Dexterra has announced the release of a new online return on investment (ROI) calculator, designed to help IT leaders better understand the financial benefits of mobilising their company and employees.
The business mobility vendor says that the platform works by requesting information about a company and the way in which it works and then calculating the percentage by which that organisation can lower costs or increase workforce productivity.
Dexterra hopes that this will provide organisations with demonstrable evidence of the financial and productivity benefits of going mobile.
Many analysts have tipped mobility as a big winner in 2009, as companies look for ways to increase productivity while looking to cut costs as the recession begins to bite.
Michael Liebow, CEO of Dexterra, said: “Despite the bleak economic picture, the fact remains that over the last two years advances in smartphone technology and lower costs for mobile services, combined with the ubiquity of high speed mobile networks have made it possible to affordably equip an entire mobile workforce.”
“2009 will be a big year for business mobility – it is a maturing technology with rapid acceptance, and an economy that will drive people to it. No company would ditch essential tools like email or anti-virus in a downturn economy just to save money. Mobility has now achieved the same status.”
Dexterra stresses that mobility does not have to be expensive and does not have to replace a legacy system. Elements of existing office-based software can be turned in mobile applications, meaning that people can work just as easily on their smartphones as they can in an office.
Liebow said: “A winning mobility strategy is task-centric. It is built on the processes already in place and plays to the way employees want to work. Mobility lets people complete the things they need to do every day, as they happen, instead of having to find a place to connect a laptop, disrupt an office worker, or return to the office. Our customers shave time off the workflow, and grow without adding additional administrative personnel or burdening existing staff.”
With smartphones already well-established in the consumer space, workers are increasingly demanding the same mobility in their business environment. Liebow said that companies should look to embrace this technology, especially as it may stop employees from using them for business purposes without authorisation.
“Whether a business embraces mobility or not, its employees most certainly will, as desirable consumer devices such as Apple iPhone, BlackBerry Storm and T-Mobile G1 become increasingly affordable,” he said.
“Staff are going to start using these devices for work purposes, even if the company has not sanctioned their use, posing management and control issues that could very well puncture network security and disrupt mandatory compliance requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley.”
