With an active business presence in 180 countries throughout the world, British American Tobacco's managers spend a large proportion of their time travelling. In order to continually provide them with full IT support, the company has issued each with a Toshiba notebook - the specification of which can vary according to the needs of the user. Lighter users tend to opt for the Toshiba Portégé range of slimline power PCs, while heavy users opt for Toshiba's Tecra series. (The increased computing power of these machines provides the same level of IT specification as the user's desktop PC back in their office.)

However, planning the implementation of a world-wide IT network, which adheres to standards that are not obsolete almost as soon as the system is installed, is a difficult task. Using forward thinking and meticulous planning, British American Tobacco developed a WAN (wide area network) which seamlessly links each of its global network of offices through the Equant (SITA) network and has also set up an Intranet using a dedicated IP service which can access the Internet through a proxy server. Every desktop and notebook PC within the company is able to access and integrate with these services smoothly.

In order to link its global network of offices, British American Tobacco has established a worldwide standard for its IT infrastructure, from hardware through to software. A standard BAT PC build has been developed and christened GENA (Global Enterprise Networking Architecture). GENA is, in essence, a layer on which British American Tobacco technology can sit worldwide.

Prior to the development of GENA, the company struggled to unite disparate IT systems that tended to work in isolation. The job of GENA, therefore, is to ensure British American Tobacco's information remains accessible to all its managers and employees, on a global basis.

Among the key members of British American Tobacco's UK IT Department are Cliff Michie, the UK Infrastructure Manager, and Calum Graham, the man responsible for the daily management of all notebooks owned by the company in the UK.

Mr Graham explains why British American Tobacco works so closely with Toshiba PC Division when making purchasing decisions: "There is a plethora of portable PC technology available to companies nowadays and this makes choosing the right option much harder. We need to know what is going to be around the corner and this is where Toshiba has become our invaluable ally. We are kept fully up-to-date with product development. For us this is not just a token gesture but also a valuable opportunity to compile the necessary data with which to make decisions on the future shape of our IT network. Without it we could make costly mistakes."

British American Tobacco also opts for Toshiba notebook PCs because of their power/size ratio. Mr Graham says, "Unlike some other laptops, Toshiba's are powerful, small boxes. Our managers prefer them because they are so easy to travel with. Also, because they are now a company standard it has become a very simple matter to configure each new one for the network and upgrades are simple as Toshiba are always quick to issue us with extra drivers when we need them."

The wide range of uses to which each laptop is put includes e-mailing, file uploading and downloading, running databases, marketing and sales presentations, and remote accessing of data held within desktop PCs on the network. Each PC runs the full Microsoft Office Suite, including Excel and PowerPoint and the Lotus Notes e-mail system.

British American Tobacco - like many modern companies looking to the future - has discovered the significant benefits to be gained from the modern teleworking culture. By issuing their executives with such high-powered portable technology and a viable IT network to link into, the company is able to maintain a truly flexible workforce.