Everything in our lives is being delivered at ever faster speeds – consumer goods, personal communications, pizza and anything else you may think of. In the business environment, speed is essential, however it is a double-edged sword: on the one hand the ability to deliver information, customer orders and products is a boon, but on the other, if you are moving in the wrong direction to begin with, having speed simply means you are digging yourself into a deeper hole that much faster.
The challenge is to manage and implement the new technology which is delivering such business agility, speed and mobility effectively.
The technology which allows for workers to be mobile and to carry their desktop tools and communications around with them wherever they may be has come a long, long way over the last 25 years. In the 1980’s, email was unheard of and when it was widely introduced in the 1990’s the business reaction was to ban or restrict it. Today, email is mission critical for almost any business you can think of – today, Instant Messaging is going through the same process of widespread adoption, but there is the clue – email may be fast, but Instant Messaging is simply now.
The technology has gotten faster yet again.
But there is even more to come: we now have a mobile ability which is based upon two recent, major developments: the development of a fast Internet backbone for the mobile Internet and the development of handheld devices which are truly mobile, for instance your smart phone or tablet PC.
You can walk on any trade show floor in the country and see a variety of handheld mobile devices at work, but it is not simply the technology we can see which counts but how companies actually manage mobile resources which determines their success.
For most companies (and I include most of the Fortune 500 in this) they are simply not capable of managing the mobile environment effectively – this falls outside the area of their core competencies and strengths. Fortunately, there are solutions available, notably based on the SaaS model (Software as a Service) who provide mobile management solutions which allow you to focus on how to use the technology effectively to deliver business objectives, rather than worrying about what the technology is.
Mobile management SaaS solutions also provide a high degree of customization for how you do business. Every company is different, with differing trade show processes for collecting prospect information, generating quotes and estimates as well as taking a sales order – this becomes ever more important when you are performing these customer facing tasks with the customer facing you at the event itself! You need robust systems which can be delivered in real-time when you need them and wherever you are, and you also need a partner who understands your business and how to best manage mobile resources for maximum business impact.
