Should your business go mobile?10 December 2004
Mobile working is increasingly looking like an attractive option for both businesses and employees.
The technology has advanced at an astonishing pace in recent years. Better computer chips have added muscle to better-built, lighter, wireless laptops - helping the market grow 30 percent over the past year.
All this new computer hardware power has coincided with plummeting prices. Once the big question for businesses considering mobile working was 'why?'. Now that prices are so low, many are asking 'why not?'
One other major advantage of mobile working is increased flexibility of working practices - your actual location is now less important than how people perceive your business.
The main focus of your business should be providing good quality service to your customers, so as long as you have the correct logistics in place and can run your business efficiently, you should be set for mobile success.
The benefits of mobile working:
Increase your productivity
If your employees spend a total of only 10 hours a week travelling, that's over 500 hours a year - potentially tens of thousands of pounds of lost productivity - lost every year.
With mobile working, your time spent travelling between locations can be used productively. You can manage emails, access your company database or edit documents on the move.
Work in real time
You can save valuable time and offer better customer service with mobile working. Your sales people or staff working at client sites can stay in constant contact with your business - giving them access to the latest information.
Instead of just demonstrating a product to your clients, your staff can connect directly to your system to offer clients the latest prices and place an order on the spot.
Work flexibly
The new generation of smaller, cheaper mobile devices will let all areas of your business work flexibly.
Handheld devices like 3G mobile phones and PDAs now means your staff can handle emails on the move - wherever they are. For salespeople and workers who travel frequently, this is invaluable - and it can save your business time and money.
Related links
- DTI guide to mobile working (link opens a PDF file)
