Mobile device mayhem, or...

In our recent mobile state of the nation survey, we asked you about what was important in a mobile device. In many respects, the results were pretty predictable in that, surprise surprise, battery life and decent voice capability were top of the list: Quite a few then highlighted the importance of high-speed data access, …

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd like ANY mobile device to work, however....

We still run EX5.5 as the corporate mail system and they have been heavily resisting BES. They are currently "Considering" and upgrade to EX2003 (yes, i know, Why wouldn’t a gold partner systems integrator be going for 2007?) anyway, that aside, we currently have one type of corporate phone for all levels, nokia 6021 and the genius who negotiated the phone contract separated voice and Data and so we cant have 3g on a voice sim, meaning that even if we did get a crackberry or M$ woe-bile device, we'd still have to carry the nokia around as well.

In an ideal world, we would have been on 2003 already and / or had BES as a majority of the users would be fine with them.

For field service and consultants we should have M$ woe-biles with gps in them as our guys do go to interesting parts and sometimes forget to street map it and lest we forget the ability to sit BOFH style in the pub and TS a sick system is always handy ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

It's an impossible job made worse by the operators

The challenge here is finding a handset that users can be trusted with. Not that users are inherantly un-trustworthy, mind. Rather multi-function in the hands of users offer up opportunities for considerable disruption - the range of connectivity and data distribution opportunities on most handsets mean they are essentially a ticking time-bomb.

Unfortunately, I presume, because the network operators have a desperate need to claw back their investment in 3G every handset is packed with these concerns. And when you do try to install packages that actually comply with a companies policy for secure connectivity you're typically floored by the walled garden.

We need handsets that do voice and allow us to install a browser we trust. We don't want MMS, we absolutely don't want camera - on account of already having had one disciplinary regarding their usage - and we absolutely don't want bluetooth.

I challege you to find anything that cost effectively meets those requirements.

[fixit_f]

I don't think it's fair to call that "state of the nation"

I think if you surveyed non-register readers things like integrated cameras would be further up the list. My missis just picked her new phone based pretty much entirely on it having a 3mp camera. Daft - but unfortunately that's the sort of feature lots of people go for.

[Dillon Pyron]

What I personally need

Me?

SMS, Bluetooth (Texas came very close to passing a "hands free" law), a reliable network.

Web browsing? Haven't used it in the two and a half years I've had the phone.

The phone manufactorers and service providers have jammed features that I really don't need and the simple phones I want are getting harder and harder to find.

[Brett Brennan]

The user is a key part of the solution

Although I am in a very small company, we've been on the leading edge (sometime bleeding) of mobile communications use for well over a decade. And we have had minimal problems with our service over this time - even though we upgrade technology at least on an annual basis.

I feel that the reason is that our staff ("users") are "part of the process" - not simply dictated to by IT and Accounting.

I treat our user community as adults. That means that I (as CIO) discuss their needs with them, listen carefully to what they want and what their issues are, then provide a list of solutions that covers their needs. Things like security, confidentiality, improper use of corporate assets - these are open and thoroughly explored, with feedback from the users individually as well as a community incorporated into our mobile technology planning. And it has paid off handsomely for us: our users understand the fundamental issues we're addressing from the company standpoint and have been remarkably resistant to misuse of corporate resources - mainly because we insure that the company takes care of their personal needs as well. We have a consistent set of policies that cover ALL aspects of personal communications, most of which reflects the user's requirements as well as the common corporate goals.

We use a single carrier (SPRINT) for all our devices, and this is pretty much the only restriction. All of our users have new (< 1 year old) multi-media devices with full 3G capability, and are subscribed on unlimited or nearly unlimited usage plans. We let the users choose their own device - as long as it meets the minimum corporate requirements I don't have a problem with it - and as adults they are aware of what their responsibilities are in choosing and using the device. (I have Blackberry, Palm, WM5 and Motorola based devices in the mix and so far with 10 years of allowing this I've had only minor issues to deal with - usually carrier issues at that.) We run our own email and data services and do not use Exchange, so many security problems are eliminated right there, and other issues (like ringtone purchases, games, etc.) were eliminated by educating the users on how to use alternative tools (like rip and download their own music to their phones) which they actually prefer to the wonky vendor-supplied commercial sites.

