03-27-2004, 04:00 PM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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Report: Our Workers have PDAs?
The Inquirer reports, that a survey commissioned by O2 concludes that "seven per cent of the total workforce are using PDAs without the knowledge of their IT departments. Plus 18 per cent of IT directors haven't a clue as to what their staff were up to in terms of synchronising emails with their PDAs, for example."
The headline figure is that 63% of businesses have no mobile strategy, which actually seems on the low side to me. I am surprised that only 18% of IT directors admit to not knowing about PDA usage in their firms. In my experience, PDA usage is widespread and I have been providing PDA support to workers for the last 10 years or so, mainly help with synchronising company email & contacts etc. As most firms have no policy, it has been 'unofficial' IT department support though. Besides � how do they know that 7% don't know about PDA usage? :wink:
"The survey confirms that PDAs and smartphones are turning up willy-nilly in business organisations and that 35 per cent of the time the IT department isn't overseeing spending in this sector." They're right about the first part, though I am nervous about an IT department 'overseeing' spending on PDAs. They may want to get me a Palm! :razz:
So how may of you guys actually get support from your IT department and how many of you actually support the IT department? :mrgreen:
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03-27-2004, 04:38 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,386
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I'd say most of the posters on this site would probably prefer that IT not get involved with PDAs. Like you said, they may regulate what device we use or what software we're allowed to install.
On the plus side, we'd get PDAs that are paid by the company, but with all the potential restrictions, I'd probably end up wanting a personal PDA free of corporate limitations.
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03-27-2004, 05:34 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 47
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I think a good number of us ARE the IT Department
Let's face it, this is a geeky site. Chances are that many of us ARE the IT Department and get to set our own rules. But no matter how hard I try, I can't justify the cost for company wide Pocket PCs.
There are a few employees that it made the most since with however. These are the only a few employees that I felt had the computer skills necassary and the need for Pocket PCs and I DO know everything about how they use them. We do have a policy for them. i.e. - they don't sync email etc.
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03-27-2004, 06:01 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 164
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Re: I think a good number of us ARE the IT Department
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Originally Posted by hang5lngbd
Let's face it, this is a geeky site. Chances are that many of us ARE the IT Department and get to set our own rules. But no matter how hard I try, I can't justify the cost for company wide Pocket PCs.
There are a few employees that it made the most since with however. These are the only a few employees that I felt had the computer skills necassary and the need for Pocket PCs and I DO know everything about how they use them. We do have a policy for them. i.e. - they don't sync email etc.
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I very much agree with your remarks. I work in IT support myself. I was speaking to the powers that be at my work and they freely admit, "A mobile strategy for us is soo far down our list of priorities, that we'll probably never get to it. With the constant flood of critical patches and etc, we simply do not have time."
It is really starting to get out of hand for us. Back in the Palm Vx days, managers were getting them whether they wanted them or not. Now, managers are telling our users that if they want a PDA they have to buy it themselves. (Axim x3 is our current standard) Of course, IT is expected to support those for free.
We are using Lotus Notes R5 and Easysync 4 (both of which suck). Setting up that configuration is a daunting task for many of our users. And I work with aerospace engineers.
I'm the "PDA Expert" within IT. When I first got one (Palm III) I dismissed them as a toy. Now, after buying my own (iPaq h2215, and a Blackberry) I realize what a huge benefit (and fun  )one can be. I am trying to make my case now for having a mobile strategy. Everyone agrees that we need one, but no one wants to create one, or allow me the time to do it. There just isn't enough time.
Things have improved much over the last fews months. I think I'm least getting the ball running.
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03-27-2004, 06:15 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 76
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at my place it's level dependant. guys who have departments of 1000 and up get blackberrys. I think there is support for everyone else to use a palm. the pocketpc guys are in the cold. I find it not important since I don't have to sync my mail. I'm near my laptop and the lan almost all the time.
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ipaq 3670*OS 2002
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03-27-2004, 06:46 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 238
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In the company I work for (which is a very large one - I will not mention the name), the Pocket PC is not recognized as an approved device, and having ActiveSync on a company computer is technically illegal.
