Many companies, hospitals, utilities, postal, delivery, field sales & service, law enforcement and emergency service bodies rely on mobile workforces operating in the field.

“Worldwide there are 319 million mobile workers in manufacturing, 282 million in retail & wholesale, 186 million in supply chain, 185 million in field service & sales, 133 million in government, 73 million in healthcare -- the fastest growing segment -- and 18 million in energy and utilities,” said Janet Schijins, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions vice president, Worldwide Channels.

With so many workers being out in the field, it’s crucial that they be able to remain in contact with their organisations’ information and communication systems to be productive.

"Mobility has become a critical component of the IT and communication fabric for businesses of all sizes," said Forrester Research.

"The convergence of field sales applications and the wireless revolution is vital for today’s enterprises," said the Yankee Group.

"Mobility remains a high-priority chief information officer (CIO) issue that will drive steady growth in demand for mobile products and services for several years," said Gartner.

For example, Malaysians are already familiar with our electricity and water meter readers who visit our homes one a month to read our electricity and water meters and issue us with a bill on the spot, rather than to go back to their office and post the bill later, which incurs added expense in postage costs.

While they are less noticeable, representatives of fast moving consumer goods suppliers take orders, check the customer’s account status, submit orders via cellular data, issue receipts and so on in the field through their handheld terminals.

Even on the smaller scale of inventory taking and management in a company’s warehouse, being able to record inventory on the spot and update their inventory system in real time over wireless LAN.

Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility Solutions business provides them with such solutions and with its acquisition of Symbol Technologies in January 2007, it included Symbol’s expertise in ruggedised handheld bar code scanners and mobile computers into its enterprise mobility infrastructure, which also includes advanced data capture, 2-way radios, enterprise networks -- ie wireless LAN, cellular and so on.

Most of these equipment and related software used in Motorola Enterprise Mobility solutions are its own, while others are produced by third parties or original design manufactures (ODMs) and its partners.

Headquartered in Holtsville, New York, Motorola Enterprise Mobility has sales and support centres in over 60 countries.

“Our enterprise mobility architecture lets companies and organisations capture data with advanced devices, connect people and information inside and outside the four walls of the enterprise, communicate via mobile computing and voice solutions and enables them to exercise control for assured visibility, management, security and reliability,” said  Schijins.

Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility solutions are used in several industry verticals, such as retail & wholesale, manufacturing, supply chain, government, healthcare, finance & professional services, and energy & utilities, and its 9,000 channel partners worldwide, including 1,000 in the Asia Pacific region provide solutions and market expertise across diverse markets.

“Our customers come from across key market verticals, including manufacturing, logistics, retail, utilities and transportation and in Malaysia our recent wins include Nestle Malaysia and Pos Laju, while we also work with DHL, TNT, Petronas, Tesco, 7-11, HELP Institute and Intel,” said Schijins.

The key benefits of mobile and wireless technologies to organisations are to empower employees to be more productive, enable fast, reliable wireless communications, efficiencies from better supply chain and inventory management, improved customer service and to gain competitive advantage from real time information

Its key challenges are the cost of hardware, of software, of integration, service, and support, security concerns, mobile device and infrastructure management.

More particularly, the challenges facing the retail industry include inconsistent customer service, data inadequacies for decision-making, out-of-stocks & pricing inconsistencies. Motorola’s solutions include customer experience, inventory management, mobile store associates and point of sale solutions.

The challenges in supply chain are the inability to track and trace, low asset utilization and inconsistent customer service.

To address these, Motorola provides airline, field mobility, ocean fleet management, rail, DSD route accounting, trucking and warehouse management solutions.

Challenges in manufacturing are inaccurate supply chain, excess inventory & shipping delays and long equipment downtime, while solutions include enterprise asset management, materials and warehouse management, industrial customer relationship management (CRM), quality management, mobile manager and shop floor solutions.

Governments face challenges in ways to better manage assets, the need for stronger field communications, border and homeland security efficiency and Motorola’s government solutions include asset management, dispatch & scheduling, automated citation, mobile data access, first responder, secure borders, fleet management and warehousing

Healthcare providers face a rise in medication delivery errors, the inability to locate supplies & equipment and the lack of real-time access to records, while Motorola provides solutions  in asset management, blood transfusion verification, hospital/nurse communications, medication administration, mobile physician rounding, remote patient monitoring and specimen collection.

Energy and utility companies face challenges in the containment and removal of cost across operations, the need to meet and respond cost efficiently to regulatory requirements, to respond to customer demand for improved service and lower cost, and to improve security and IT efficiency.

For this industry vertical, Motorola provides enterprise asset management, field service (workforce automation), automatic meter reading, advanced metering infrastructure, business critical communications and distribution automation.

"We basically enable businesses to connect the right information with the right people at the right time – regardless of location or circumstance," said Schijins.

Motorola is the leader in wireless broadband and two-way radios for business, has a strong market position in wireless LAN and is the market leader in push email.

According to VDC, one million of its MC9000 mobile handheld computers have been sold, comprising 38% market share, while its sold over a million of its LS2208 general purpose bar-code scanner or 27% market share, while the company was cited as a leading visionary by Gartner in its latest Magic Quadrant.