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Business Challenges > Mobile Worker
Business Challenges
Mobile Worker
Tony Scott, Microsoft CIO, discusses the impacts of a mobile workforce. Click here to watch the video.
"I think one of the challenges many CIOs face is how to deal with the increasing phenomena of a distributed workforce, people that are working in many time zones, cultures, and places all around the world.”
—Tony Scott, Microsoft CIO
Unleash the power of a mobile workforce.
Information workers used to be bound to their desktop PC, but today’s mobile workforce needs immediate access to enterprise data, systems, and processes through their mobile devices or productivity will suffer. Fortunately, powerful mobile devices and high-speed wireless networks have unleashed information workers and taken information work well beyond the four walls of traditional business.
  • The world's mobile worker population will grow to nearly 1.2 billion people more than a third of the world's workforce by 2013. (IDC, February 2010)
  • 54 percent of companies cite effective management of remote employees as the biggest concern for executives in managing a mobile workforce. Despite this concern, employee satisfaction and competitive advantage were ranked as the top benefits gained with a mobile workforce in addition to cost savings. (Runzheimer International, December 2010)
  • The number of enterprise customers using mobile cloud-based applications will rise to more than 130 million by 2014. (Juniper Research, March 2010)
Same as ever, only better.
As you look to the future, we recommend mobilizing the enterprise with a single platform so your people can seamlessly sync their data with a consistent experience across PC, phone, or browser. Productivity tasks like opening a document on a mobile device, collaborating with team members, or checking a calendar should be a seamless extension of the tools workers already know and trust. Back-end processes like security and identity management should also extend from the core enterprise platform to the mobile workforce without requiring an entirely new infrastructure.