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With all the gadgets now available it’s enough to send you into a spin. Here we dissect what’s currently on offer and what it can do for you and your business.
There was a time when the very act of stepping out of the office consigned you to a communications dead zone. Today, of course, it’s all different. Step onto a train or into your nearest cappuccino bar and chances are you’ll be sharing a space with half a dozen people taking work related calls, entering data into personal digital assistants (PDAs) or logging onto the office email system via their wireless-enabled laptops.
Wherever you are these days, you can take the office with you. And depending what you’re prepared to carry in your pocket or briefcase, you can not only take that all-important call from a potential customer but also answer email, review a Word file or enter information into a CRM system. In other words, being in a specific location – i.e. the office – is no longer a prerequisite for doing serious business.
This won’t be news to you. The question is how do you choose the right solution for your business in terms of connectivity and hardware?
Handhelds and laptops
According to Paul Stonadge, enterprise data services executive at mobile network operator Vodafone, mobile data users can be segmented into two broad groups: those whose prime objective is to keep a check on their email and those who require the full functionality of their workplace computer and network while away from the office.
“If all you need is email then the best solution is probably a handheld device,” says Stonadge. “On the other hand, if you are likely to be out of the office for some time and you need to do a lot of work from a remote location, then the only real solution is a network-enabled laptop.”
The business units of the major mobile operators – Vodafone, Orange, O2 and T-Mobile – cater for both these user groups. All four not only supply email enabled phones but also 3G cards that will plug your laptop into the mobile networks.
Email on the move
A glance through the average mobile catalogue will reveal a small army of phones that have the capability to send and receive email on the move. Most are for light mail users only. However, if email is important to the way you do business you need a device that is designed for that purpose. One clear market leader has emerged – the BlackBerry.
Manufactured by RIM, it is designed to deliver email in real time using data compression to keep down costs. They don’t pretend to be PDAs, instead they are positioned as cutting-edge email devices with some PDA functionality. As a bonus, the new models are also pretty stylish phones.
The thing that differentiates the BlackBerry from its competitors is the fact that it ‘pushes’ email to the user. In practical terms, this means that rather than requiring you to log on to an email application every time you want to check for mail, the BlackBerry system provides a real-time flow. When an email lands on the office server, it is pushed on to the BlackBerry inbox via your mobile network.
And there are other attractions too. “For example,” says Simon Ainslie, director of business data at T-Mobile, “it can be difficult to set up PDAs but BlackBerrys tend to work straight from the box.”
However, it should be remembered that BlackBerrys are designed for the corporate market and to take full advantage of the system you will need a dedicated exchange server added to your email system. However, there are versions of the BlackBerry that will work with non-corporate email systems such as Hotmail and Yahoo and these are becoming popular.
BlackBerrys have their limitations, though. At the moment they only run on the slower GPRS networks (not a huge handicap) and while they allow you to view attachments, you won’t be able to edit or alter them.
BlackBerrys are currently supplied by Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and O2.
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