Well not necessarily, because according to analyst firm IDC, in today's commercial organisations it's a company's mobile workers - for example, field service engineers or sales reps - who are the most strategically important employees.

In a study entitled 'Worldwide Mobile Worker Population Forecast and Analysis 2005-2009', IDC emphasises that more and more businesses are now realising the growing importance of their mobile workers. By 2009, there will be an estimated 850 million mobile workers, representing more than a quarter of the world's workforce.

This trend is being driven by end-customers who are demanding superior levels of service 'in the field'.

Customers want suppliers to be responsive and efficient. This means there is pressure on providers, particularly larger service providers, to maintain highly-organised field service operations that can deliver a cutting edge service.

CRITICAL APPLICATIONS

As a result, there is an increasing number of mobile workers that have become reliant on access to critical applications and customer information while on the move.

Meanwhile, service providers are under pressure to assign work requests to their field force at an optimal level, dispatching work from the office to the field, monitoring the progress of the work and responding to changing conditions.

They also need to able to measure workforce performance in order to improve the quality of strategic forecasting and planning efforts.

These are all essential tasks given the competitive environment and the need to increase productivity and drive down costs.


READ BETWEEN THE LINES

TASKFORCE 

Designed primarily for organisations with more than a fifteen hundred mobile workers, Taskforce from BT Wholesale is one solution that is helping businesses which rely on their mobile workers to achieve their business goals.

Companies deploying Taskforce have seen significant improvements in productivity, quality and efficiency. This has resulted in resulted in greater levels of customer retention and growth.

Talk to your Account Manager about Taskforce, or email the Between The Lines team here.