Mobile Information and Communication Technologies in the Context of the Pharmaceutical Sales Force Work

We need to understand how effective information and communication technologies are and to derive lessons from their implementation. This paper investigates the effectiveness of a mobile information system designed to help the sales force of a medium-sized pharmaceutical company in dealing with the barriers to performance they face when operating within a mobile work setting. The paper also examines issues associated with the implementation of such a system. The results show that the members of the sales force were pleased with their firm´s initiative to invest in the mobile information system. However, they were underutilizing it in terms of dealing with a number of barriers to performance they face in the field. The study suggests that in order to enhance the adoption of technology by the sales force, training that goes beyond technical issues and focuses on the sales force´s way of working is the key