Mobile working and cloud computing are approaching a tipping point in Ireland. That's the view of Grace O'Rourke Veitch, the country sales manager for Citrix Systems Ireland, a company that is building its business on the concept of such services.

Irish businesses are facing demands from workers for different devices as the march towards the consumerisation of IT continues unabated. For companies, it presents a challenge, with security concerns and data privacy often coming to the fore.

The knock-on effect though is that it enables flexible working, an attractive pull for many workers, and for women in particular. O’Rourke Veitch describes the current popularity of mobile devices as the “perfect storm”.

“Trying to keep up with all these devices and set policies for their use is like trying to chase a bouncing ball down the stairs, because you’re never going to catch it. There will always be devices people want to use,” she says.

“On the other side, there are also a host of applications people are using – mobile apps, Saas apps. Now there’s a perfect storm of all these apps people want to use and have access to from wherever they are.

“Most people have, on average, three devices. Some who are real gadget people have five, maybe even seven. And that shouldn’t be a problem. The idea is that you can access it from everywhere, and securely.”

That’s where Citrix steps in. The company has been developing technology to allow remote access to centralised systems for some time, and the popularity of the “bring your own device” concept has further reinforced the need for such systems that have a measure of control from the IT department.

Attracting women to the technology industry has been viewed as somewhat of a challenge. Working in the industry for two decades has given O’Rourke Veitch a personal perspective on the subject.

Multinationals
"When I walk into a room at a tech conference, there is a very small percentage of women in that room," she says.

“I think there are huge improvements that could be made there, but I do think there are other industries where women dominate. So maybe it’s part and parcel of what impression technology gives out to a wider audience. It could put women off.”

The number of women working in technology has increased gradually over the years, but there is still much further to go, O’Rourke Veitch says.

“I’ve seen more women at the top. It’s still a small percentage of the overall, but I’m delighted to see more women in the top positions. We’re still lagging a bit, but I think we’re catching up quite fast.

“I think it’s the influence of multinationals coming into Ireland. Where I’m seeing quite a lot of women is more on the innovation side, new business and start-ups, which is great to see.

“It possibly suits the lifestyle. A lot of us try to do everything – manage a career, manage a family – and I think it might suit more women to have their own business where they can be flexible.”

O'Rourke Veitch is a veteran in the tech industry. She has worked everywhere from Gateway 2000 to her current role at Citrix, and has extensive experience working outside the State in different roles.

She now works as a mentor across a number of different programmes, aimed at encouraging women to take part in the tech industry; advising firms on international selling; and mentoring small businesses.

She views it as giving back some of the experience she picked up while working in the US and Britain, selling to markets around the world.

Opportunity
It was necessary for her to go outside the State to get the experience that has propelled her to her current position. There are always challenges to be overcome.

“The challenge back then was the opportunity,” she explains. “It’s a changing industry; it’s always coming out with new things. It’s exciting and innovative.

“Citrix, in particular, is right in the core of that new technology, the emerging changes in tech, and the mobility workplace and cloud. There’s a huge opportunity in Ireland for Citrix to build a team, a business within a business.”

As well as enabling flexible working through proving the technology, Citrix also practises what it preaches.

“Citrix is very good at this as a company, as well as making the technology to make it happen,“ says O’Rourke Veitch.

“I can work from home, deliver the kids to school if I want and still do a full day’s work.

“We enable it using the technology and we make it easy, because even though I work in the tech world, I wouldn’t necessarily be a techie. So it has to be simple to use.”

Although there may still be a reluctance for companies to let workers out of sight to work at home – indeed Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer has recently moved to reverse the process in that company – O'Rourke Veitch says that attitude is changing.

Delivering
"I find myself and my team are much more productive. But at the end of the day, it comes down to deliverables," she says.

“As long as that person is delivering, what they’re supposed to do in their job, that’s what’s important . It’s definitely not going away. If anything, it’s going to get more and more complex.”

Responsible
That's good news for Citrix, which O'Rourke Veitch says saw a huge increase in business last year, and is expecting the same this year.

“People are looking now to do things smarter, and make the budget go further, make people more productive, and deal with all these new technologies,” she says.

But along with the flexibility and convenience that bringing your own laptop or tablet into the workplace can offer, is the danger that work may eat further into leisure and family time.

O’Rourke Veitch warns that, as users of the devices, we also have to be responsible for how and when we use them.

“There are so many distractions with technology; sometimes we need to take control and be responsible,” she says.

“People are going to have to start having controls themselves. Before you had the office ni ne to five ; now you have work slicing in [elsewhere ]. ”

She predicts further convergence in the market, with more devices and applications heading for consumers. But the future is also an open book.

“Who would have foreseen the mobile for example?“ she asks.