Communications possibilities have been opened up to mobile workers now that Cisco has added the ability for users to run its WebEx conferencing applications on Nokia, Research In Motion, and Samsung smartphones. However, the new capabilities present small and midsize businesses with compatibility and security challenges.
Smartphones have become popular because they provide users with quick and easy access to simple applications, such as e-mail and calendaring. As these devices have been gaining more power recently, they also have become capable of supporting more complex applications. Consequently, one vendor is trying to push their usage to the next level.
Cisco has emerged as a leading supplier of collaboration products, via its WebEx conferencing line. The company added the ability for users to run its conferencing applications on Nokia, Research In Motion, and Samsung smartphones.
Consequently, out of sight no longer means out of touch. Individuals can participate in audio and Web conferences over 3G or Wi-Fi networks. They're able to launch these applications via their browsers, view presentations, and examine live annotations on their cell phones. While companies pay to hold these conferences, there are no additional charges to hook smartphones into them.
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Cisco had announced similar capabilities via a standalone application for Apple's iPhone in January. However, that device has been used mainly by consumers and is not yet a typical productivity tool for executives at small and midsize businesses. The support for the new devices, especially RIM's BlackBerrys, should open up new communications possibilities to mobile executives. Employees who are on the road visiting customers or suppliers will be able to dial into Web conferences live rather than being forced to download a copy of these events later in the day. This new capability should help streamline company communications and improve productivity.
However, the new capabilities do present small and midsize businesses with new challenges. To date, Cisco is not supporting Microsoft's Windows Mobile systems, which have been quite popular among business users. Competitive pressures could play a role in Cisco's reasoning. The vendor and Microsoft have recently become more direct competitors in the unified communications -- and therefore conferencing -- space. Consequently, Cisco may not want to endorse one of its competitor's technologies. One would think that, eventually, Cisco would open up WebEx to Windows Mobile, but when that will occur and how functional that capability will be is unclear at the moment.
Also, small and midsize businesses will need to put some more monitoring functions in place. To date, cell phones have come into many companies in an ad hoc manner. Employees purchased the devices and then hooked them up to the network, often without asking permission from the IT department. Consequently, the necessary security functions are often not in place. Small and midsize businesses will need to first gain a better understanding of how many of these devices are now on their networks. Then they'll have to make sure that these products have the proper security items, such as encryption, in place, so problems don't arise if a smartphone is lost or stolen. This work may be tedious and time-consuming, but it's also necessary.
The influx of conferencing systems also could put additional strain on corporate networks. These applications usually include live audio, the downloading of complex PowerPoint presentations, and sometimes live video. Consequently, they'll need a significant amount of bandwidth, something that businesses may not have at their disposal. Therefore, supporting these new applications may require that companies upgrade their corporate networks, something that may be hard to justify in the current economic climate.
Increasingly, mobile devices are becoming a mechanism that employees rely on to access and share corporate data. These systems offer companies a great many conveniences, but they also present them with new significant challenges. Small and midsize businesses need to make sure that they can balance those two often-conflicting needs as the use of mobile devices increases in the future.
See more columns by Paul Korzeniowski.
Paul Korzeniowski is a Sudbury, Mass.-based freelance writer who has been writing about networking issues for two decades. His work has appeared in Business 2.0, Entrepreneur, Investor's Business Daily, Newsweek, and InformationWeek.
