Do your staff use their personal devices in the workplace? While some businesses are encouraging the use of employees' own tech, others are actively discouraging it. In fact over one in three business owners have refused employees mobile access to work resources, amid fears about security.

Research by Filemaker has found that 47% of workers believe that technology provisions in their workplace are less effective than the devices they use personally – revealing a conflict of interest between employers’ security concerns and workers’ desire to manage workloads from their own technology. The speed that technology develops means that staff often have the latest kit, while businesses tend to up-date devices less often due to costs. There are, however, the obvious concerns that technology not approved by businesses is increasingly being used. Security is, of course, the main worry.

So, 70% of bosses believe the traditional 9 to 5 working day is over. There's no doubt that we have witnessed a massive shift in work patterns in recent years. Certainly in the fifteen years I have been at work my working day has changed drastically, as have those of many people I know. I started out life working the traditional 9 to 5 day with strict guidelines about lunchtime breaks, punctuality and the use of the Internet (which was quite new in the workplace at the time!). There was a very clear divide between work and home life, and at the time that was fine because it was all I had known and as I had no children I only had me to think about, so the fixed hours suited me. I was very rarely asked to work overtime and I only occasionally asked for time off for, say, an appointment. It worked well for both sides.

Now we all know how much fun apps can be. Can you deny that you've been a slightly bit addicted to Angry Birds at some point? Even people who've denied they're going to download any apps let along spend considerable time using them end up finding their own favourites whether it's playing Scrabble or chatting to friends via Facebook.

However, the fun aside, apps are seriously big business - and getting bigger. Did you know the technology is going to start appearing in many other areas of your life? Apps are already moving away from being limited to mobile devices. Google TV and Apple TV will be offering software updates that include app support, so the rise of the 'living room app' is just around the corner, plus there are cars that support apps too.

Like so many things we take for granted, it's not until we can't use them that we realise how much we rely on them. The current BlackBerry issues are a case in point. On the face of it we might assume that being unable to use our mobile phones properly for a day or so is annoying, but wouldn't actually affect our businesses. However, from reading many of the forums and discussions on the subject it seems people are incredibly reliant on their phones for business having missed important emails and discussions and, importantly, decisions have been affected.

It seems many of us use our emails almost like instant messangers and feel lost without them. Isn't part of it that we're used to checking our emails regularly on our phones, but that in reality we could just as easily wait until we're in front of a computer to check them. In the same way as there is the good old telephone call when there's something urgent to be discussed. We've only had smartphones for a relatively short number of years, so what did we do before we had them? Yes, pick up the phone and actually talk to people and sit in front of our computers and answer emails.