Random observations about the deployment of mobile technology

I have been spending a lot of time in big companies the past few months and as usual I always have my eyes open to see how mobile technology is deployed by these companies and how it is used by the employees.  I also do a lot of work in smaller companies and I find the usage of mobile technology to make individuals more productive is very different between the two types of corporations.  Here are some random observations about what I see in the corporate world:

Individuals are by and large ignorant about the various mobile tech offerings that provide email capability.  It takes a big company to “force” the technology on them to make the light go on and demonstrate the benefits that properly deployed gadgets can bring to them.  They will almost never seek out such information on their own.

Smaller companies do not often deploy any mobile technology at all.  Employees are typically only given notebook computers as a perk and then not really trained how to use it.

None of the companies I routinely work with have deployed PDA-type devices to any employees.  One company has deployed Blackberries but I find that the employees who have them use them only for phone calls and email.  Nothing else.  This results in a lot of meetings being accepted via mobile email and then changed later when they get back to their office and discover the appointment conflicts with one already scheduled.  Since most meetings have a number of attendees it can take days to arrange a meeting that fits everyone’s schedule, even though they use shared calendars in Outlook at a corporate level.

Almost every meeting I attend is interrupted by at least one mobile phone ringing.  It always brings things to a standstill when it happens and it is not always the “big important” executive that is the guilty party as you might think.  What really amazes me is that invariably the guilty party will see who is calling and then get up and take the call.  It is very disruptive and I would think there would be actual corporate policies forbidding this as it affects so many people during meetings of large groups.

Those with notebook computers have no clue about wireless connectivity when WiFi is not available.  It is ironic that most companies do not deploy WiFi internally so that means virtually everywhere these people go.  They do try to find hotspots when they are traveling but that’s about it.  They are amazed when they see I can stay connected everywhere, especially in conference rooms.

The companies that deploy mobile phones to employees have an atmosphere that makes it clear the employees can be contacted at any time of the day.  This makes many of them take two mobile phones with them, one personal and the corporate one.  I have seen frustrated managers on more than one occasion complain that “Bob” is not answering his corporate phone while on vacation or days off.

Larger companies are more likely to deploy mobile access to the intranet and to the Exchange Server than smaller ones which is not surprising.  Interestingly, the companies I run across that have good intranets coupled with Outlook Web Access usually make the security requirements to access the intranet so stringent that virtually no one has access while mobile.

These are just a few thoughts about corporate usage of mobile technology that I felt might be of interest to you.  How about your company– is mobile technology in regular use and is it effective?  What would you like to see them do differently?