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Canadian firms lead in telework, lag in mobility
Telecommuting has risen sharply in Canada and wireless devices are changing the way workers communicate. But if you thought these trends have made Canadian firms savvier in the area of "mobility" ... think again. A new survey shows Canadian companies are deceiving themselves if they believe they have an effective mobility strategy.5/6/2009 7:00:00 AM By: Joaquim P. Menezes
Recent surveys testify to the dramatic growth of telework in Canada.
The number of Canadian organizations offering telework has grown from 25 per cent in 2007 to 40 per cent in 2008, according to the 2008-2009 WorldatWork Survey.
And an Office Team poll of 100 senior execs in August 2008 indicates that 74 per cent of Canadian managers expect teleworker numbers to increase over the next five years.
But if you thought the sharp rise in telecommuting has made Canadian firms savvier in the area of "mobility" ... think again.
Canadian organizations – both public and private – are "misleading" themselves into believing they have a viable mobility strategy, according to a recent IDC Canada survey.
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Sponsored by Toronto-based SAP Canada, the survey polled 255 senior IT and business decision makers across a broad swath of industries: manufacturing, financial services, retail, oil and gas/utilities and the public sector.
Based on the results, the research firm concluded that the image of a "leading-edge" Canadian mobile worker doesn't quite square with reality.
That's not to say that most Canadian organizations haven't wirelessly enabled their workforce. In fact, the study points to how the rapid proliferation of mobile devices – cell phones, smart phones, netbooks and laptops – is changing the way people communicate in private and public sector outfits.
But mere multiplication of gadgets doesn't quite cut it, IDC Canada says ... nor does "wireless enablement" constitute an effective mobility strategy.
And the difference is a vital one, according to the analyst firm.
Many mobile devices, no mobile strategy
A mobile strategy, according IDC analyst Nigel Wallis, should help an organization achieve its goals by increasing accessibility of products, processes, and services to stakeholders – employees, suppliers, customers and partners.
Wallis, who is research manager, Canadian applications services research, authored the paper "Mobilizing Canada: Moving Beyond Wireless Enablement" – based on the IDC Canada survey.
Survey data shows Canadian organizations have armed "some part of their staff with devices to allow wireless e-mail and Internet access."
But as far as mobilizing key business applications go, they're still in a "nascent" phase.
One reason is decision makers in most Canadian organizations view mobilization as an extension of wireless capabilities, Wallis says in the report.
What they really need to be doing, he said, is to provide relevant staff with ubiquitous access to key applications in an intuitive way.
One Canadian company making a concerted effort to do this is Oakville, Ont.-based Securit (commonly known as Shred-It), a privately held records management and document destruction firm.
Securit, which has 140 branches in more than 15 countries, will soon be piloting SAP CRM on RIM BlackBerry devices. (Since its launch, last year, the offering has been frequently dubbed "office-on-the-hip" by executives from SAP and RIM).
"We'll start with 10 -12 of our U.K. sales people, who are already using SAP CRM sales," Dan Snider, vice-president business systems at Securit told ITBusiness.ca. Longer term, the firm plans on rolling out the product for all its 350 sales reps worldwide.
Increased productivity is expected to be the immediate and most tangible fallout.
At Securit, the general sales territory reps (who constitute the bulk of the sales force) don't currently use laptops. All they have is notepads to jot down leads and track their progress, said Snider.
The lead-gen process itself is "very manual" right now, he said. "A typical sales rep goes into an office a couple of times a week, and uses whatever facilities are available - telephone directories, yellow pages – to generate leads. They then make sales calls from those lists."
He said with the "SAP CRM on Blackberry" rollout the lead gen process would become automated, quicker, and smarter. "Leads would get pushed to salespersons real-time, based on certain criteria."
The other huge benefit, he said, is tracking of the sales process.
Page Navigation 1) The image of a "leading-edge" Canadian mobile worker, doesn't quite square with reality. - Page 12) Sales pipeline tracking on Blackberries. - Page 2
3) Canadians aren't early adopters of "new technologies." - Page 3
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