InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

Mobile-enabled sales and service tools are improving workforce metrics across industries. Here are seven case studies to show how mobility can ­transform financial services firms in retail and business banking, capital ­markets, insurance and wealth management.

Our Quarterly Review of Business Apps is designed to help enterprises cash in on mobility's ability to boost efficiency. In this inaugural issue, we offer selections in four areas: IT management, portability, workflow and convenience.

Just 8% of respondents to our InformationWeek 2012 State of IT Staffing Survey involved with hiring or managing IT personnel see demand staying flat vs. 38% who will increase staffing by more than 10%. Read on for trends in compensation, hiring criteria, skill sets and training for the IT industry’s hottest specialty.

For a technical position that's also close to the operations side and the end user, consider the role of application delivery specialist. Although definitions vary, it's a position in high demand from ­companies transforming their development approaches and deployment technologies, with 10% of delivery-focused survey respondents saying they plan to increase staffing in this area by more than 30% in the next two years. That's why only 21% expect to fill these positions easily.

In this installment of our quarterly series, we look at two ­complementary technologies that we expect to see come together in the not-too-distant future: advanced ­conference calling and enterprise social ­networking.