New Communication Options for the Mobile Professional

Receiving corporate e-mail remotely on a handheld device that serves as a cell phone is not a new concept. These "smartphone" devices traditionally have been marketed to large organizations due to the cost of implementation and support. Recently, the demand for mobile e-mail communication from small — and medium — size businesses and from individuals has grown dramatically. A recent study indicates that the demand for smartphones has doubled since last year, and will account for 15% of all cell phone sales this year. As a result, wireless providers are now heavily marketing solutions such as Blackberry and Treo to anyone who is in the market for a cell phone.

Smartphones come with software that offers limited e-mail integration, allowing users to send and receive messages from their corporate e-mail account. Users can create calendar entries while in the field, but these entries aren’t reflected on their calendars back at the office until the phone is synched with the PC. The lag-time between smartphone entry and synching with the PC can result in scheduling conflicts.

Microsoft has entered the mobile communication market by including a more robust solution, one that is included at no extra cost in their highly popular Exchange 2003 e-mail server software. It allows users to send and receive e-mail and provides better synching technology by updating a user’s e-mail, calendar, and contacts "on the fly." The user’s device is synched with his or her Microsoft Outlook by utilizing the cell phone provider’s wireless network. As a result, new calendar entries, contact updates, and sent e-mails are pushed back to the user’s PC almost immediately. New messages and calendar events sent to the person also are remotely synched to the device over the cell phone network. Other product offerings such as Blackberry Enterprise Server and GoodLink allow users to sync their corporate e-mail to a smartphone device. These offerings are similar to the Microsoft solution, but require additional server software.

Every organization has different mobile e-mail requirements. DDF Technology can help you select and implement the mobile e-mail solution that is right for your business. To learn more about mobile e-mail solutions, our computer network support, software implementation, or spam killing services, please contact Chris Jones at (859) 425-7685 or info@ddftech.com.