Tech Talk: Mobile Technology

Mobile technology can be a great time saver, or a time-sink, depending on the apps you’re using and how you use them.  At West, we recognize that it’s important to choose your apps wisely.  As we begin to build our Mobile App Store, we are focused on applications that enable us to be more connected and forward-looking – foundations for being successful in a globally competitive world. Since there’s an app for almost every purpose these days, we believe that it’s critical to reduce distraction by focusing on apps that will improve productivity wherever our work takes us.

Last month, I wrote about the recent success that West has experienced with Concur ™ travel and expense management, which combines cloud-based computing with mobility to manage travel and expenses any time, any place.  The next opportunity, which is currently being explored, is mobile workforce management.  With Kronos ® Workforce Mobile™ app, West team members will be able to complete common workforce administrative tasks such as time management on their mobile devices.  This on-the-go access enables our workforce to engage instantly, make decisions, take action and then move on.

Mobility allows us to change fundamentally the way we interact with each other and our business partners. Mobile apps like FaceTime and Skype, along with immersive technologies such as Cisco Telepresence, enable us to bring collaboration to our highly mobile and globally dispersed workforce.  As we evolve our communication channels to extend features to the West global community, we are enabling business-to-employee and employee-to-business partner collaboration like never before, allowing us to work side by side in the connected world.