IT options for mobile staff

With firms now dependant on IT for the day-to-day running of their business processes, there is a growing need for staff to have access to information systems and corporate data from anywhere, whether on the company site, at customer premises, or on the road.

Going mobile requires the selection of suitable client hardware, the provisioning of adequate communications links, and often the use of some kind of middleware to tie together the mobile platform with the company's existing systems. The choice of solution is usually determined by the type of user. The term mobile worker covers a wide range of jobs, including travelling sales executive, field service engineer, courier, surveyor, insurance loss adjuster and domestic utility meter inspector.

Many firms favour Windows laptops because of their compatibility with desktop PC systems and their ability to run standard applications. Panasonic has had some success with its ruggedised Toughbook models for service engineers in the utilities sector, for example, where access to technical information on CD-ROM is an important consideration. The large screens of many modern laptops also make them well-suited to giving sales and marketing presentations to customers. However, many laptops are weighty and are unlikely to support a whole day of continuous use when running on battery power.

A variation of the laptop is the Tablet PC, which runs a version of Windows XP supporting pen input. Some Tablet PCs are little different from standard laptops, but the slate-style models have been designed without a keyboard to cut down on weight. This type is proving popular in sectors such as healthcare and salesforce automation, where form filling and data capture is a common application.

PDAs are another option for mobile working. Most come with built-in applications for personal information management (PIM) tasks, storing contacts, to-do lists and calendar information. These can usually be synchronised with data on a desktop or server. Most handhelds also feature a built-in email client.

Smartphones are another option. They support voice and data communications, web browsing, and PIM functionality. Many smartphones are based on software similar to that of PDA operating systems, such as Microsoft's Windows Mobile and PalmSource's Palm OS. This means many PDA applications will also run on smartphones.

There are also more exotic, ruggedised handhelds, designed to help automate common tasks such as warehouse inventory and stock taking, asset tracking, and capturing signatures for parcel deliveries.

Such devices can be configured with barcode scanners, tiny mobile printers, and a variety of communications adapters to support various types of task.

Most of these devices, including Psion's recently announced Workabout Pro and Symbol's PDT series, run Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, because Microsoft's developer tool support helps firms to quickly build or customise applications to run on the hardware.

None of the above devices will be of much use if it cannot access and update corporate data whenever necessary. For this reason, some form of communications capability is essential. A variety of options are available to support mobile workers both when on-site and away from company premises.

Smartphones by their very nature come with a connection to one of the mobile phone networks, and use GPRS transmission for data communications.

Adapter cards can also be used to add this capability to laptops and PDAs.

GPRS supports data rates of up to 40kbit/s and is well suited to occasional web browsing or the checking of emails. However, applications that require regular, real-time updates of information would be better off using other wireless technologies, such as the Mobitex packet-switched wireless data network operated by Transcomm.

The 3G services now being rolled out by mobile operators promise data rates from 64kbit/s to 384kbit/s. These are available now for laptop and handheld clients through an adapter card.

Wireless LAN (WLAN) technologies offer higher data rates, but only over a relatively short range - up to about 100m. This makes them well-suited to office, factory or warehouse applications. Wireless hotspots are also appearing in hotels and many public places, allowing travelling executives with laptops to link to offices via the internet.

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