Remote & Mobile Workers On The Rise In U.S.
January 6, 2002
With more than 78 million remote and mobile workers (including frequent business travelers who spend 20%+ of the work year traveling, telecommuters, multi-site workers, non-office workers and mobile office workers) in the U.S., demand for Internet and wireless-accessible hosted applications may rise in 2002, according to Cahners In-Stat/MDR. In a series of reports, the high-tech research firm finds that providing workers with access to business applications and the Internet will be key priorities for U.S. businesses this year, as the steady growth of the remote and mobile (RAM) workforce continues to affect firms’ IT investments.
“Recent advances in both wired and wireless Internet access solutions have spurred faster growth of this population in the last couple of years, with hosted applications promising to open up new frontiers in the future,” says Kneko Burney, a Director with In-Stat/MDR. “Those surveyed viewed Internet-accessible applications quite positively, seeing them as potentially convenient while out of the office.” However, Burney points out that hurdles still exist to hosted applications for RAM workers, where security and bandwidth constraints remain concerns.
In-Stat/MDR’s research also found:
When looking at which applications RAM workers access while out of the office, e-mail proved to be the most popular among those surveyed, with more than 70% of respondents across size of business indicating this choice. After e-mail, accessing “word processing or spreadsheet” applications was the second most popular in the middle and enterprise markets. In smaller companies, “industry-specific or supply chain” applications came in as a far off second.
Workers in the largest firms are more likely to have remote access to business applications while outside of the office, with 71% of middle market and 77% of enterprise RAM workers doing so, as compared to just 48% and 69% of SOHO and small business RAM workers.
Taking into account recent events and removing overlap, roughly 55% of the corporate market workforce will be either remote or mobile during the course of the year in 2002. Roughly 63% of the small company workforce will be either remote or mobile during the course of the year.
For more information at http://www.instat.com