Yes, it costs more per month to do this. Probably double per user what most companies pay for mobile solutions. However, our pay-back is measured in simplified accounting (consistent costs), near 100% availability of staff 24/7, and a user community that actively works to improve the way these services work in our business. And we consistently delight our customers by being able to leverage this technology to help us provide better service.

Summarizing: if you treat your staff as adults, allow them to drive the technology with open education and feedback and a minimal set of standards that give them a lot of choice you can eliminate the "control" problem and get deep and broad use of the technology - which, after all, is the whole point of having it...

[Andrew Badera]

It's an investment

The decision to support mobile for key elements of the enterprise must be driven by need. You don't throw a data-storing communications device to any rank and file. If your IT staff, sales staff, writers at a newspaper, doctors, lawyers, investigators, etc. have a real need for mobile, if mobile offers a real business benefit, then you have to be willing to invest properly to support it. You also have to expect your employees to be adults -- if they're not, why are they working for you to begin with?

Well thought out policies have to be put in place, trained for and enforced with a reasonable amount of discipline. Camera? Sure, but with a rigid policy around that -- as long as the enterprise doesn't have large amounts of visually sensitive information, R&D, manufacturing processes, whatever that are relatively easily documented by a camera.. Bluetooth? Absolutely -- why not? Especially for headset use, GPS devices for staff on the road, so on and so forth. Headsets should in fact also be provided with any phone device. Again, some policy in place here, especially concerning transfer of data from company equipment to any mobile device or accessory. SDIO? I'd love to be able to lock it down, and/or be able to use strong encryption so that any company data that leaks onto an SDIO card only does so in an encrypted form. QWERTY keyboard? Sure, why not? Especially if the employee is sending/receiving a lot of company mail and/or text. At this point, all phones should be at least GPRS-capable, if not full 3G/HSPDA. Large screens should be available to any employee who spends time on the road, or needs to manage, massage or present any amount of data.

That said, many of these data-transfer policies apply just as equally to USB drives and MP3/multimedia players that also have the ability to store large amounts of potentially sensitive information.

I'm sure other presence-management/mobile-management suites offer similar capabilities, but one feature of note from the Vista/Exchange 2007/Office 2007 luncheon Microsoft gave a few months ago that interested me was the ability to remotely wipe the data on a phone in the event of lost data. I think this sort of capability is crucial -- terminated employees, stolen devices, I can think of any number of scenarios where being able to wipe the data on an MIA mobile device provides serious CYA insurance.

[Sean Aaron]

Bankers *sigh*

I work for a penny-pinching financial organisation. As a result the only phones even considered are those that are EXTREMELY basic 2g (Nokia 2610 or worse) phones that don't even have good enough aerials for me to pick up signal in my lower ground flat in Glasgow despite having Vodaphone for an operator. The phones don't even have IR ports let alone bluetooth (I didn't even know such devices were still made!), so address book syncing is not possible (no data cable/software, either).

Thankfully I'm being made redundant, so I'll soon be able to actually read my Yahoo! mail at work again and use my own phone for business purposes without risk of office disturbance out of hours.

It would have been better to have your poll reflect common consumer items; most of the questions were aimed at work environment and on the basis of what the organisation is doing; these things are not the same at all.

Personally I really enjoy having a 2mp camera on my Nokia 6288 and I wouldn't own a camera otherwise. The OS was also a factor, as the OS on this phone sounds like it's without the troubles of Symbian, but also much better than on older Nokia phones I've used at work previously. Removable storage is a big must for me as well to keep those photos on and all my home-made mp3-based ringtones. The web stuff I could live without, although I would find 3's mobile mail useful for getting my Yahoo Mail on the go, my handset doesn't support it.

[Anonymous Coward]

just exactly who...

...put decent cellular voice support down as undesirable??? i can to an extent understand why the other bits might be seen as undesirable, but surely crap voice support negates the whole purpose of having a PHONE?