What would you think if this article started by saying mobile technology was in danger of being oversold, it wasn't necessary in every case and the "I've got a new toy!" factor was in danger of outweighing the beneÞts people actually got from this sort of technology? Well, you might think "a Guardian hack trying to Þnd a provocative opener" and you could be forgiven for making that assumption. Except that this didn't come from us. Instead it came from Fujitsu Services, which you might think has vested interests in selling everyone the beneÞts rather than criticising.

Marie Lorenz, end user service manager for Fujitsu Services, conÞrms that the company has come round to getting people to think a great deal more carefully about their mobile purchases than they might have done before.

"Mobile working isn't appropriate for every organisation," she says. "And often where it is applicable it's not appropriate for every employee."

This contrasts almost alarmingly with the hype from large numbers of marketers, particularly in times like these in which the economy dictates that spending, especially unnecessary spending, should fall at some stage.

Lorenz cites organisations that propose to deploy a wireless LAN and its hotspots immediately without testing their business need as an example of the sort of spending that can happen in real life, to no one's real beneÞt.

"If you have a group of users that needs to get into the system to synchronise their details or pick up their emails once or twice a day then you'll be able to serve them adequately without an always-on GPRS or 3G connection," she says. "Different groups require different levels of connectivity."

This is the sort of statement that ought to be kindergarten stuff, but Lorenz' experience suggests money instead of strategic thinking is still getting thrown at business problems, and one of the current buzzwords attracting that money is "mobile". Think of how many adverts you've seen for a hand-held computer or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) as compared to how much use people actually get out of them; it's alarmingly easy to spend hundreds on a pocket diary and justify it somehow as a business purchase.

The cost of sending data around the place using PDAs and laptops through a GPRS connection can also amount to a fair bit. And sales of mobile technology are growing rather than shrinking, particularly when compared to other IT purchases. Nick Taylor, managing director of dealer Handheld PCs, conÞrms that customers sometimes start looking for mobile systems when other solutions to their problems would be more appropriate. He stresses the beneÞts, however, of appropriate use, citing his own business as an example.

"We use 02 XDAs and our own software for picking up mail - we just download the headers and if we need to respond we download the whole message." He contrasts this with the more traditional web mail approach. "A lot of people log onto the web through their PDA and are surprised when they Þnd they've run up a £250 bill in a month when they've only been looking at the odd mail." This, he says, is a major inhibitor to people adopting the technology but doing so has paid off. "If I'm out for a day you can guarantee there will be 30 mails in my inbox and I'll have to deal with one of them immediately."

In other words there are cases in which a given task can be accomplished only by using mobile technology. This can sometimes mean the difference between business won or lost. Mark Adams, managing director of printer Forest Press, faced a possible manpower shortage when his main salesperson was about do some travelling for a while. "I had to either recruit someone else or take on his clients myself." Adams opted to take on the workload himself, aided and abetted by his Ericsson phone, a Compaq iPaq handheld computer and a laptop with a Bluetooth connection. He bought these through Cobweb, his ISP, as a mobile package and has had no cause to regret it.

"I know there have been occasions on which I've had to get information to people on the spot and this has only been possible because I've had my emails available. Of course I could arrange to have my mail routed to someone else but it's not always appropriate to have someone else dealing with or seeing all of my communications." He seems to get an understandable kick out of customers' surprise when he deals with an issue whilst absent from the ofÞce.

Interestingly he opted for a separate handheld computer and phone, mostly as a result of his working methods.

"I tend to keep the PDA in the car and the phone I carry around with me," he comments. "My direct line gets routed to my mobile so having something lightweight is important." The opposing view is taken by Alun Dawson, project manager with building Þrm Watts and Partners. He found himself using three diary systems, a paper one, an elementary electronic organiser and his computer in the ofÞce, none of which would talk to each other. His answer was to invest in a Sony Ericsson P800, the top-of-the-range phone and handheld computer combination. It had everything he needed: "The calendar, email and business facilities were useful and it has an MP3 player which makes it pleasant when I'm not working."

Dawson hasn't done anything as formal as an analysis of returns on investment, but his instinct is that the purchase has been worthwhile, particularly in the light of his use of the built-in digital camera. "The camera isn't as good as you'd get from a full-blown digital camera but it's good enough for my purposes," he comments. He frequently takes pictures of a project's progress and emails them to the client either from the phone itself (costly) or synchronises the phone with his ofÞce computer and mails then on from there (effectively free with a broadband connection). Given the right vantage point from which to take the pics in the Þrst place the clarity is more than adequate for the recipient to understand the progress that's being made.

There are in fact a lot of instances in which the right mobile technology delivers fast business results. The downside is that people get carried away with it, even the bigger players. "We have a system people use internally in which people can get their contacts and messages using voice commands," he says.

Fujitsu Service's Lorenz: "I was identiÞed as someone who would Þnd it useful but I never used it, so I reported back and they've been able to deploy the software to someone else." That's Þne if you're in the sort of corporate environment in which there's an IT department that can reallocate a piece of software or hardware; many start-ups and small businesses won't have that luxury, it's a case of "here's your laptop, here's your PDA, good luck."

It's no use kidding yourself or anyone else: the "boy toy" element of mobile technology is very real and always has been. The pages of the men's glossies are packed with PDAs that double up not only as cameras but as MP3 players, and the same boys who buy those are quite likely to spend their pocket money on something shiny for the ofÞce as well. The cannier business owner will evaluate the advantages to be gained, look at the costs and if he or she deploys the devices correctly then they should watch the business grow or become more efÞcient as a result.

Checklist

If you're considering buying a mobile product it's worth examining why you're doing it and therefore whether you're going to get value out of it Þrst. A few questions to ask yourself would include:

· Am I going to want an extended keyboard often? If most of your work is going to be keyboard-based, consider a laptop rather than a PDA.

· How many boxes will this device save me buying? Alun Dawson replaced a paper diary and an elementary electric diary with his new phone and has eliminated the need to buy a separate digital camera. A minority of purchases will be this cost-effective but do look at what you won't need to buy.

· How do you want it to communicate? Increasing amounts of PDAs and smartphones like the O2 XDA, the Handspring Treo, Palm's Tungsten-W, Sony Ericsson P800 and others can collect email without the need to link to another device. However, they won't connect to a laptop without a cable or infra-red link so if you want all of your communications available when you're away from the ofÞce then a Bluetooth phone or add-in card is essential.

· Has it got the capacity you need? If you want to carry pictures and music (presumably for your own use) is it big enough or will you need to buy add-in cards - and do you know what sort?

· Can you measure any return on investment, or solve a business problem you can articulate, by buying the thing? If you can't, consider saving the money!