Inevitably, regardless of whether your small
business purchases them for employees, personal digital assistants (PDAs)
sooner or later will make their way onto your company’s computer
support radar screen.
With all the different product and operating
system variables to consider, how will your company cost-effectively
support PDAs?
There are two main issues to think about: data
security and desktop connectivity.
Data Security with Your PDA Handheld
Because some PDAs have the ability to remotely
connect to your office’s LAN, you need to consider PDA remote
access, just as you would any other remote device, such as an
employee’s home computer or a company-owned notebook.
This also should include a thorough discussion
of what sensitive data can be stored on a PDA, given that the
pocket-sized PDA devices are inherently vulnerable to theft.
In the same context of data security, be sure
to establish some kind of backup procedures. We’ve all heard the
horror stories of users losing three years of appointments and 2,000
customer names that were stored on their PDA and not backed up
anywhere else. Don’t let your small business become one of these
statistics.
Desktop Connectivity with Your PDA Handheld
Second, think about how your internal guru or
computer consultant will assist users in connecting their PDAs to
their office PCs.
Yes, your company could adopt a policy
banning PDAs from the office entirely, or making users responsible
for their own PDA-related support issues, but these extreme
approaches may not be practical.
After all, PDAs are becoming a major
competitive force that others in your industry may be rushing to
integrate into their information technology toolkit.
In addition, you probably don’t want to leave
employees to install and support their own PDA desktop connectivity,
unless they are very PC savvy.
All too often, a user inadvertently will break
a multitude of key software configurations while accepting default
installation settings.
If your company is determined to have users tap the power and
flexibility of PDAs, you’ll need someone PC savvy managing these
installations.
PDA Handheld Action Items
Does anyone in your company currently use a
personal digital assistant (PDA)? If so, what brand and model is the
PDA? Is the PDA based on the Palm or Microsoft Windows CE operating
system?
Did the company purchase the PDA, or did
someone buy the PDA acting on his or her own behalf?
Which software applications are being used
on the PDAs?
How are PDA-related technical support
questions currently handled?
How is PDA-to-LAN data security being
addressed? For example, what's being done with employees who want to
get remote access to the company LAN through their PDA? How is data
backup being handled to get a copy of crucial data from the PDA onto
alternate LAN-based media?
With the inherent risk of theft, what kind
of sensitive company data is permissible to store on PDAs? What's
off limits?
Who is currently responsible for
installing, configuring and troubleshooting the necessary software
to synchronize PDAs with desktop PCs, notebooks and LAN-based
resources?
Is your company formally supporting PDAs or are requests being
handled on an ad hoc basis?
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