OVERVIEW

Cell phones are everywhere, turning us into always-available, anytime, anywhere communicators. PDAs (personal digital assistants), those cool handheld devices that let you check your calendar or note an appointment with a few taps of the stylus, are almost as commonplace these days. But for business, it s not about the gadget. What s more important to the business world is the way mobile devices can extend enterprise information to a wider, more dispersed group of workers.

There s a pervasive shift currently taking place in terms of how companies look at business processes, and the ubiquity of mobile devices and wireless networks play a key role in making this new vision of business a reality. The issue is speed. Analysts at research firm Gartner have started talking about the real-time enterprise, a leaner, faster business model in which an emphasis on immediacy and the technology to enable it eliminates costly lag times for everything from research and design to customer service.

Central to the real-time model is having access to data virtually at all times, whether you re at your desktop or not. And key to that, of course, is technology that gives workers the same desktop data whether they re in the field, in a warehouse, on a service call, at a conference or working from home.

Gartner cites several advantages to the real-time enterprise. At the operational level, these include reduced inventory and better customer service. For managers, it s flexibility: You can move more quickly to take advantage of opportunities and minimize the damage...