Mobile e-mail initiatives have started in many different ways
in the past. Sometimes, they have come about as a result of users
pestering the IT department, leading to tactical implementations
that were regarded simply as a necessary evil from an IT
perspective, rather than a fully fledged part of the IT strategy
and infrastructure.
On other occasions, mobile operators and their partners have
sold a
"proof of
concept" pilot project to an organisation. This project
solidified over time into a permanent installation, but without
necessarily having been bolstered to deal with the broader needs of
scalability and manageability.
Third, there are "under the radar" projects in which individuals
and departments have used
"prosumer"
products and services to solve their personal and local needs,
sometimes with the blessing of IT, sometimes without.
Of course, there are also organisations that have implemented
mobile e-mail systems as one or more properly supported IT
initiatives, but for whatever reason, wish to revisit these
systems. This might be because of the maturing of user needs, a
wish to review past and future investments in the light of
technology evolution, or a desire to consolidate multiple systems
to reduce cost, improve support or make the system more
manageable.
Making sense of the options
Now that
mobile e-mail is moving into the mainstream, with technology
and services widely available to businesses of all sizes,
organisations looking to either invest for the first time or review
their current arrangements are presented with a range of approaches
and options for moving forward.
But how do you make sense of these options and figure out the
best system for your business? If your course is not yet set, you
are likely to be faced with some technology decisions.
Although interest in mobile access to a range of corporate
systems, such as customer relationship management and enterprise
resource planning, is growing, messaging is still the primary
driver for investment in
handheld technology for business professionals. And according
to 756 business and IT professionals participating in a recent
online study, it is going to remain this way for at least the next
couple of years.
The debate about whether e-mail on the move is going to be an
integral part of business life into the future is pretty much over.
If you are not yet convinced, you are in the minority.
Some organisations have already set their direction in this area
in terms of technology choices, but if you have yet to take the
plunge - or need to review an informal, limited or piecemeal
capability that is currently in place - then decisions need to be
made.
All mobile e-mail systems have one thing in common: they allow a
user to send and receive messages via a handheld device. Where they
differ significantly is in the way they do this, which in turn
determines which underlying mail servers and services they will
work with effectively, the experience delivered to the user, and
the ease with which they can be set up and administered.
Systems designed to work with large-scale
Microsoft Exchange or
Lotus Domino systems are not necessarily going to help the
large number of small businesses relying on ISP-hosted
Pop3 mailboxes, and vice versa.
Assess your mobile e-mail needs
And from a user perspective, systems conceived for occasional
low-volume access will be inadequate for road warriors, and fully
comprehensive mailbox mirroring and attachment handling may be an
overkill or difficult to cost justify for relatively light
users.
Research in Motion is the market leader with its
Blackberry Enterprise Server middleware and the
Blackberry Internet Service delivered through mobile
operators.
The challenger to the crown is Microsoft, with its mobile e-mail
capability embedded natively into Exchange. However, it is worth
investigating other options, which sometimes provide greater
freedom in terms of device support and systems integration.
Mobile operator branded relay services and total hosted e-mail
offerings with a mobile access option particularly address the
needs of smaller businesses, so there is nothing practical or
technical standing in the way of any organisation moving forwards
with e-mail on the move, regardless of its size and
requirements.