A short history of the well-equipped mobile worker might look like this:
- Pagers
- Pager and cell phones
- Cell phone and notebook computer
- Cell phone, notebook computer, and PDA
- Smartphone* (including tablets)
With almost 150 million smartphone users in the United States, mobile workers are carrying around less equipment and able to get more work done. With phablets providing a bigger screen, the number of business applications accessed from smartphones increases daily.
Can a smartphone give you the freedom to leave your notebook computer at home? Absolutely.
Some of the benefits of providing workers with mobile access to business information include:
- Increased productivity
- Higher levels of customer satisfaction
- Increased revenue
- Lower administrative costs
- Fewer paper forms
How are businesses using mobile technology?
- Public transit companies equip buses with applications to count passengers, and riders can track bus arrival time.
- Salespeople access and update client information; create quotes and orders; check inventory; generate invoices; and access the latest marketing materials.
- Insurance companies take pictures of damaged autos or homes for insurance reports.
- Professional services firms such as accountants and attorneys manage calendars and enter time per project, simplifying time tracking for the billing process.
- Real estate firms take pictures of homes being sold and email or upload them to the office; connect to listings and download pictures and virtual tours of homes while they’re with prospective buyers; obtain current mortgage rates and use a mortgage calculator; and navigate to homes for sale.
- Field support staff check manufacturers’ information; determine availability of parts; get real-time work orders; and report and escalate support issues. And the ability to update status of work as it is completed can be used to generate invoices immediately.
- Financial services firms access stock quotes.
- Employees track mileage and expenses and conduct research using reference apps loaded directly to the phone or on the web.
Companies using mobile computing are realizing significant, bottom-line results in increased revenue and improved productivity.
Not sure how your company can take advantage of mobile technology?
- Define the business goal you want your mobile system to achieve.
- Keep it simple. Compare how you use email on your mobile compared to your PC. What’s different? What’s the same? What works and what doesn’t? Use this information to shape the design of your business’s mobile applications around the strengths – and weaknesses – of real-world mobile computing.
- Think about how you use mobile devices. Which mobile apps and websites do you love and why? Which ones do you hate and why?
- Find a software development firm with mobile software development expertise. Your in-house developers may be wonderful with desktop and web applications, but writing mobile software has different rules.
What’s different about mobile software development?
- Smartphones are multi-purpose devices, so an application has to gracefully handle lost connectivity and interruptions from another process such as an incoming call or calendar reminder.
- The user interface has to address the specific way we use mobile applications and has to fit a smaller screen. An inexperienced mobile developer might miss the significance of things such as button size, which has to balance error rates and screen real estate.
- Depending on the device used, there are specific keyboard considerations that have to be factored into the application’s design.
What about security?
There are valid concerns about the security implications of having corporate data loaded on mobile devices and allowing mobile devices to access corporate applications. Some of the ways businesses have addressed these issues include password protection, encrypting data, and creating remote administrative user rights to wipe data off a device if it’s lost, and new tools are becoming available every day to address these concerns.
Projections indicate that the mobile workforce will reach 1.3 billion worldwide and more than 200 million in the US alone within two years (IDC Press Release), and we expect to see new mobile computing solutions daily.
Don’t miss the opportunity. Use mobile technology to grow your business.
* Note: In this article, we’re using “smartphone” to mean any mobile device that makes calls and performs PC-like functions such as email and web browsing, regardless of whether the device has touch screen capabilities.
