MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
BY JOHN JAINSCHIGG
IN COMING YEARS, THE FIRST HALF OF 2008 MAY BE
viewed as a watershed in the evolution of enterprise
mobility: the moment when the cumulative
demands of increased usage, device divergence,
security and compliance first made managing
mobility a top concern of CIOs.
In fact, mobility now leads the 2008 agenda on fuel, and we’re tightening up our operation
for U.S. and European network/telecomdecision- in many other ways—all from this constantly
makers, according to a survey conducted in April expanding body of information. All our work with
by Forrester, a Cambridge, Mass.-based research mobility translates directly into improved profit
company. The No. 1 goal, noted by 65 percent of margins and better service quality.”
respondents, is “providing more mobility support Elsewhere, in service and information busi-
to employees.” nesses, the need to provide more and better
In some industries—including transport and support for mobility may be seen less as an IT-
logistics, shipping, emergency services and retail— sponsored, ROI-justified strategic decision than
the “provide more mobile support” imperative as a proactive adaptation to a perfect storm of
reads as a no-brainer. Mobility now plays in these factors: demographic and work-style shifts that
fields both as a commonplace technology that increase demand; growing device and service
enables business to function on a day-to-day basis diversity that increases complexity; and the risks
and as an emerging technology that produces new that result from all of these.
mines of information and insight to exploit. It’s common to observe that the millennial
Jim Ligorski, CTO of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based workforce wants to be mobile, is already so in
medical-transport provider TransCare, explains their personal life and demands similar accom-one common usage: “We began with a simple modations in the workplace. But other business,
idea: GPS on mobile handsets would free our dis- technology and cultural dynamics now play what
patchers from having to constantly call out to the may be a more important and practical role in
trucks and ask, ‘Where are you?’” accelerating the spread of mobility in the enter-
“Then we saw all this data coming in and real- prise—and in elaborating the risk picture.
ized we could use it to tackle much more chal- The personal nature of small-device mobile
lenging problems,” he continues. “For example, technology—the tendency of users to collapse
we use cumulative GPS route data to analyze business and personal life onto one device—was
where to park trucks based on expected demand. long viewed as a reason for business to resist sub-And we use the GPS database to optimize our sidizing mobility for the general worker popula-staffing and shifts to ensure all parts of our region tion. However, tech-savvy employees, including
receive appropriate service and that employees many in the IT ranks, quickly learned to exploit
can reach their assigned vehicles efficiently. personal mobile devices for professional advan-
“We’re looking into optimizing routes to save tage “off the grid.” They then began agitating,
