Page 231 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

210 � mAnAgIng the moBIle workForCe

Teams, of listing and comparing the various categories of tools that
are available to follow. They include collaborative software, meeting
and communication, information broadcasting, information sharing,
Wikis, RSS feeds, and “Push” technologies. They describe, in detail,
issues related to installation, customization, security, and basic infor-
mation about the specific tools and how they are used. We highly
recommend you pick up a copy of her book for this kind of run down,
because it has lasting value. 4
But do you imagine that some new devices and software have come
on the market since their book was published in 2007? Yep, they sure
have. How, then, do you Keep Up with the Phoneses? The answer lies
in developing mobile technology “metaskills” as a core competency in
your organization.

` steppIng oFF the plAtForm

What’s needed is a strategic platform. Peter DeNagy, general manager
of Samsung, put it most eloquently in Chapter 5. He contends that
the most important step for an enterprise that is building a mobile
strategy is to decide on the platform that will be used as the medium
for long-term solutions; that platform will serve as the foundation for
strategic mobile workforce decisions. While the mobile device you
are using right now will mostly likely be outdated and replaced with
something else that’s announced in next quarter’s press release, the
strategic platform continues to serve as a reliable constant in the midst
of swirling technological change.
That idea rings true for many of us who have been through this
decision tree during the last 20 years over and over again. We get
excited about the shiny new wheels, and we always seem to want to
move fast toward the things that will change more quickly than we
want them too. We need a strategic platform, well grounded, to help
us stay the course.