Now that we understand how challenging it is to cross things off a real to-do list, this second post asks the simple but important question – why?

Every new technology first makes things easier, relatively speaking, and then it makes them harder again. Why?

First, my mobile phone came along and made it easier for me to keep track of my meetings. It enabled me to communicate with colleagues and customers more easily than before. I didn’t need to go back to the office to send an email, I could do it from my phone. I could check my schedule without waiting to get back to my desk. That was great – but at the same time, the desktop technology in my office kept progressing.

Suddenly, being able to send a text email while mobile wasn’t making my life any easier. I need a file which is back at the office on the corporate network, or inside a DMS (Document Management System, like FileSite or NetDocuments) and the calendar isn’t too helpful without being able to see availability of my team. I have a great device for communicating at all times, but I have no way to see my company intranet portal to check on important client matters. And so it goes…

For several years now, enterprise software has been designed and built to run inside the corporate firewall, accessible by any web browser inside the company network. This architecture made things so much easier – easier for IT to manage and deploy a single installation rather than software on every desktop, easier for a user to be able to use a company desktop, later a company laptop, and now a personal laptop or even a computer from home.

However, life and work today are mobile. The same systems that were so much more connected and convenient than software on our desktops are keeping our mobile devices from being more useful when we work. Our mobile devices can’t easily connect to portals and file repositories behind the corporate firewall. Do all of those important systems now need to be redesigned if they are going to work for mobile?

Redesigning whole systems is costly, lengthy, and complicated and is beyond the reach of all but the very largest and best funded IT teams. This is not a realistic solution. So what is the answer? How can I access the information that I need to just cross things off my to-do list when I am mobile?

Stay tuned. We will explore one potential solution in the third post in this series.
What do you think? Are you searching for the efficiency and productivity benefits that mobile technology promises?

Please join this conversation – we would love to hear your comments and so please share away below.

Thanks for reading.

– Ilya