So what should you do today?
Begin working with your business sponsors and end users to identify those applications that could have the most significant impact. You can't listen too much when it comes to your business users. Be especially alert for new uses that leverage the handheld computer's strengths: mobility, pervasiveness, adaptability, comparatively low-cost, and ease of use. Look for more articles on this topic in PalmPower Magazine Enterprise Edition in the coming months.

Start thinking about the types of information that are the lifeblood of your business and whether it's appropriate to make this information more available remotely. If you're a hospital or a medical practice, you need to start having the difficult discussions about whether or not your practitioners are allowed to carry this confidential information with them on small devices that are easy to misplace or have stolen. Likewise, your sales staff may want all customers' information always available, but you need to begin a discussion about limiting access to data when appropriate in order to reduce the entire organization's exposure to liability or theft.

You'll eventually need to get to the same place with your Palm handhelds as you are with your network. You probably have corporate standards for what is and is not acceptable email, what acceptable uses of the Internet are, and the individual responsibilities of employees and contractors for keeping the company's information secure. Your PDAs will probably be the same.

Wherever possible, declare your platform intentions early. The fewer the number of devices that you have to support, the lower your organization's overall costs will be.

Start looking at ways to manage your PDA infrastructure. Here's another area where PalmPower's Enterprise Edition can help. In the coming months, we'll be reviewing several programs that promise to help bring control to this confusing area. It promises to be an interesting journey. I hope you'll join me.

Steve Niles is Senior Editor for ZATZ Publishing. He is also an independent filmmaker and freelance writer. For more information, visit http://www.sn-films.com.