Over the next five years, corporate users will join consumers in
the wireless service user base. This trend has already started as
companies use wireless technologies to connect corporate
information technology (IT) systems with customers, employees,
suppliers, and partners. Companies realize the benefits of
providing wireless access to email, instant messaging, portals,
and corporate systems. These benefits include reduced administrative
overhead, increased efficiency, and a more rapid distribution
of information throughout an organization.
For mobile professionals, a wireless device allows access to all
sales literature, provides answers to questions about unfamiliar
products or services, and permits check-in with the home office
for timely reports, expenses, and inventory status, among other
things. Enterprises are using wireless devices with an Internet
browser to provide remote access to corporate data—up-to-date
access to recent sales, current orders, proposals in progress, and
accounts receivables. The key to ensure the acceptance and
usability of these devices is to design them be customized for the
precise information needed by the user; thus, only relevant information
is displayed rather than the wealth of information usually
displayed on management information systems.