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The rise of the mobile worker |
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In the film 'Office Space', actor Ron Livingston is asked to describe a typical working day.
"Well, generally I come in 15 minutes late," he says, "then I just sort of space out for about an hour... I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week, I probably only do about 15 minutes of real, actual, work."
What makes this confession humorous is the fact that for many, it rings true to a certain extent. However, thanks to the advent of mobile technology, the shackles that bind employees to their desks are breaking at a steadily-increasing rate.
According to research done in 2006 by Gartner Dataquest, the worldwide mobile worker population is set to grow to 878.2 million by 2009, indicating quite a substantial move away from the mentality that "you have to be at work to be working".
The reality is there's a huge push toward improved levels of customer and client service and part of that is being able to respond to whatever challenges or problems occur as quickly and efficiently as possible - leading to the rise in popularity of converged devices such as pocket PCs and smartphones (or, collectively, smart devices).
Leveraging Windows Mobile platform
The basic distinction between smartphones and pocket PCs is that a pocket PC has a touch screen, whereas smartphones don't.
An example of a smartphone would be the HTC S710, which features a sliding keyboard and no touch screen, while the HTC Touch would be considered a pocket PC as it features a touch screen and can be operated with either a finger or a stylus.
The beauty of the Windows Mobile platform is that it's being continually improved and updated to meet the demands of mobile communications while raising productivity levels in an increasingly competitive environment.
However, many people are still sceptical about adopting smart devices. One of the most common reasons is that, with more people working from laptops, which are mobile devices themselves, what's the point of buying an expensive cellphone that tries to mimic that technology?
If you're using a smart device, you wouldn't have to worry about many of the cumbersome hassles of using a laptop (like limited battery life, or having to wait for the machine to boot up and connect to a network) to perform an e-mail download, which is, essentially, a simple task.
Pushing e-mail functionality, which any mobile device with Windows Mobile 5 or higher can support, lets you receive e-mails as they are sent, which means the important e-mail you're waiting for won't be left on the server or escape your attention.
Another benefit is that, should your PA have to reschedule your appointments, or should the people you're meeting with send appointment requests, you'll receive notification instantly on your smart device.
In this way, you can stay on top of your appointments in the field without having to continually phone in to the office, or have the office phone you.
In addition, Windows Mobile supports a number of business software solutions and applications such as customer relationship management (CRM) or even enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, which you can use on your smart device to ensure you have access to critical business information or data on the move.
Windows Mobile 6-powered devices add additional security in the form of encryption for data stored in removable storage cards, providing the ability to remotely wipe the device, should the device get lost or stolen.
In today's business environment, a cellphone is a critical piece of business hardware and, as a result of the proliferation of these devices, it has become easier to do business anywhere in the world.
If market trends and predictions are to be believed, the use of mobile devices will go so much further than just having a cellphone and being in contact 24/7.
The ability to leverage rich software functionality in a small, light and convenient device means the proverbial road warriors will inevitably be able to dominate their areas of business.
Submitted Date: Oct 25, 2007
Source: ITWeb
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