Mobile technology will continue to play an important role in business during 2012, it has been suggested.

Dan Shey, enterprise practice director at ABI Research, said there is currently a lot of activity with companies mobilising workforces using business-to-employee applications.

These are customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning tools, business intelligence and approval apps, he said.

"We are now starting to hear the early, early rumblings of offering all employees dashboard apps - those that are customised to the information needs of the employees," Mr Shey noted.

"Common features could be human resource information, such as vacation schedules and investment plan information," he added.

Customising could be information-specific to their department and work tasks, the expert said.

However, he claimed it is still "early days" for B2E apps, as most companies are still formalising their mobile policy.

Meanwhile, Mr Shey predicted that 2012 will be another big year for tablets in the enterprise.

Businesses are also set to experiment more with business to consumer apps to drive more intimacy between businesses and consumers.

"Banking and airlines have been the early adopters. Retail will be the hot market in 2012 and for the next several years," he predicted.

Posted by Alex Boardman