AmVia - Voicematix forecasts dramatic increase for mobile communications

AmVia - Voicematix has released survey results which report that 84 percent of Fortune 1000 executives expect the need of their workforces for mobile communications to grow dramatically.

Commissioned by AVT Corporation and conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide, the survey also predicts the use of wireless devices, such as Web-enabled phones and wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs), will increase by as much as 200 percent during the next two years.

AVT is a leading provider of e-Information Exchange solutions including unified messaging, mobile wireless and document distribution. Wirthlin, whose clients include 75 of the Fortune 100 firms, is one of the leading full-service opinion research and strategic consulting firms in the United States.

Wirthlin interviewed Fortune 1000 vice presidents, presidents and chief executive officers about employee mobility, wireless communications needs, and the use of and satisfaction with existing wireless devices and applications during the period of September 1 - September 23, 2000. The sampling error for this survey is approximately 11 percent.

More than half of the executives surveyed said their employees are "travelling and on the go" as much as 25 percent of the time, but more than 35 percent of the executives believe their employees are very mobile at least half the time.

The overwhelming majority (84 percent) believe the need for mobile communication will grow in the future, and nearly 40 percent expect the need to grow "much more." Only three percent of those surveyed said their workforces would develop fewer mobile communications needs.

The executives indicated that their workforces have already begun to utilise Web-enabled phones (15 percent) or wireless PDAs (26 percent), but during the next 24 months, they believe the use of these wireless devices will grow dramatically. Within these two years, more than half of the executives think 25 percent or more of their employees will be using Web-enabled phones and PDAs, indicating a 200-percent and 100-percent increase respectively.

Users believed to have the greatest need for Web-enabled phones and PDAs are:

• 71 percent Sales personnel;

• 59 percent Executives and senior management;

• 46 percent Technical service personnel;

• 14 percent Manufacturing and operations personnel; and

• 11 percent Administrative support staff.

"What we`re experiencing is not just a case of more people travelling more often for business," said Joseph A Staples, AVT Executive Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Emerging Technologies. "The expectations regarding someone`s productivity while on the road have changed dramatically. They must stay connected with their clients and the office, but also maintain immediate access to critical company databases and information to achieve peak performance."

Because of the increased expectations facing mobile employees, an overwhelming majority of the executives believe at least 25 percent of their workforces would benefit from having mobile access to corporate information such as e-mail, corporate documents, customer relationship management (CRM) data and enterprise resource planning (ERP) information.

When asked to identify the most important type of information their employees need to access remotely, the executives said:

• 93 percent Receiving and sending e-mail;

• 87 percent Customer or client data;

• 79 percent Personal calendars and scheduling information; and

• 71 percent Access to all company databases.

Although the executives placed a high value of importance on providing their mobile employees with wireless access to e-mail, personal calendaring and scheduling, only one in five indicated that they are "very satisfied" with the ability of current technologies to meet these needs. Less than 20 percent are "very satisfied" with the ability of current technologies to provide access to customer and corporate data, or all critical company databases.

"These statistics point to a clear disconnect between the importance these survey respondents place on remote access to corporate and client information, and their satisfaction with the ability of current technologies to meet those demands," says Kevin Hurwitz, Mission Controller for AmVia - Voicematix. "This disconnect is the driving force behind AmVia - Voicematix strategy to deliver mobile wireless data solutions to the business market. By leveraging our expertise in unified messaging, call processing and document exchange, we are confident of our ability to deliver a proven solution to the market in the first half of 2001."

The full Executive Mobile Wireless Survey is freely available electronically, e-mail jason@amvia.com with the subject heading `Mobile Survey`.