There was a day not that long ago when CIOs and IT heads declaimed that, hell no, they were not going to let PCs creep into the corporation, much less get tied into a centralized network. It was IT heresy to think the common worker should have access to corporate data. Little did these Luddites realize that the day would come when employees would break the tether to their desktop PCs and roam the planet with devices in their shirt pocket far more intelligent than early PCs, and connected to virtually every other such device in the world in real time.

ERP Software

Mobile ERP? The smart phone revolution hits IT.

But, of course, that’s exactly the effect iPhones and Androids are having. Users want to be connected to corporate ERP systems and, this time around, IT is showing a lot less resistance. It’s not just mobile devices, but phenomena like social media, which, in the corporate context, looks like a mighty good platform for collaboration. It’s incumbent on IT to stay ahead of this trend to fully leverage the benefits while maintaining security levels and managing the network.

IDG Research recently polled IT pros on their mobile strategy and found that 33% of the respondents cited slow decision-making as a downside to not mobilizing the workforce, followed by a 34%  mentioning a decrease in productivity, decreases in employee satisfaction (34%) and business opportunities lost due to lack of real-time access to enterprise data (24%). No wonder companies are making mobility a strategic initiative.

This is really a bottom-up event. Younger and more tech-savvy employees, often referred to as “millennials,” have grown up with this technology and expect it to be readily available to them. Almost all of them already use some type of mobile device in their personal lives. Lastly, more and more companies are expecting their workers to be available when they are out of the office.

Users in the field are finding ways their mobile devices can boost efficiency, productivity and performance, then insisting IT support their fresh thinking. IT’s response: “There’s an app for that—or we’ll develop one”. Custom-developed mobile apps give road warriors access to price lists and product specs, inventory levels and production schedules, complete customer records and order status, all on the fly, from the back seat of a taxi or sitting in the customer’s office.

Some of these apps take advantage of smart phone features like cameras and GPS. Sales and marketing teams can use their device cameras to snap pictures of competitive products and packaging, convention booths, billboards, hard-copy magazines and other materials to be uploaded to the CRM database as competitive intelligence. GPS data can be used to enable salespeople to locate nearby customers to visit during their travel downtime. If a sales person is asked about upcoming product plans or, perhaps technical issues he or she is not familiar with, they can use social networking to quickly find a subject matter expert to join the conversation and keep the customer engaged and happy.

The mobile revolution is still at its early stages. But with the momentum it is gaining, expect to more and more uses of these devices and, increasingly, ERP system data customized to fit the mobile format.

Written by :

SkipStein