This white paper reports on how many business looks at how important training is to successfully deploy mobile devices in the enterprise and why without training any mobile plan is doom to fail and cost more money the longer training is not implemented

1. Is your mobile guru costing you money?
By Howard Lee
CIO
Wirehead Technology
He seems to be in every office I go to when I start a
consulting session with a client. In some cases he is the
only one in the sales force who really understands how to
use his mobile device [i.e. PDA, Cell phone, and
Blackberry] and applications he needs to be more effective
salesman. Sometimes I would end up talking to him about
how mobility can help the company become more profitable
if only he had that “killer app” that can help him beat the
competition.
But he is not part of the management, IT, or development
team, he’s just the company’s “go to guy” or guru when it
comes to mobility. I am sure you have one of them in your
office. He knows how to use any mobile device with ease
and in some cases he is your ad hoc trainer for everyone else who just can’t seem to get
the hang of their mobile device.
You begin to think your saving a ton of money because he is training your staff on their
mobile device for FREE right? Wrong, in fact your mobile guru is costing you money. But
how you say he’s training my staff for free? Let’s take a real look at you mobile guru. If
he is not part of your IT staff or application development team he is costing you money
as I mentioned before your mobile guru is usually part of your sales staff now what is the
primary job of your sales staff it’s to sale your products or services to your existing
clients and to get new customers for your business right? Anything that takes away from
that means you are losing sales and existing customers are not getting their full
attention. It also means that your mobile application you spent time and money on is not
being effectively used by your sales staff since only one or two people really “gets” how
the application is supposed to be used.
Tell me if this is what’s happening in your office your guru is on the phone with a client
then someone comes over to him because they can’t understand how to get email or
write messages on their mobile device. So he cuts his call short to help his co-worker.
“So what’s wrong with that” You say. Well here is what’s wrong by cutting his sales call
short your guru may have lost a client that’s revenue down the drain. Then there is the
co-worker he is not only calling sales leads or clients he is proving that your mobile
solution is not making him more productive but less. So now you have three loses in
revenue all because your mobile solutions was not properly integrated into you company
culture.

2. So what’s the solution it’s seems rather simple but you would be surprised how many
companies over look it when comes to mobility. That’s training, training, training most
companies maybe yours thinks becoming mobile means giving their staff a mobile
device setting up a mobile network from a provider and presto we are mobile. Thinking
like this is what cause most mobile projects to fail or never really live up to the
expectations of the company’s that deploy them.
A recent Gartner Group report say’s that 12% of your company’s budget should go for
training both your IT and end user staff on what your mobile strategy is for your company
and on the effective use of your mobile application and the mobile devices that will be
deployed by your end users. The report goes on to say that a fully trained worker can
produce $2000.00 more dollars in revenue than an untrained worker. Think about that
for a moment when your sales staff stops and have to go to your guru. He is not making
sales calls to your clients. Your salesman is also taking time from his client to call on
your guru now you have two people not working losing money for every moment he
spends helping others. While it maybe great team work it is not the team work you need
to keep your business growing. Remember their job is to sell your product or service
anything that stops that is a drain on your business.
Mobile devices can be a great way to make your sales staff more productive. But only if
they a are fully trained on the device and your application. So if you truly want mobility to
work for your business fire your guru and give all of your staff the training they need to
make mobility a truly profitable part of your business.
Howard Lee is CIO of Wirehead Technology a mobile technology consulting firm can be
contacted at http://www.wireheadtec.com/
Email :wireheadtec@gmail.com
Tel: 773-506-7215
This article was originally published in Enterprise Management Quarterly 2009:
Is Your Mobile Guru Costing You Money
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