If you are a
tiny business owner - whether you have no employees or 100 - chances are, you
have a smartphone. Whether it is a Blackberry, iPhone, Palm Pre, or the
Motorola Droid, you very certainly depend on your phone to manage your
calendar, read your electronic mail, check the weather, catch up on the news,
update your Facebook page, play some games, and possibly even take an actual
phone call or. Did you know, however, that you can now also operate your whole
business using that same tool?
Plenty of ERP
solutions are now available as fully featured apps on numerous smartphones, the
Blackberry and iPhone (and, increasingly, the Droid). Field technicians and
sales representatives as well as the ever-mobile CEO can all access their
company's operations through secure applications custom-made specifically for
mobile platforms. Heck, even the Army's getting in on the action.
Limited screen
size. Smartphone screens are getting wider and bigger, with resolution rates
increasing at an impressive rate, but they still cannot compare with the text
size on even a tiny netbook. For plenty of mobile workers, smartphones may be
useful for speedy electronic mail checks and to look something up online, but
it can be a visual strain to depend on them exclusively for both reading and
writing documents and forms.
Limited
keyboard size. Even the touchscreens available on some smartphones can be
clunky to make use of, and plenty of keyboards are tiny to do extensive typing
and knowledge entry.
Limited
battery life. As smartphones get, well, smarter, they eat up battery power more
quickly. They can only hope that as the expertise improves, battery life will
increase as well, but for now, the more work you need of your smartphone, the
less time you have between charging times.
Inconsistent
coverage. I am sure you have heard all about the antenna issues with the new
iPhone four, but issues can arise with coverage areas as well. Your smartphone
connects to the Net using your cellular provider's network, and in the event
you happen to be in a remote area with limited coverage, you'll be unable to
connect to the net, not to mention your company's ERP process.
Limited global
coverage. Plenty of US-based smartphones nowadays work on abroad cellular
networks, but not all of them. In the event you do travel internationally - and
yes, Canada counts as "international" - make sure that you understand
how to make use of your smartphone abroad and how much more it will cost you to
do so. If it is wi-fi enabled, you may be able to basically use that
functionality in lieu of connecting to a cellular network, but it might still
be better and cheaper overall to basically tote your laptop computer or netbook
with you and basically connect to a wi-fi hotspot, whether you are in Singapore
or South Africa. Enterprise resource planning
Of work,
despite all the hype about mobile computing, smartphones do have limitations
that ERP customers must take in to consideration when deciding whether or not
to replace their laptops with the latest hot gadget.
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