BlackBerry amnesty was CEO Mark Templeton - "because I'm the boss", he explained - who praised the great strides taken in connectivity and the form factor of mobile devices in recent years.

Citrix's Gee even cited research which he claimed shows the BlackBerry will be the biggest single cause of divorce in the US this year, though he stopped short of giving the source of said research - suggesting it is little more than urban myth, albeit based on the kind of anecdotal tales common in an increasingly always-on society.