Information Access: does the device matter?

Recently we have seen the launch of "the fourth screen" aka the Apple iPad. The other three screens are the mobile phone, notebook or desktop and television. But what does it really mean in the business world of information technology and communication? Is it another, potentially more useful, way to communicate, access information and entertainment or is it a replacement for one of the other three screens?

As access/display devices and information content improves, individuals, households and businesses are becoming more reliant on information being available immediately. From an individual’s perspective, news, navigation, searching, purchasing and banking are key information applications.

For non-entertainment organisations it is imperative to be able to access contacts and schedules, customer and sales data, price lists, stock levels, delivery schedules, company performance and financial information both at the office and on the road. In some businesses it is also vital to provide customers access to their own data and facilities for them to place, pay for and track orders.

Typically (and simplistically) there are four elements that are required to enable access to information:

1. Data sources: corporate databases where information and business rules are stored.
2. Connections: wired and wireless and switches and transport rules.
3. Access/display devices: the human interface.
4. Applications: pass on requests from the access/display devices via connections to the data sources, receive the information and display it.

It is the applications that make the whole system successful from an end user perspective. However, applications are reliant on the adequacy of the data sources, the speed and security of the connections and the usefulness of the access/display devices. It is also the applications and data sources that business generally has the greatest control over. Businesses decide what data they collect and store, what data they make available and who can access it using an application that they create and distribute. The application should operate on any access/display device and fortunately we have standardised operating environments and protocols such as web browsers that ensure this is the case.

So does the device matter? In short most businesses will not favour one end user access/display device over another. A business has to make sure that its applications work with a variety of access/display devices and generally will not care what type of access/display device is in use provided their application works for the user as it should. It is also in the interests of the access/display device supplier to ensure that its device is concurrently and backward compatible with as many applications as possible.

Where businesses may get a little more excited is where a device offers features or benefits to them that are not available on other devices and where that particular device is developing a significant market share amongst their customers.

At AECgroup, our Information and Knowledge Management team has decades of experience in developing applications for internal business management and their customers. For more information please contact Simon Smith at simon@aecgroupltd.com or telephone (07) 3831 0577.