Windows Phone Thoughts: IT Week: Employees Need Handheld Handholding

"While firms' interest in smartphones is said to be growing, some barriers to widespread adoption remain. For IT administrators, managing small wireless devices that travel wherever the user goes is probably the foremost challenge, not to mention security. A growing number of vendors supply tools to tackle these issues, usually as part of a middleware platform that offers mobile access to email or enterprise applications. However, these tools operate through a software client that sits on the mobile device, and this usually means that someone has to manually install the client before the device can be reached through the administrator console. This question of how to speed up initial setup and configuration has yet to be addressed. It would probably be best if the whole mobile industry reached a consensus, rather than each vendor offering their own proprietary solution."

IT Week has published a short article discussing the dilemmas associated with widespread adoption of mobile devices - the biggest concern being the remote management of devices from a central IT administration point. Windows Mobile 5.0 solves some of these issues by providing a remote wipe feature which helps protect sensitive data. But is that enough? What do you think can be done to help push for greater adoption of mobile devices in the workplace?