By Kate Hunt, Director of Communities, CompTIA
Just a decade ago, few shared their personal information with fellow employees, customers, prospects and other business associates. Privacy was an expectation, and only those who developed deeper friendships would get a home or mobile phone number, let alone details of personal lives. Such barriers have virtually disappeared, as social networking and its instant information sharing seem to have knocked down the line between business and private communications.
Today, it’s common for business professionals to have a number of colleagues as Facebook friends or to share personal information on other social media sites. The same approach applies to mobile phones, as the separation between personal and corporate devices continues to diminish. Rather than carrying two devices to maintain their privacy and sanity, most professionals understand the benefits of using a single all-purpose smartphone, and learn to screen calls or use the off switch when necessary.
There are fewer reasons for business professionals to maintain separate personal and corporate mobile phones today and, with call forwarding and other unified communications options, access to their office systems and critical business information is available from virtually anywhere. Advances in technology and carrier services continue to streamline the connection of voice and electronic media. Combined with the latest smart phones, tablets and other portable computing devices, employees can do as much – if not more – work remotely as they can at their corporate headquarters.
Today, it’s not unusual to see business professionals travelling with just their smartphone, or at least ditching their laptop in favor of a lightweight tablet. It’s become a common practice among solution providers and other channel professionals, and many value-added resellers and managed service providers are adding mobility practices to their service portfolio to give their clients the same capabilities.
Why mobility? The demand continues to grow, with the mobile worker population expected to reach 1.3 billion by 2015, according to the IDC Worldwide Mobile Worker Population 2011–2015 Forecast. The same report suggests that 71 percent of small- to medium-sized companies consider themselves work-from-anywhere businesses, requiring a variety of mobile support and security services, such as:
- Mobile device management (MDM)
- Bring your own device (BYOD)
- Application development
- Consultation
- Carrier management
CompTIA recently launched a new collaborative forum to help channel professionals interested in taking advantage of the opportunities offered by mobile technologies and services. The member-lead CompTIA Mobility Community is already hard at work developing a number of educational resources and industry-shaping initiatives to help solution providers, as well as vendor and distribution company executives, achieve their industry objectives.
The new group’s mission is comprehensive, but entirely focused on channel-enablement programs and resources. “The Mobility Community is designed to bring the channel together to facilitate communication and exchange ideas, best practices and industry knowledge in an open, vendor-neutral environment, “said Dave Sobel, director of partner community for Level Platforms and chair of the new CompTIA group. “We’re looking to bring together as many voices interested in discussing mobility as possible. The value of the community is derived from its members. As a new group, it’s important to us to continue to recruit.”
With the resources of CompTIA at its disposal, the Mobility Community’s members will provide expert guidance to channel professionals about how to best embrace mobility. It will help them understand mobility’s common language and learn how to tackle its current and future challenges. As a hands-on technology that many end-users depend on 24/7, much is expected from those who support mobile solutions. That’s the value the Mobility Community will bring to new players in the field, as well as those looking to improve their operations and service levels. By gathering and refining industry best practices and building educational programs to ensure their use, the group plans to enhance the quality of mobility services, as well as their overall value to the business community.
“Mobility has become part of everything that we do, with customers demanding access to data everywhere they are,” Sobel said. “Much like security, it is a becoming a part of every technology conversation.” Remote access to critical business information allows virtually any business to increase its operational efficiencies, improve customer service levels and expand its sales opportunities. That’s why mobility is a major component of almost every organization’s long-term IT plans – and a prime target for the properly equipped and trained solution specialist. While the bleeding edge of mobility may be behind us, with the help of a collaborative group of experienced professionals, channel companies will be fully primed and appropriately positioned to excel in the field.
Want to learn more about the CompTIA Mobility Community and our activities, or are you interested in joining the discussion? Contact me at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Kate Hunt is director of communities at CompTIA.
