Another customer recently explained that his business suffers when he can’t get information in time to meet his customers’ needs. The right update might be waiting for him when he gets back to his desk, but by then, it’s too late. The wrong part has been shipped, or not shipped at all. The wrong service was performed or in the wrong way. If this business can use mobility to solve the “now” problem, they too will unleash tremendous power and rise above the shoddy service expectations that have been set in their industry.

So what does this mean for IT? Unfortunately, it probably means increased spending with unclear paybacks, but what else is new? The above examples are intentionally vague and may not even relate to the opportunities to unleash the power of mobility in your business, but it probably comes down to investing in the right mobile devices, the right applications and the right mobile services to overcome the “here” and “now” constraints that have been plaguing your company.

Managing the Danger
Although I’m sure that many new dangers will emerge as we move into the mobility age, we can already guess at some of the big ones. The security of data (especially when a mobile device is lost or stolen), the threat of viruses, the challenge of supporting mobile users and the complexity of managing a portfolio of applications on multiple device types (many owned by end users) across diverse networks (most outside IT’s control).

As with many IT management challenges, there are at least three ways to deal with these dangers: Ignore them (not recommended), outsource the management or become an expert and invest in the tools. Both tools and managed services are available to address virtually all of the known dangers of mobility and I’m sure savvy businesses will continue to introduce offers as new threats emerge.

“Oh wow?” or “Oh no?”
In retrospect, I think most of us relate to the “Oh wow!” or “Oh no!” positioning based on how prepared we were when the Internet question was raised by our CEO or by some overly-hip board member. If we were already thinking about the Internet, both in terms of the power it could unleash or the danger it could impose on our business, then we were ready for the call and could confidently respond with, “Oh wow! Look what the Internet can do for us!” If we weren’t ready then all we could do is say, “Oh no! Look what the Internet can do to us!”