Mobile and Wireless Access to Collaboration Systems: What's Happened?

By Michael Sampson
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Three years ago I wrote about the state of play with mobile and wireless device access to collaboration systems, such as instant messaging, collaborative workspaces, and customer relationship management (CRM). By “mobile and wireless device” I was referring to small form-factor devices, such as smartphones and PDAs, rather than their bigger brethren, the laptop. The general rule I proposed was “whenever a group of users make a system their habitat for collaborative work, mobile access will probably be required.” At that time I ultimately concluded that mobile and wireless access to instant messaging and CRM systems was pretty good, but access to collaborative workspaces was pretty bad. The purpose of this article is to review what’s happened during the past three years and give a state of play as of August 2009.

IM, Collaborative Workspaces and CRM 2006–2009

The leading enterprise instant messaging systems—Lotus Sametime and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007—offer excellent support for small form-factor devices. IBM’s Lotus Sametime Mobile runs on BlackBerry, Nokia Eseries, Sony Ericsson, and various Windows Mobile devices, providing users with presence and instant messaging capabilities while on the go. As for Microsoft, Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 does the same for Windows Mobile 6 devices, and a Java edition extends support to a plethora of non-Microsoft devices.

Mobile device access to enterprise collaborative workspace products is still stuck in the bad category. Lotus Notes Traveler is for email, calendaring, contacts, journal and to do, not for Lotus Notes or Domino applications. You can’t replicate a Notes database to a mobile device and work with it when out of the office. Lotus Quickr offers team spaces, and while Research In Motion is working on mobile integration, it’s not here yet. IBM’s one bright spot is Lotus Connections 2.0, for which a RIM BlackBerry client is available, and with the upcoming release of Connections 2.5, this mobile client will be gaining richer capabilities. While SharePoint 2007 offers a mobile view (/m) on all lists and libraries in a SharePoint site, it’s “okay” but not as rich as other services—and as I wrote three years ago, it doesn’t work the way I think it should work for task and calendar lists. Details of mobile device access for SharePoint 2010 haven’t been disclosed yet, but we should have a better idea after the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in October 2009.

It’s not all that better beyond IBM and Microsoft, although mobile device access to collaborative workspace services is slowly improving. For example, there are now two iPhone mobile clients for 37signals Basecamp, and as I wrote three years ago, Socialtext wikis detect access from mobile devices and react accordingly. It remains to be seen how many collaborative workspace vendors develop mobile device-specific clients, compared with how many rely on the mobile device-optimized Web browsers.

CRM on mobile devices remains a strong play. Salesforce.com offers mobile applications for iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices. Both Microsoft and CWR Mobility, a Microsoft ISV, offer Windows Mobile clients for Microsoft Dynamics, and Numenes offers an iPhone application for the same. And finally, Oracle Siebel CRM has a BlackBerry client available. Such strong support is a continuation of good news for mobile sales force professionals.

Key Trends 2006–2009

Looking back over the developments of the past three years, I argue we have seen five key trends:

  • Mobile device access has improved. New collaboration systems—places where people work together—have better baseline mobile access options than they did three years ago. Evernote, Twitter, Box.net and others are all examples of this theme.
  • New devices have improved the game. The Apple iPhone, in particular, has been game changing, because it made mobile browsing feasible by the general populace. And the Apple App Store has provided a way for vendors to deliver mobile clients for their services seamlessly. Research In Motion hasn’t been standing still either, and has come out with its first touch screen device—the BlackBerry Storm—and other devices with slicker form factors.
  • Multi-platform and multi-device support appears to be considered earlier in the development lifecycle of new services. There seems to be a greater realization on the part of vendors that people need to interact with their systems on the go.
  • Applications that were considered “crazy and unnecessary” three years ago are now possible. I recall a conversation with a Web conferencing executive who scoffed at the idea of enabling mobile device access to Web conferences. But now you can do it—both WebEx and Callwave offer iPhone clients for their respective Web conferencing services, and Callwave supports the BlackBerry too.
  • People expect wireless device access now, whereas three years ago it was a novel idea. It’s been Twitter that has stunned me the most in recent months, with the plethora of clients available for various mobile devices and generally multiple options per device as well.

Times Have Changed

In March and April 2009 I spent two weeks on a business trip to the United States, London, Denmark, and Switzerland. I carried an Apple iPhone 3G and a BlackBerry Bold 9000. The iPhone didn’t work anywhere (for reasons I still can’t comprehend), but the Bold performed flawlessly. I got my email, I browsed the Web (and did currency conversions in expensive airports), I checked and updated Twitter, and more. I felt like I had everything at my fingertips for an extended trip away from the office, and while I had two laptops with me, the Bold was my primary device.

My overall sense is that we’re at a much better place with mobile access to collaboration systems than we were three years ago, although mobile device access to enterprise collaborative workspaces continues to drag down the report card. But even this area should rapidly improve over the next 12 months. Speaking pragmatically, I think it’s good enough for most users.

But there’s another sea change that has happened over the past three years too, and it impacts our conclusion. That change is the introduction of netbooks. These small form-factor laptops have much going for them. They are small, usually with with 8- to 11-inch screens. They are light and highly portable. They can connect to wireless networks, either through in-built WiFi or a USB-plug in cellular network data card. The confluence of these features makes them a suitable alternative mobile device for some people—sure they’ll still have a cellphone, but perhaps increasingly they’ll also have a full computer too.

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Messaging News writer Michael Sampson advises organizations on improving the performance of distributed teams. He writes at http://www.michaelsampson.net and can be reached at michael [at] michaelsampson [dot] net

Published September 14, 2009