Choosing the Right PDA

The personal digital assistant (PDA) or smartphone has been the productivity lifeblood for many business owners, but for others, the PDA has become a technological battlefield saturated with tedious functions. The key to choosing the right PDA for your business lies in getting the right capabilities that is both reasonably priced and efficient to use. Contact management systems, security measures, and phone carriers, are also key features that shouldn't be overlooked.

So whether it’s a blackberry, a palm treo, or an iphone you're after, it's worth doing your research.

When we say PDA today, what we really mean is smartphone; simply because the market is saturated with PDAs that have phone access. But do you really want a PDA? And if so, what kind? The more traditional,purely electronic device to efficiently track your information? Or do you want all of the bells and whistles?

According to Rick Cooper, business coach and president of The PDA Pro, you can have all the fancy capabilities you want, as long as your PDA still has the fundamental four—calendar, contacts, memos and tasks. “These are the four basic functions of a PDA, and the things that will really allow a business person to be productive.”

Well, that sounds easy enough. But what else do SMEs have to keep in mind? “It’s really important to identify what the needs in your business are,” says Cooper. “If you don’t need GPS, then don’t get GPS—adding on just increases the price.”

Cooper also suggests buying a PDA that’s fast and easy to use. “If it’s cumbersome or tedious, which some of them are, then you’re far less likely to use it.”

Once you’ve got that settled, make sure the model you want will integrate with your contact management system. “What that means is you’ll need to look at your contact management software and find out what operating systems are compatible,” Cooper explains. “And it has to have good reliability and good sound quality.”

But what about finding all the right capabilities and still keeping the price down? Cooper’s first piece of advice is to contact your phone carrier. “Often you can upgrade within your current plan to another model and save on cost,” he explains. Also, it makes sense to standardise on a phone carrier to reduce your bills.

When investing in a PDA, keep future usage in mind too. If you’re buying a BlackBerry, then it’s easier to stick to the BlackBerry operating system, because constantly transferring data is nothing more than a hassle.

Find out about the returns policy as well. A PDA can be a pretty big outlay, especially when you find out you can’t actually use it. Ask to road test a PDA for 30 days, suggests Cooper.

And as clever as PDAs are, they do have a tendency to crash, despite improved reliability. “One of the most important things I recommend people do is synchronise their PDA with their computer, and then also back up their computer.”

Security measures for your PDA
There is more to protecting your records than just backing them up though, which is one downside to consider. In the era of the mobile workforce, with confidential information stored on PDAs that are usually connected to unsecured wireless networks, security measures are a must for many business owners.

“Most PDAs, they’re running 24/7. They’re a key area for threats now,” says Paul Lancaster, director of systems engineering at Symantec Software, Australia and New Zealand. “The mobile area is one that was very small back in 2004 and 2005, but our intelligence work now is showing that it’s basically doubling every six months and getting a lot of exposure to cyber criminals.”

A recent Symantec survey found 70 percent of businesses can’t survive without access to email for more than a day and, of those businesses, 72 percent use PDAs or mobile devices. But despite the large number of PDA users, more than 40 percent don’t have protection against threats like pranking for profit and Snoopware, with many not even blocking inappropriate emails—pretty risky business, considering the number of mobile viruses has also doubled every six months since 2004.

One option you can mull over is the Symantec Mobile Security Suite, says Lancaster. The suite provides tools around anti-virus, firewall and anti-SMS Spam—basically the security and data protection features that you’d have on your laptop or desktop. You can also consider encrypting the data on your PDA and the memory card, just in case they’re ever lost or stolen, says Lancaster.

Before making any decisions, remember that PDAs can ease communication and make running a business much smoother, but being switched on 24/7 may not be the work-life balance you’re after.