Q&A: Vodafone CTO Jeni Mundy on the rise of unified communications

I think a lot of it depends on the organisation you're running and what you're doing on a day-to-day basis. You have to take a fit for purpose approach.

If you have a workforce that is very mobile but isn't equipped to do their job anywhere but in the office you're not going to be running as efficient a business as you can be. But if you're running an organisation where people are there everyday then it'll be less of an issue.

As well as what the business does, you need to think about who you want to attract, who you want to employ, what the social trends of today are and how do you respond to them as a business.

You want to be able to enable your business to keep working, that's one angle. The other angle is, what is the most effective way to run your business today so you achieve a fantastic outcome for your customers, you've got a motivated team of people who work for you.

Generally, is there a gap between what IT departments believe to be important and what higher level executives consider to be key?

In my experience, I've never really felt a gap. I can't answer for everyone clearly, but I think IT and technology are a key part of many businesses.

Business process is enabled predominantly through IT, so technology needs to be opinionated, needs to be an equal partner, needs to be about the art of the possible, needs to be about providing solutions to business problems, in conjunction with the rest of the management team.