When asked to rate the importance of technology trends for use by their mobile workforce, buyers rated Big Data (52%) the most important, closely followed by IoT (51%) and Sensor technologies (41%), including atmosphere, temperature and biological sensors. The main drivers for the technologies were improved business efficiency and productivity. 

Unsurprisingly, the mobile device buyers thought that the IT Department would benefit most within the organisation from every technology trend. However, looking at the second department to benefit most threw up some interesting insights. Respondents believe business management would benefit from Big Data, the IoT and Wearable technology. Sales would benefit from virtual reality developments. Logistics from drone technology and Research and Development would benefit from augmented reality, sensor technology, blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Future Trends

Looking further into the future, over the next three years, buyers could clearly see the impact on their mobile workforces of Big Data to improve service offerings, improve processes and reduce costs. With IoT, they saw the mobile workforce benefits as improving processes, improving service offering and helping to improve the functionality of mobile devices.

Considering how mobile devices will need to change over the next five years to take advantage of these new technologies, buyers prioritised improvements in device and data security (43%), processing power (31%) and communications for faster data transfer (31%).

Mobile device buyers also predicted the increasing importance of foldable tablets over the next five years and the continued rise of rugged devices as critical tools for mobile workforces. However, the largest group of buyers did not expect to change the type of mobile devices they were buying until two-to five years out.

Change already underway

However, the adoption of smart technologies for mobile workforces already looks well underway. Many buyers said that the implementation of smart watches, wrist bands and drone use had already been completed or was imminently planned for mobile workforces.

Cost (27%) and reliability (19%) were the biggest issues preventing organisations from adopting new technologies faster.

“Although a wide range of exciting future technologies are being watched closely, there is clear evidence from this research that businesses are adopting and looking to capitalise on the benefits of Big Data, IoT and Sensor technology for their mobile workforces,” said Jan Kaempfer, General Manager for Marketing at Panasonic Computer Product Solutions. “As these technologies are deployed, we move ever closer to the age of Edge Computing, where processing power is required at the edge of the network, much closer to where data is collected. This means the role of the mobile workforce computing device becomes even more critical in the gathering, analysis and communication of data, and the provision of services and in improving productivity.

These research findings underline Panasonic’s philosophy to continue to develop a range of rugged mobile computing devices that are increasingly more powerful, more connected and with a widening range of integrated applications, such as sensors, and increasing management and security functionality.”

A copy of the whitepaper, ‘Future Technologies and their Impact on Mobile Workforces and their Devices’,can be downloaded here.

The independent research, carried out by Opinion Matters and commissioned by Panasonic TOUGHBOOK, questioned 250 mobile technology buyers for businesses in the UK.

About Panasonic System Communications Company Europe (PSCEU)

Our quest is to make technology work invisibly together and free businesses to succeed. We believe technology should just work. That businesses will succeed if they can simply focus on their customers, in the knowledge that all the technologies delivering their capabilities work together. That is why we are dedicated to developing products and solutions that are so integrated with our customer’s way of working, that they are almost invisible – the workhorse in the background that powers business success. 

PSCEU is made up of six product categories:

• Broadcast & ProAV gives you the freedom to tell the story with its high quality products and solutions, which ensure smooth operation and excellent cost-performance across a range of remote cameras, switchers, studio cameras and ENG P2HD. The cinema camera range of VariCam models and the EVA1 are capable of true 4K and High Dynamic Range (HDR) making them the ideal solution for cinema, television, documentary and live event production.

• Communication Solutions offers world leading telephony systems, SIP terminal devices and professional ‘network’ scanners giving you the freedom to focus on the communication and not the connection.

• Computer Product Solutions help mobile workers improve productivity with its range of TOUGHBOOK rugged notebooks, Toughpad business tablets and electronic point of sales (EPOS) systems. As European market leaders, Panasonic TOUGHBOOK had a 67% revenue share of sales of rugged and durable notebooks and Panasonic Toughpad held a 56% revenue share of sales of rugged business tablets in 2016 (VDC Research, March 2017).

• Industrial Medical Vision manufactures applications for various segments such as medical, life science, ProAV or industrial. The product portfolio includes complete and OEM camera systems, providing the freedom to see what can’t be seen.

• Security Solutions, built on a heritage of providing evidential quality CCTV footage. Delivering the highest image quality in all environmental conditions using our highly reliable, advanced technology cameras and image recording systems, giving you the freedom to feel secure.

• Visual System Solutions offers the widest range of professional displays and projectors and allows Audio Visual professionals the freedom to create. It leads the European high brightness projector market with a 39% market revenue share (Futuresource >5klm FY17 Q3, excl. 4K & digital cinema).