Most users are not given Admin rights to install things, so it requires a creative workaround, but a lot of people do it.
The Palm platform is supported, and that indeed sucks (and does not make sense), because our company is a Microsoft shop...
But our IT dept is one of the most conservative IT departments I have ever experienced. The choose to err on the side of caution...
Matt
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03-27-2004, 07:10 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 80
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Hmm...guess I'm going to have to re-think some more of my assumptions. You see, I'd pretty much felt like most PDA lovers who would go to PDA sites (and participate in forums) would, like me, be part of their companys' IT staff. This is the third time, at least, that I've seen threads that seem to indicate that the case may well be it's "us" (PDA users) "vs" (not implying an antagonistic relationship, but a difference) "them" (tech support).
My department fully supports PalmOS and PPC PDAs and many of us make use of them, ourselves. We have a lot of old IBM WorkPads (Palm III variety) that aren't used anymore. We aren't afraid of them, and if anyone should be, we should, since HIPAA is a very real concern for us. Before I began working off-site, if I saw a request in the database for assistance with a PDA, I'd steal it before another tech could get it. I find it really strange, when I hear about IT departments who refuse to acknowledge the existence and importance of handhelds. At the same time, I can understand how there can be concern about security and liability. Maybe I am all too optimistic in saying that there exist solutions for those kinds of issues.
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03-27-2004, 08:31 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 307
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I'm in the IT department, but our network and hardware support are handled by an external provider, which is the reason that our iPAQs never get firmware updates and so on because they simply don't do it, and wouldn't understand what you were asking them to do if you suggested that they should. I felt like such a rebel when I installed ActiveSync 3.7.1 on my PC :twisted:
There are a few devices scattered around the IT area, and most of them (especially those in the hands of project managers) function as Paperweights That Go "Beep!".
Evaluating potential uses for devices and also security issues falls within my job as <mumble mumble> but it's much like talking to myself. I tried getting the aforementioned provider interested in some of the possibilities for centralised management and deployment implicit with Windows Mobile 2003...not a sausage.
It's probably not too different when internal IT departments have the responsibility, which is why I think a lot of models of "Enterprise" (even as I write I can picture HP reps genuflecting) deployment of mobile devices amount to little better than wishful thinking. The cases where they will be deployed (with a lot of imaginative and intelligent people in the right places) are where they are being used for a fairly critical task by field staff where the need imposed itself, in which case a lot of the units in demand can be expected to be of the ruggedised type and/or with specialist attachments such as barcode readers and so on.
For the rest, think "Toys for the Executive Who Already Has A Tablet PC He Hasn't Learned How To Switch On".
Oops, I'm succumbing to cynicism and despondency again..."Bad Kevin! Get back in your cellar this minute..."
0X
PS. It's eerie how similar the situation is to the introduction of PCs into the corporate world at a time when mainframes still ruled, programmers were Real Programmers with real beards (irrespective of their gender), the company logo was generally phosphor-burned into the screen of your crappy monitor and you could have any colour you liked as long as it was green (or amber, if you did some serious sucking up).
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03-27-2004, 08:42 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 32
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IT department here too. While we do not supply PDAs to our users, if a user buys one we will give them a reasonable amount of support IF it is compatible with their current setup, if not they are SOL. We only have about 250 users though, so it is a lot eaiser then the bigger companies.
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03-27-2004, 08:57 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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I'm not 'the'. or in 'the' IT department, but my wife is. (Same company BTW). The official stance is that the company does not support PDAs, but when the regional director can't get the PDA to sync, it seems to be incumbant on the IT staff to help. The PDAs that do exist are personal items, including the Director's. In this case there are a good number of Palms scattered around, but some of the very senior folks have iPAQs (yes, I had something to do with that). When they have problems, my wife normally turns to me to help out. First, she is damned busy, second I do have a bit better grasp of PPCs, and last.. face time with the boss's, boss's, boss's, boss, when you are helping him out, never hurts.
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