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I was reading an MSNBC post this morning by Suzanne Choney that really struck home. (I am one of the majorities in this one.) The post title is a bit deceiving as it states, “25 percent use smartphones, not computers, for majority of Web surfing”, with the source cited for these statistics being the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. The fact that 25% of those polled mostly use their smartphones to go online is interesting but the point that really caught my attention was that 87% of smartphone users use their smartphone to access the internet and/or email which is where I fall in these statistics, especially when traveling.

This also made me think about ECM environments and how smartphones are impacting our ability to serve our customers by delivering information they seek via their channels of choice, which includes smartphones. In my global travels teaching and lecturing about ECM, I bring into the discussion mobile access and capture. It is an area that many organizations have not fully addressed, yet the devices are in full use by their workforces. Mobile access and capture by employees is rapidly gaining momentum and acceptance which now places an interesting burden upon the organization, one of appropriate use and governance.

In my view, the expanding use of mobile devices is a good thing and as they become more powerful and compact, I feel they will dominate the workplace for many of the daily activities we undertake, like accessing and capturing information. There are some areas like financial reporting, graphics creation that may lag for a bit, but who knows, with SaaS based applications becoming more popular and full featured, this too may change. My point is that mobile devices are here to stay and I believe, become the dominant device for many in the future. What needs to be done now, is to prepare by establishing governance that addresses appropriate use, security, capture and access in the same way you would internally using desktop PCs. The only thing that changes is the device. Change is inevitable as is increased use of mobile devices. How you prepare for change is up to you.     

If as an organization, you are ready to move forward or are struggling with use of mobile devices and are not sure where to begin or what to do next, seek professional assistance and/or training to get you started.

What say you? Do you have a story to tell? What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have a topic of interest you would like discussed in this forum? Let me know.

Bob Larrivee, Director and Industry Advisor – AIIM

Email me: blarrivee@aiim.org   

Follow me on Twitter – BobLarrivee

www.aiim.org/training     

Look for my session on Mobile Devices in the upcoming AIIM sbcon11 event this September.