.KEYWORD study
.FLYINGHEAD WINN TECHNOLOGY GROUP STUDY
.TITLE Study shows Palm OS most common handheld standard among Fortune 1000
.OTHER
.SUMMARY The handheld computing environment is one area large enterprises are investigating in as a way to remain competitive. In this article, James Hannagan of the Winn Technology Group reveals the results of a study they conducted among Fortune 1000 companies to determine the handheld computing standard of choice.
.AUTHOR James Hannagan
To remain competitive in today’s global economy, your organization must be agile, flexible, and nimble.
It must focus on fulfilling and even exceeding customer expectations. It also must enable your workforce–which is likely increasingly diverse and mobile–to access critical data housed in enterprise data management systems.
The handheld computing environment is one area large enterprises are investigating in as a way to remain competitive. In fact, a recent study conducted by Winn Technology Group (at http://www.winntech.net) reveals that 56% of Fortune 1000 companies have developed a handheld standard, as reflected in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A More than half of Fortune-ranked companies have adopted handheld standards.
This news bodes well for Palm, Inc. Its handheld devices have become the exclusive corporate standard at 57% of companies reporting a handheld standard. As you can see in Figure B, Palm competitors together occupy only another one-fourth of that exclusive market.
.FIGPAIR B Palm handhelds are exclusive at more than half of companies reporting a handheld standard.
.H1 The Palm handheld grows up
Enterprises have come to view the handheld not as a "personal organizer" but as a legitimate platform for wireless connectivity and corporate data access. While 57% of companies with a handheld standard have chosen to use the Palm handheld exclusively, 85% of those companies have standardized on the Palm OS platform–the platform that is also the basis for hardware devices from IBM, Handspring, and Sony (listed among All Others in Figure C).
.FIGPAIR C Among companies with a handheld standard, 85% use the Palm OS.
Today, Palm has partnerships with leading enterprise application providers like Lotus (at http://www.lotus.com), SAP (at http://www.sap.com), Siebel (at http://www.siebel.com), Oracle (at http://www.oracle.com), and Sybase (at http://www.sybase.com). Such strategic relationships give Palm added credibility among corporate evaluators and establishers of handheld standards. They also let Palm leverage its partners’ sales and marketing prowess for better penetration of large enterprises–perhaps yours.
.H1 The amazingly versatile Palm OS
The growing corporate acceptance of the Palm OS is further supported by the number of industry-specific and niche applications being developed for it.
In healthcare in particular, mandated compliance with HIPAA (Healthcare Information Portability and Accountability Act) has forced corporations to examine current technologies and seek newer ones. HCA (at http://www.hcahealthcare.com) and Healthsouth (at http://www.healthsouth.com) strive for handheld applications that increase the productivity of medical practitioners. Still other healthcare companies hope to provide wireless access to laboratory results.
Unquestionably, allowing nurses to access patient charts, pharmacists to access prescription data, and physicians to access online databases for symptoms and remedies will translate into significant productivity gains.
To meet their corporate transportation needs, companies like Diebold (at http://www.diebold.com) and Keyspan Energy (at http://www.keyspanenergy.com) are developing handheld-supported wireless dispatch applications. LSI Logic (at http://www.lsilogic.com) labors on a wireless order status system, and a slew of companies like Cisco Systems (at http://www.cisco.com), Avaya (at http://www.avaya.com), AOL Time Warner (at http://www.aoltimewarner.com), and Walgreens (at http://www.walgreens.com) explore wireless handheld access to VPNs (Virtual Private Network), LANs (Local Area Network), WANs (Wide Area Network), and intranets.
A number of companies are developing or implementing wireless solutions that combine the Palm OS and Lotus Notes. Centex (at http://www.centex.com), Shaw Industries (at http://www.shawinc.com), Masco (at http://www.masco.com), Becton Dickinson (at http://www.bd.com), and National Semiconductor (at http://www.national.com) have taken the lead in wireless connection of their Lotus office automation solutions.
.H1 Palm progress, front to back
Increasing worker productivity is but one benefit Palm brings to corporate America. Enterprises also look to increase productivity in back-office operations, and the Palm OS has proved a viable development platform. Olin Corporation (at http://www.olin.com) and Phelps Dodge (at http://www.phelpsdodge.com), for example, are investigating wireless access to their SAP applications through the Palm OS.
Back-office use of the Palm OS also ranges from GPS (Global Positioning System)-type applications for plant locations and directories, to ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems and more sophisticated inventory management, supply chain management, and wireless integration. Raytheon (at http://www.raytheon.com) and Royster-Clark (at http://www.roysterclark.com) use the Palm for GPS systems. Others–like ABM Industries (at http://www.abm-baltwash.com), and Dominion Resources (at http://www.dom.com)–are developing application solutions for inventory, plant systems, and order tracking.
Still more corporations are initiating front-office solutions for the Palm platform. Here, Palm’s relationship with market leader Siebel will give it leverage in penetrating large enterprises. EMC Corporation (at http://www.emc.com), a preeminent provider of storage solutions, and Liberty Mutual Insurance (at http://www.libertymutual.com) are just two examples of organizations giving their sales staffs data access through the Palm OS.
.H1 Can I get some help here?
As Palm OS-based applications increase, IT departments must be positioned to support corporate users within the handheld environment. Already–as the Winn Technology Group study on handheld adoption reveals–60 percent of Fortune 1000 companies offer support for handhelds through their Help Desks. This is illustrated in Figure D.
.FIGPAIR D More than half of corporate handheld users get support through a Help Desk.
Of course, that support varies somewhat across industry segments. In several cases–for example, mining and chemicals–strong support appears to mirror aggressive application development within those industries.
Help Desk support is critical to reinforce corporate commitment–not only to a handheld standard but also to infrastructure investment.
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