Comments on: Random observations about the deployment of mobile technology

By: Antoine of MMM

Antoine of MMM — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 23:27:45 +0000

Very well written article, and I do also agree with your observations. Not that I can blame many companies, but it seems that there is more work that goes into verifying a purchase for a laptop/BBs/Treos, than it does in actually making sure that they are what it is that one’s organization needs. In many cases, it might be more expensive to have mobile tech deployed, while at the same time prviding the freedom to the workforce that would be beneficial in terms of keeping long term health care costs down, or just a means of keeping morale up.

I have found though that smaller orgs are more responsive to mobile tech once they understand the security and workflow options. For many smaller orgs, it is just hard for them to keep a hand on the technology, and then support what they have currently (usually underfunded and under-utilized).

By: BobR

BobR — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 22:22:13 +0000

Yep... they should let Bob vacation in peace. He deserves the time away because he works too hard! ;-)

By: Philip Ferris

Philip Ferris — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 17:15:00 +0000

I work for a national charity and we are reminiscent of what you describe. We have national access to remote drives across the intranet and web based email but locked down so around 90% can only access on work sites. There has been talk of access to xda smmartphones but no-one has deemed them “safe” yet. Don’t even think about wifi.

I have heard of 1 tablet pc so I do have hope. I try to evangelise when I can, pdas, MindManager, Activewords, tablets, etc. But I don’t know where the training will come from, not all IT staff are committed to new concepts.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:01:23 +0000

Nice post! There are so many similarities with higher education that I'll have to look at on my blog this weekend when I get a moment. In the meantime, yes, a fundamental issue is the deployment of mobile technology without adequate training and follow-up support, nor complete integration with existing infrastructure to actually get the most value out of otherwise very expensive gadgets. I know a 2nd in command at a school district who was given a Blackberry and expected to use it (doesn't everybody know?!), but can't seem to find anyone to teach her how. Nor has she figured it out beyond placing calls and appointments since the user manual is huge.