British Energy gets flexible with mobile rollout

The utility wholesaler, British Energy has embarked on a major programme to mobilise its workforce and streamline its IT infrastructure.

The nuclear and coal-generated electricity provider has just completed a roll out of mobile devices to some of its workforce, to speed up processes like safety checks and reporting, as well as foster maximum productivity on the move.

Ian Campbell, chief information officer for British Energy and chairman of end user association, the Corporate IT Forum told IT PRO the company recognised that our people increasingly no longer made the distinction between work and home when it came to IT resources.

"We are in an era of the 'Martini' culture - anytime, anyplace, anywhere," said Campbell. "With the internet, and particularly those people just leaving university, they expect to have access to same things at work as they do on their PCs at home. There are some that say 'trust nobody' and put controls in. But we want our people to feel we trust them - it's about enablement, with a sensible approach to control."

After an initial pilot in 2006, the company has completed the roll out and redesign of its mobile resource and supporting IT infrastructure, introducing a 'Gold, Silver and Bronze' ranking of connectivity based on individual users' needs. The most basic level - Bronze - includes an O2 BlackBerry for on-the-go email delivery. Silver is for those who need flexible mobile access to company information from any internet connected device; applications are delivered via Citrix Broadband; and assured connectivity is provided via a RSA SecureID token.

"With the data, we take a common sense approach, giving users access to only the data they need," said Campbell. "The Gold users need a secure link to the highly sensitive data. But even then, of course, we won't put data involving our work on nuclear energy over the internet." These Gold users spend a large percentage of their time working outside the office or from non-corporate locations and need access to restricted information remotely using an encrypted laptop and fixed-line dial in or hotspots accessed with 3G or GPRS cards.

With this Gold specification, British Energy is also the first and only nuclear organisation to have a fully accredited laptop solution that can access government-restricted information from any wireless access point by its regulator, the Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS).

The project has created 1,000 Martini workers since February 2007 and British Energy executives use the Bronze BlackBerry service extensively. Campbell said the project has also helped control resources, reducing the need for more than one permanent desk per worker in different locations: "We've moved to a hot-desk system and have grown our workforce by 20% without the need for new floor space. But it's also given us the flexibility in the office as well as out of it."

He added that this more flexible way of working is also influencing the future IT infrastructure strategy. "Service oriented architecture in on our roadmap, in trying to capabilities around usage and billing, while thin client is now very attractive because you don't have to have every application on every desktop," said Campbell. "The other area we're looking at for the future is software as a service, which can basically now provide the user with a consistent experience."

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