In 2007, more than 1.1 billion wireless handsets were sold. While the economy has slowed considerably in 2008, my bet is that there will be record holiday sales of smart devices which will bury helpdesks around the country. Impossible?

 

Enterprises should expect to deal with employees that return from the holiday break with all kinds of crazy justifications for how a new wireless smartphone that they received during the break will make them more efficient and improve productivity. What do enterprises need to do today to manage an onslaught of new requests for help with establishing access to corporate e-mail and enterprise applications?

 

Technology has come a long way from the days of Motorola’s StarTac cell phones. Mobile handsets now represent one of the largest consumer-electronics markets in the world with more than 1.1 billion units sold in 2007. One of the challenges to enterprises is the rapid adoption of e-mail. Wireless laptop computers are used by most employees to access corporate applications, but people hate the extra weight of laptops and start up time. Advertisements for smart devices portray them as being so cool. It’s hard to resist the latest ads.

 

Most CIOs got into their jobs because they love technology. They do not want to be seen as leading a low-tech company or holding up the rate of adoption of technology that will drive employee productivity enhancements. Holiday sales may be projected to be off this year, but the stream of advertisements for the Apple 3 G iPhone, Blackberry Storm, Nokia, offerings that leverage Google Android operating system, and a host of other irresistible smartdevices.

 

I hate be a Scrooge, but how do you plan to deal with the onslaught of new holiday devices that your employees will be demanding. Or worse, how do you plan to deal with requests from employees to configure their new iPhone or other device for your corporate email and Personal Information Manager (PIM) contacts?

 

Tomorrow’s posting will have some suggestions and answers to the questions that you are sure to be responding to over the holidays.

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Wireless Mobility