Information for Business from Lenovo
Contributor: Darren Baguley
The business case for mobility

The introduction of the internet promised access to unlimited knowledge anytime, anywhere. The recent rise of ubiquitous, cutting-edge mobility is delivering on that promise.

It's almost impossible to overstate the impact the internet has had on our world; however, initially its transformative effect was limited by those blue cables that tied us to our desks. The recent availability of mobile devices and data has freed us from that tyranny, and businesses and consumers are now realising the true potential of the internet.

While the benefits take various forms, cost savings driven by productivity are at the core of a successful mobility strategy. Simply allowing employees to access their email and other company resources on their personal or company-provided smart phone and tablet boosts productivity. Study after study shows that a noticeable boost in output comes just from employees being able to quickly deal with an urgent email at home, instead of leaving it until the morning.

Mobile field force

Many organisations with mobile field-force technicians saw the benefits of mobility quickly and started deploying tablets and PDAs when the devices were heavy, bulky and expensive, and mobile data was unreliable and costly. Technicians could carry an entire reference library on the hard drive, update the progress of their last job and get the details of the next one. 

PDAs have morphed into smart phones and tablets, such as the ThinkPad Tablet 10, which are now easily available, light and capable. If you’re not providing your mobile technicians with a tablet or smart phone, you are losing money.

Make more sales calls

Mobility also drives sales productivity while reducing real estate costs. With the right apps and processes in place, sales representatives can productively work from home and their cars, only coming into the office for meetings and training. Time that used to be wasted sitting in airport departure lounges or traffic jams can now be put to good use.

Indeed, with powerful hybrid devices like the ThinkPad Helix, which can morph in seconds from presentation mode to dash-off-a-quick-email mode or heavy-duty content-creation-device mode, a break between appointments is just an opportunity to get to work on that next presentation.

Streamlining internal processes

Mobility is also proving effective for streamlining internal processes. Apps that allow employees to easily and accurately file expense reports or log work kilometres travelled are reducing costs by eliminating double or triple handling of paper.

However, the key to unlocking these benefits is to ensure that organisations understand the top priorities for the organisation and then ensure the business strategies and mobility benefits are closely aligned. 

 

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