Employees at The World Bank use Android smartphones to stay connected while traveling around the globe
Posted by Martin Monahan, Senior Information Officer, The World Bank
Editor’s note: Today’s guest post comes from Martin Monahan, senior information officer at The World Bank . The World Bank, based in Washington DC, provides developing countries with financial and technical assistance with an end goal of fighting poverty and promoting prosperity. Its institutions provide low-interest loans, low-interest credit and grants as well as policy advice, research and analysis.
The World Bank isn't your typical bank. At any given time, up to one third of our approximately 15,000 staff are traveling to developing countries to provide technical assistance to infrastructure projects like building roads and dams. For example, we recently funded a project that increased access to piped water services and improved sanitation in certain districts in Sri Lanka.
With so many of our staff members on the road, it’s vital for them to have tools that allow them them to be as productive on the road as they are in the office. We feel our staff should have the convenience of carrying just one smartphone, so our mobile policy supports both BYOD and corporate-owned smartphones. Today, approximately 60 percent of employees bring their own devices, while 40 percent receive company-owned smartphones.
Three years ago, in response to employee demand for additional smartphone choices, we rolled out support for Android. Our Android fleet quickly grew to 1,300 smartphones, then doubled to 2,600 devices last year. We now have over 5,000 Android smartphones and the numbers continue to grow.
Since they’re constantly on the go, our staff appreciate the flexibility and choices available with both Android and iOS. We have offices in 160 countries, and in some of those countries, specifically in Africa and Latin America, Android smartphones are especially popular with staff. They like the option of having a replaceable battery when they aren’t close to a power source. If they’re running out of storage, they can quickly add an SD card, whether they’re at the headquarters or traveling abroad.
Our mobility infrastructure team also enjoys working with Android. Some of our latest Android smartphones support fingerprint authentication, which is popular with our staff. And we like that we can build apps and solutions with Android’s flexible framework. Using Android’s open infrastructure, we’ve created public as well as internal apps that managers use daily to approve purchases, trip requests, search the corporate directory, or access information on our intranet. For example, when staff submit a request for vacation time, managers can quickly approve it from wherever they are.
With Android smartphones, our employees stay connected, securely and in remote locations and aren’t missing a beat with their work. We’re looking forward to our upcoming evaluation of Android for Work , so we can support more manufacturers, secure more apps and expand our use of Android smartphones. At The World Bank, we’re always looking to introduce new technology that helps us work better as a team.
