IT managers will come under increased pressure to provide service to a fast-growing army of mobile workers as enterprises increase investment in wireless technology over the next two or three years.

According to analyst Meta Group, almost half of global enterprises are planning to roll out full mobile email access because mobilising their staff can give them a commercial advantage.

Most projects will concentrate on targeted field-force automation - such as service or field sales - that is an extension of an existing environment, rather than general-purpose mobile infrastructure.

"Despite the challenges of less-than-universal wide-area wireless coverage, we have seen a renewed interest in deploying wireless applications during the past six months as companies are beginning to spend again," said Jack Gold, wireless industry analyst at Meta Group, in a statement.

"The downside is that this is putting increased pressure on already burdened IT organisations to support users on various devices such as notebooks, tablet PCs, PDAs and smartphones."

The analyst advises that, when implementing these projects, companies should keep an overall view of existing business architectures and enterprise security.