Smartphones are seen as an useful tool for many Vietnamese young workers to manage their business affairs. — Photo cbc.ca

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — As many as 77 per cent of young employees surveyed in Viet Nam have used their smartphones to manage business affairs during the past year, according to a study organised by leading cloud service provider VMware.

The findings of the 2014 MeConomy study show that young employees under the age of 32 are becoming less dependent on desktop PCs for work and becoming more versatile using other devices to do business.

VMware Inc, a leading provider of cloud-based services, said young employees wanted to use more mobile devices in the work place and not just use desktop PCs.

The MeConomy study was conducted by Acorn Marketing and Research Consultants, with a sample of approximately 2,455 people between the ages of 18 and 64.

According to the survey, 97 per cent of working adults in Viet Nam moved from place to place and had worked outside their usual offices.

More than 80 per cent said they could be efficient when working outside the office, at least 50 per cent of the time.

The statistics reflect a changing reality where more employees are seeking to work outside of the office, at different times and on new devices.

"Many technologies that accommodate terminal users are unable to cope with the new trend of mobile working," said VMware Viet Nam's country manager Huynh Phuc Yem Quan at a seminar on virtual workplaces.

Quan said the mobile was changing the way people worked and that businesses needed to adapt to the trend.

Developments in IT are challenging businesses to figure out how to harness the growth in mobile users in the workforce and the surge in cloud-based computing.

With laptops, tablets and smartphones providing additional access points to virtual offices, IT departments are facing more pressure to deliver more flexibility for mobile workers.

Employees surveyed in Viet Nam said they expected their company to support a mobile workforce by enabling access to applications on their own devices (73 per cent), while allowing personal devices to be used for work (67 per cent). A majority also said they wanted their employers to provide flexible working policies (62 per cent) to factor in work on personal devices. — VNS