Oakwell hosts Mobilising Applications event at Microsoft South Africa

A customer event hosted by Microsoft and specialist .Net developer, Oakwell Solutions, has helped local business managers to dispel false perceptions of SA`s connectedness, discover potential returns of enhanced workforce mobility, and gain insight into how leading companies have implemented and reaped the rewards of mobility solutions.

Although the concept of an increasingly mobile workforce is highly attractive to organisations, the need to disseminate marketing hype to calculate the value and adherence to security that each solution offers has many businesses adopting a `wait and see` approach.

Addressing these concerns, the event included presentations from Oakwell`s managing director - Roy Hobson, technical director - Shane Coetser; architect - Matthew Cook and Microsoft South Africa`s Windows Client business group lead, Jonathan Hatchuel. Furthermore, mobile solution providers, Leaf Wireless and Symbol, held open demonstrations during breaks.

Despite business perception that SA trails most of the world in connectedness, Hatchuel showed that the reality of the local business environment is quite the opposite.

Encouraging delegates to display by a show of hands, Hatchuel demonstrated that all (100%) attendees had cellular phones; +70% owned or used other mobile devices including laptops and PDAs; +80% had computers at home; and that +70% accessed work e-mail from areas other than their desk.

"The reality of SA`s business environment is that the vast majority of the infrastructure is in place to support increased mobility in the workforce," says Hatchuel. "At Microsoft we fully support those partners who are developing applications that will help companies to take advantage of a broadly connected workforce."

Today`s competitive environment has many challenges for business management. Although the market favours organisations that are customer-centric, it is unable to absorb the additional costs of such a strategy. Therefore businesses are under considerable pressure to improve productivity while reducing costs.

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Workforce mobility is key area of opportunity for businesses looking meet these demands. A workforce that has the ability to continuously stay in contact - and has access to the organisation`s systems and information anywhere, anytime and on any device - is one that is empowered to deliver exceptional results.

In his presentation on delivering integrated mobility, Hobson explained that the mobility maturity model progressed through four levels, with each level delivering further value to the organisation.

"In the first level we see employees gaining remote access to e-mail, calendaring and tasks. This is followed by automation of paper-based data capture, significantly reducing duplication of labour, increasing productivity and improving data accuracy. The third level sees mobile employees interacting and integrating with server-based business processes allowing for real-time information access from the field and for management. Finally, we see enterprise boundaries becoming blurred as well as a blurring of roles - with mobile workers becoming information workers," he said.

Furthermore, Hobson highlighted additional benefits for the company explaining that having achieved a mature mobility model companies are able to reduce the cost of acquiring and maintaining business, accelerate reaction times, and create a collaboration platform that facilitates aggregated knowledge and informed decision-making.

Following this presentation, attendees were presented with a case study of a financial institution as well as a case study of SAB Limited, which was presented by Anthony Briggs, marketing, sales and distribution systems manager of SAB.