During a time when our mobile devices have not only begun to demand the attention of our social lives but our careers as well, there is fortunately no longer a need to be tethered to a desktop computer.
Mobility has created what some people call the ‘virtual office,’ which many feel will replace the traditional office. Today, the bring your own device (BYOD) trend is a hot button topic with many CIOs because of its ability to deliver e-mail and calendar information (two key communication tools for any enterprise) to any phone supported by a company. But BYOD is not a virtual office replacement, rather it is just the beginning of the impact Mobility will make on the office, where smartphones and tablets are already seen as ways to keep the workforce working effectively away from traditional desktop computers.
Today, our workforce is driven by operational work and projects to develop new business channels, where certain physical tasks must be carried out in order to fuel such processes. The key benefit of mobility is having a highly portable device that is always connected to the Internet, empowering you do your work right where you are: while serving a meal, tending a patient, working with client, etc. For example a nurse taking care of a patient will not have to leave their side to update data if they posses, for example, a tablet on their lap where they can do so.
To further elaborate on the benefits of mobility in the workplace, Matthew David, director of mobile strategy at Compuware (News - Alert), delivered this example of Dole Fresh Fruit:
Dole's team are tasked with ensuring the highest standards of fresh fruit, which is expected to be manually inspected with fruit quality recorded onto paper and later updated via e-mail to the corporate HQ. It took more than 14 business days for the information to move from the inspector to the office. Compuware, a provider of mobile solutions, recommended developing an iPhone (News - Alert) solution that gives Dole's team a tool that records the data they need to capture around fruit quality (photo of the fruit, location, quality, notes, inspector name) and immediately send the data to a cloud service that aggregates the data into report. The process of inspecting the fruit is still the same except the recording of the fruit quality is augmented with the iPhone which come with a camera, GPS and internet to submit all of the data back to HQ with a +10X improvement in efficiency. Now, the report can be read in real time the same day an inspection is done.
With mobility being a key factor in the workplace, companies like Compuware are vital in the transition from desktop to mobile, solving any problems along the way. As mobile users well know, for every problem there are many different technological solutions, which is why they need companies like Compuware to help them decide which one to use.
Edited by Blaise McNamee