Mobilizing the Enterprise: Moving Beyond Email

You must be a logged in to view this document.

Click here if you've lost or would like to change your password?

Register on ITO America Business Technology website

Register on ITOAmerica.com and gain access to countless articles, podcasts, videos and more, contributed by some of the top minds in business technology!

Excerpt:

In today's competitive climate, being available and responsive to key customers for information, service, decisions and creative collaboration can make the difference between success and failure.

The most popular enterprise mobility solution is cellular-based access to corporate email and cellular phone services. These devices meet minimum mobility requirements in allowing associate to communicate via the expansive cellular network and receive/send emails to customers and associates. Meeting these minimal functional requirements has created a growing business that has annual sales of over $2 billion worldwide, yet has only penetrated some five percent of the total available enterprise market.

A further hindrance to market acceptance of these products is their limited support for mission-critical enterprise applications tied to voice, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Field Service Automation (FSA). To fully mobilize an enterprise user, emerging solutions must go beyond email. Challenges for Enterprise Mobility:

Enterprises need to design their networks to accommodate a mobility solution
Being able to move without barriers between two dissimilar mobile networks Full mobilization of the enterprise will be a stepwise achievement realized in a multi-vendor environment.

Wireless vendors, WAN carrier providers, mobile handset manufacturers, mobility solutions vendors and application vendors will collaborate to offer solutions that can meet enterprise mobility requirements at a surprisingly low cost.

Today's enterprise mobility market has focused on mobilizing email and voicemail; however, enterprises are starting to realize how much their businesses depend on other key applications such as CRM, ERP and FSA for their day-to-day operations. Mobilizing applications that are bound to voice services can greatly benefit the enterprise by unshackling employees from their desks and letting them enjoy the benefit of working directly with customers while being mobile.

Winning with Enterprise 2.0
A new breed of open, networked organization, the Enterprise 2.0, is emerging. Evidence is mounting that companies that shift along the dimensions of the new model, perform and compete better.