Gadgets for Corporate World


Corporate mobile phones are expensive. They’re also essential. The fact is that the corporate mobile phone really is becoming “an office in a box”, and the needs of business for better quality are increasing. The need for better economics and bottom line-based costing is also becoming more obvious, if that’s possible. Fortunately for business, the highly competitive phone industry is getting the message.


The business environment
The problem is that the general communications environment is anything but business-friendly in more ways than one. The corporate plans vary from well-designed, functional concepts which enhance business operations to a truly strange menagerie of complex, unnecessarily bureaucratic messes. A corporation doesn’t need something which looks like a phone book as a phone plan. You could spend a few days reading these things, and they’re truly obsolete.

It’s not all bad news. The big carriers are generally cleaning up their acts, with some notably innovative plans coming on stream, too. This is a time in history where the idea is to just hit a button and go where you want to go. That’s also the demand in business. The other demand is for value for money and clearly defined plans.


Enter the mobile phone brokers
That’s now being delivered to some extent, but it’s being delivered in a particularly businesslike way. Mobile phone brokers are literally brokers, working for businesses to find the best phone plans. They’ve created a cultural shift in the most literal sense- The phone carriers are confronted by experts, and these phone contracts are worth a lot of money. The carriers therefore start providing good, highly competitive plans.

This has been generally good for the phone industry. It’s forcing rationalization in areas where bizarre schedules of charges and phone usage terms are being replaced with working, straightforward plans. This is business, and this is the way mobile phone business is done better than any other mobiles.

The mobile phone brokers literally compare plans and they create a profile of plans for their clients. That’s raised the standard of phone plans across the board. It’s good business for their corporate clients, too, because they can save tens of thousands of dollars per bill with this very demanding approach to their communications.

The brokers are “market forces” in the most unambiguous sense. The strong dissatisfaction of many business clients with their phone plans has raised the ante for the phone carriers, and a quiet revolution is already starting to hit the front line sales zone.

The future
There’s no doubt that the communications industry is getting on the better business bandwagon as fast as it can. Corporations need to look at their phone plans on the most practical basis:

• Better deals
• Good private/business functions
• Value for money
• Well organized plans
• Good rates
• Simplified, no-nonsense, no-bureaucracy plans
• Built in business functions

Corporations can thank the mobile phone brokers for putting an end to the bureaucracy. The future of the corporate phone plans isn’t in doubt. The days of having to tolerate phone plans that simply create more work for accountants than deliver functions are over.
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Use Google Apps seamlessly with corporate BlackBerry smartphones

If your employer has provided you with a BlackBerry smartphone, you may be accustomed to its built-in email, calendar, and address book applications. The Google Apps Enterprise team has just announced that we will soon release Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which enables you to use these familiar applications with Google Apps.

Google Apps is our hosted solution for enterprise messaging and collaboration. It includes Gmail, Google Calendar, and more. Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server connects your BlackBerry Enterprise Server directly to the Google cloud, and creates a seamless experience between Google Apps and the built-in BlackBerry smartphone applications for mail, calendar, and address book. The Google Enterprise blog has more details about the offering.

If youre an IT administrator interested in Google Apps, you should know that Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server is currently in beta testing with select companies and universities. We are targeting a July 2009 release for Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers, at no additional cost. This week were at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, so if you happen to be at WES, come visit us at Booth #105. Well also be talking about Google Apps and other Google Mobile products at our breakout session tomorrow, so we hope to see you there!

Posted by Hong Zhang, Software Engineer




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