Technology Today: 8.25.2010

Posted by TED Magazine on Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The PDAs are coming to your ERP System

Distributors - are you ready for the ultimate remote access challenge? At first PDAs were just curiosities, toys for the tinkerers. Then they started to proliferate.   Soon after, though, power users started to get frustrated about excessive data entry: They began to wonder why they can't connect their new toys to the sales, financial, marketing, and other areas of their business systems and avoid duplicating keystrokes.

ERP, enterprise resource planning, applications and mobility go hand in hand in today’s business environment.  Having visibility into enterprise systems and operations when you are away from the office and your PC is becoming critical.  As you know, downtime of any kind and sub-optimal performance is costly and tough to make up with the ever increasing slim profit margins and increasing competition.  PDA manufacturers such as Blackberry have incorporated ERP applications for years as they have catered to the demand of their customers to keep in touch with their enterprise systems that manage the company’s data, customers and business partners when they are mobile.

Enterprise applications such as email, calendars, CRM, business intelligence, field service or collaborative tools are perfect PDA apps. These solutions now offer almost virtually everything needed to mobilize a company’s workforce.  Most PDA, ERP applications are designed with flexibility and security in mind with an open architecture for globally extending corporate information and wireless communication to PDA users.  Some mobile applications can work in disconnected, real-time or via texting since not all users have Windows Mobile, BlackBerry or iPhones. Many processes are being chosen for mobile-device access based on distributor feedback so your opinions are very important.

In a nutshell, the recent economic crisis has changed your business processes forever. You can either change or pack up and go home. Surely the survivors of the recession are not resting on their laurels – that’s not their style. The rules are different, the market share leader boards are shuffling, and there is a new generation of business applications to help you stake your claim, protect it, and profit from the fertile ground of your ongoing innovation.

 Please let me know if you want more information about how PDA’s can be used with your business system.  Also, be sure to register for a free Technology for Distributors Newsletter at www.dtgworldwide.com .