WSJ last week had an article on how a new class of software and device technologies are enabling employers to more closely monitor their mobile workers. Does this empower employers or does it create unnecessary mistrust between them and their employees?
We, at Abaqus, believe that there is an interesting trend afoot. Technologies to manage your mobile workers and mobile assets are becoming more widely available for SMB customers. This is primarily due to the wide-scale adoption of Software-as-a-Service and a new class of cheaper/powerful Mobile Devices. As businesses adapt to these trends, the responsibility for transparent and strong privacy controls lies both on the employer and the employee. With such controls in place, location tracking, messaging, MDM and other forms of management tools are not so much about Theory X and Theory Y as they are about better logistics planning, security, payroll management, reduction in check-calls, emergency response planning, asset monitoring, etc. This is what our customers use our service for.