Mobile technology is making devices more useful for business
StumbleUponIn this article, Dominic Jones, managing director of Barton Technology, advices on how to use the iPhone, iPad and other tablets and mobiles to deliver value to SMEs.
By Dominic Jones
Small and medium companies are struggling in these difficult economic times. Some companies are using this moment of crisis to find ways of having more productivity and efficiency. See below relevant tips on how mobile technology can benefit companies in this struggle for productivity.
What are the key benefits of smart phones in business?
Productivity is the most important benefit and enhanced communications are, of course, another one. Navigation, task lists and synchronisation with the iPad and desktop computers are also very popular services that SMEs look for. And, of course, word processing and Excel style apps are very useful as are cloud based storage functions like iCloud and Dropbox. The other things that our customers often ask about are fax reading applications, barcode and QR code readers and social media.
Who gets these benefits - field sales people, C-Level staff or customer service? Smartphones are useful for anyone who is out on the road regularly. You don’t need to be working at a senior level; even the most junior staff in a company can benefit from picking up e-mail remotely. Today, people are so time poor and the expectations imposed on them in their jobs are so high, that this kind of productivity tool is crucial for everyone from electricians taking readings via their phone to CEOs communicating on the move. We work in an environment where if a sales lead isn’t responded to in a couple of hours or less, you may as well kiss it goodbye. The Smartphone is now crucial in business.
Which benefits are overlooked?
Most companies overlook the ability to connect the phone or tablet directly to their office desktop. This is most useful on the iPad, because the larger real estate. The problem that is often overlooked is battery life; we often get customers telling us that they need to commission a fleet of spare batteries to go with their fleet of new phones!
Are there any legal considerations?
The legal issues for businesses are really the same as the ones that go hand in hand with laptop use and portable memory deployment. You need to ensure that data protection measures have been taken and that encryption is in place if a phone is being used to store or access crucial data. The last thing you want is your shiny new being left on the bus so that anyone interested can navigate to your office desktop and from there to the company server! Even if that kind of functionality isn’t in place, you should still consider the possibility that your address book containing a full list of customers could be lost. This is especially true in the public sector where your ‘customers’ may in fact be patients or other public service users.
What’s the best way to roll out a fleet of phones or tablets?
It’s fairly straightforward to roll out a fleet of business phones once you have established the objectives and requirements. You might need to tweak the company’s internal network a little to make sure that the settings are applicable both inside and outside the office. We use deployment software to connect each phone and provide policies for users. This software is free in the case of Apple and chargeable for larger Blackberry networks.
What training should be provided?
The training needed is dependent on the apps that are in use on the phone. Most of them are quite intuitive and most people are familiar with them from the private lives. It’s normally as simple as, ‘this is where you find your e-mail and this is where you find Twitter’. Of course, if the fleet were being rolled out to a non-technically astute audience, this might need to be re-considered.
Is it better for the company to own the phone or the staff member to own the phone?
It’s better for the company to own the phone. As a business, you need to be in control and able to deliver the right solutions across the board, not a mixed topology of Android, IOS, and Windows. This makes support easier and makes rolling out apps much simpler.
If people use their own phones they can introduce viruses and malware into the network. Clearly the new iPhone is going to spur a lot of individuals and businesses into action. We expect to see big demand for the roll out of fleets of upgraded phones, especially if the rumoured assistant functions come to fruition.
Standardisation is crucial. Most people have personal preferences for Blackberrys, iPhones or Android but for a business you need to have conformity. For instance, a company might have as its objective the sharing of an app that makes internal communication easier. If this is the case, it’s much less costly to design and roll out that app only for iOS and not across multiple platforms.
What measurement metrics should you apply?
Productivity is the key KPI. You should continue to measure the things you currently measure, but you should see improvements as a result of the introduction of new technology into the equation. Phones, tablets and computers are all end points – it doesn’t matter which one you use to achieve the goal – the objective remains the same.
About the author
Dominic Jones is managing director of Barton Technology. Established in April 2000, Barton Technology is a privately owned company specialised in providing IT support and business telephone services to customers in the construction, not for profit, retail, finance, legal and insurance SME sectors and who are located in London, Surrey and Kent. Barton Technology does not sell tablets and phones or mobile phone contracts. Instead, the company configures the phones for business use with regard to e-mail, remote desktop terminal services and roll out. The company also advise on apps that might benefit the customer.
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