Bloomberg BusinessWeek Reports on Productivity Gains - Is Mobility to Blame?

I read an interesting article by Mike Dorning in last week's Bloomberg BusinessWeek.  In summary, the article said surveys are showing that people do not believe the economy is improving despite nearly all market indicators suggesting otherwise.  Of particular interest is the following excerpt, "While jobs have been slow to return, the country has experienced 'an incredible productivity boom' that strengthens the economy for an expansion, says Greenhaus of Miller Tabak. Labor productivity, or worker output per hour, grew at a 6.9 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter, capping the biggest one-year gain since 2002."

I am seeing an incredible interest in enterprise mobility applications these days.  I wonder how much of the 6.9 percent productivity gain in Q4 of 2009 can be credited to companies extending their ERPs to mobile devices.  What are your thoughts?

SAP announced in December that mobility is one of their core focus points for 2010.  I can see this demonstrated with their EcoHub mobility theme this month.  In 2009 it was business intelligence.  This year I believe it is enterprise mobility, and next year the combination of enterprise mobility, business intelligence, and location based services (geospatially aware apps).

I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

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Kevin Benedict
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict  
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/

***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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