The mobile email addiction is spreading fast—Posted on August 31, 2007
So it’s official, following years of speculation about how addictive the BlackBerry really is, Gartner has released a research report predicting a meteoric rise in the use of mobile email. It forecasts that the popularity of text messaging is on the wane, as by 2010 over a fifth of email users will be sending messages wirelessly. Also that within three years wireless email users would have grown from 20million to 350million worldwide. That’s more than 320 million new users - more than the population of the USA!
What will this huge upsurge in mobile emailing mean? The short answer is that by 2010 people will think emailing while waiting for a flight is as normal as texting on a bus. This change in how people want to communicate is where SMBs will really notice the impact on their business.
As customers begin to email from wherever they are, whenever they want , they will expect a company they are doing business with to be doing the same. Not having a work force equipped to work on the move will mean that that employees will not be as responsive as your increasingly demanding customer base will expect. Your reputation as a company that rides with the times could be seriously tarnished.
Some SMBs will be concerned about the cost and hassle of implementing mobile email. But it can be easily enabled through 3G cards for laptops or handheld devices. SMBs should seriously consider if mobile email will help to improve staff efficiency and customer relationships. If so, adoption driven by company foresight, rather than a beleaguered response to unsatisfied customers, is surely a sound business strategy.
Entrepreneurs on the move—Posted on August 6, 2007
Some interesting new research about mobile working came out this week. Occupational psychologists (Pearn Kandola, commissioned by Cisco) have identified the qualities that make a successful mobile worker. It seems that the best personality profile is someone who is self-motivated, resilient and independent. Good mobile workers are extroverted, creative and disciplined. All terms that could just as easily be used to describe a successful entrepreneur.
The UK is gripped by the possibilities of entrepreneurialism at the moment. Research shows that 60% of 16 to 21-year-olds aspire to be self-employed in the future. The huge appetite for TV shows like The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den suggests that we’re all busy hatching plans to make our fortunes by setting up our own businesses. Of course it isn’t easy, or we really would all be doing it. You need a great idea and bags of energy, and you also need to be a ‘jack of all trades’, taking on anything from sales and marketing to back office roles like finance and HR... I’m a great believer in how mobile technology can help manage these varied challenges, empower small start-ups and contribute to their success.
Entrepreneurs who want to work smarter and who are open to new ideas (another key attribute identified by the research) are using mobile technologies to help them compete with the larger and more established ‘big boys’. A friend of mine recently set up on his own as a consultant. The hard part was deciding on a company name – once that was done he set up a simple website, bought a BlackBerry and he was in business. The BlackBerry means he is immediately as available to customers as his bigger rivals, punching above his weight and looking like he’s running a bigger operation than he is.
Mobility is all about freedom, success and working smart… Working your own hours, where and when you want, and the promise of business success. It is hardly a surprise that successful entrepreneurs are putting it at the centre of their businesses.