The New Corporate Era- Going Mobile

With the rise in the popularity of Blackberry Smart phones, there is also an increase in the number of employees going “mobile”. They are now able to log onto their office network and work on their phones. Not too long ago, it was only the high level executives who are able to work away from their workplace.

The GigaOm Pro Survey "The future of workplaces" indicates that there has been a steep rise from 26% last year to 38% where businesses are handled on mobile phones. Moreover, by 2015, mobile devices will replace half of the devices such as laptops and personal computers in corporate offices.

Marie Wieck, General Manager, IBM Application and Infrastructure Middleware said "Our clients are under increased pressure to meet the growing demands of a workforce and customer base that now treat mobility as mission critical to their business." He further added “With the acquisition of Worklight, IBM is well-positioned to help clients become smarter mobile enterprises reaching new markets."

Types of Mobile Employee:

Connor Livingston in his article “The rise of the mobile employee” described 4 types of Mobile Employee. They are:

a.    Mobile Information Workers: Consultants, Banking executives or financial service employees travels frequently, but they need to stay in touch with the office through mails and other tools. In 2010, there was only 24% of these employees, however it is estimated to rise to 30% by 2015.

b.    Mobile Task Workers: Workers such as delivery drivers, sales representative and field service employees require the use of mobile to do their jobs. They will need to update any information that they received. As they are on the move, carrying a laptop would be an uneasy task.  It is estimated that by 2015, there will be 15% workers in this category-a marginal rise from 13% in 2010.

c.    Mobile Wannabes: The new era is mobile. Office Assistants or Customer Service Reps, though their jobs are primarily at the desk, however they mostly use mobile communication devices for leisure purposes.

d.    Mobile Mavericks: General Managers, C-level Executive or supervisors travel for business and work outside their office. They would need to stay in touch with their colleagues in the office for any update. It is estimated that by 2015, there will be 30% Mobile Mavericks, a remarkable rise from 16% in 2010.

Going mobile has proved to be beneficial to clients as some important mails or issues can be answered promptly. However, there is also a risk of data breaches as the information is being transferred through low-security connections.

xCubeLabs provided an interactive infographic about “The Mobile Employee” showing recent trends and development.