The decision by giant communications equipment maker Motorola to buy Symbol Technologies, a marquee name in automatic identification products, has cast a spotlight on an idea that has been percolating for some time -- the mobile enterprise.

Simply put, in a mobile enterprise every asset is connected and accessible from anywhere. In a position paper published last year titled, "Achieving the Promise of the Mobile Enterprise," Motorola, quoting Forrester Research, describes it this way: "The ability for an enterprise to connect and control suppliers, partners, employees, assets, products, and customers from any location."

Given that competing technologies must collaborate to make this happen, connectivity and accessibility will be hard enough to achieve. Getting "control" is another matter entirely, and may simply be the kind of notion that is found in the hype stage of an otherwise sound business idea.

Stages aside, the broad idea of the mobile business is becoming more than just a catchy phrase used by some companies -- or a supposed positioning statement in the form of a corporate tagline. Symbol, for example, has called itself "The Enterprise Mobility Company." What may have started out in many companies at a grassroots level -- individuals with cell phones, portable computers, and personal digital assistants -- has now become a business strategy complete with many hoped-for bottom-line rewards. You can bet good money that Motorola/Symbol will soon be emphasizing those rewards -- more integrated business processes, higher employee productivity, cost savings, greater supply chain visibility, and the list goes on.

But with the idea's evolution into a strategy comes the need to understand the risks associated with business mobility, a characterization I like better than enterprise mobility, since business mobility better reflects boundary-spanning business processes. The challenges to be understood with business mobility range from technology convergence to business strategy development and execution and much in between.

On the tech front, Symbol has already started work on trying to consolidate Wi-Fi, RFID, voice over wireless local areas networks, mesh, and Wi-MAX into an integrated RF switching platform. Symbol calls this its Wireless Next Generation Architecture. Manufacturers would be well advised to understand which of these technologies need to be used, and how deployment should be accomplished.

Even such mundane things as batteries need to be taken into consideration. In a blog posting the same day as the Motorola/ Symbol announcement, EDS Fellow Randy Mears warned that batteries may be the Achilles Heel of the mobile enterprise. "It may be argued that the slow advancement of battery technology has been a primary inhibitor to the advancement of mobile technology in general," he wrote.

Just as important is how you approach the idea of mobility from a business perspective. While user needs must be considered, the Motorola position paper points out that an enterprise business strategy must be crafted before anything else is done. That may sound academic, but for many manufacturers the creation of a mobile connectivity and communications strategy will be even more daunting than an enterprise applications strategy.

Did I just hear the consultants' phones ringing?

What's your take on business mobility? Write to me at Dbrousell@thomaspublishing.com.