Page 30 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

moving to mobility � 9

millions of dollars to get them just the right device, software, and
knowledge management system. All they want to know is whether all
that stuff will help them to get the job done or whether it will be an
obstacle.
Technology is complex, but your customers and employees expect
it to be intuitive. They want technology that is simple, works the way
they think, and supports the way they act. Technology—for the average
worker—has to understand us a lot more than we need to understand it. It
needs to follow our behaviors and interests, not to dictate them. This is a
very complex request, but the winners of the technology race will be
those that get this right. They will study deeply the connection be-
tween the human interface with technology. The more effortless that
interaction, the better.
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Compelling Research, Polling, and Opinion
about the Mobile Workforce
Current research and industry trends support the urgent
need to take action in forming a mobile business strategy.
At the very least, companies must reflect upon whether a
distributed, mobile business strategy will help them to be-
come competitive or stay competitive, and whether the lack
of one will knock them off the playing field. A mobile busi-
ness strategy has the potential to help companies to achieve
sustainable competitive advantage.
The adoption rate of global mobile technology, tied
to a workforce that understands how to use this technol-
ogy, is a recent paradigm shift of grand scale. The Yankee
Group reports that in the year 2009 the enterprise custom-
ers who purchased mobile technology for their employees
had reached 550 million mobile subscriptions globally, with
a projected 12.7 percent cumulative growth rate through
2013. That’s reaching levels of more than 668 million small,