The Need for Enterprise Mobility

By Singh Ajmani, LogixGuru.com

Enterprise Mobility Solutions refers to the collection of people, technology and process in order to manage connectivity options of mobility solutions and software. In today’s technology enabled business world, enterprise mobility aims to boost productivity in the workplace by optimizing the use of time and resources.

Research in Motion (RIM) was the first-mover in providing large scale enterprise mobility in the form of the secure BlackBerry infrastructure[1]. Over time, this model has transformed into a plug-and-play model in enterprise mobility solutions, which allows users to seamlessly connect their own mobile devices to the enterprise backbone and legacy systems. These systems are built to provide a platform-independent user experience.

With the adoption of modern technologies, employees increasingly demanded to use their preferred devices for personal as well as professional use. Some arguments and benefits in favor of mobility are listed in the following sections.

Consuming content via Enterprise Mobility

Contrary to popular belief, these devices are not used primarily for accessing social media. Instead, the primary purpose of these devices is to consume meaningful content and stay seamlessly connected with the world.

Demand for Enterprise Mobility from Executives

Executives focused on accomplishing results, inside the office or outside, are some of the strongest proponents of Enterprise Mobility Solutions. In today’s highly competitive world, executives demand the need for urgent action in any situation. This implies ‘anywhere, anytime access to information’ for employees, in the form of process improvement and productivity applications. This leaves organizations with 2 options to pursue.

• Issue mobile devices to all employees configured to the companies’ satisfaction
• Allow employees to access information on the mobile devices of their choice

Given the complete control afforded to organizations over the content available over the mobile device, the first model gained popularity initially. This option was pursued in a limited capacity by many organizations – a few select employees were issued BlackBerry phones, and the organizations controlled the entire infrastructure and content. This gave the organization complete control over the phone, making the employees loathe to using this phone outside their professional lives. However, due to the high equipment and maintenance costs associated with this model, organizations started considering the other model.

Additionally, most employees preferred accessing information from a platform of their choice. The concept of allowing users to access information over devices of their own choice carries quite a few benefits[2], some of which are listed below.

• Increased Employee Engagement – Giving employees the freedom of choice and respecting different preferences can demonstrate progressive workplace culture and nurture loyalty of employees towards the organization. However, in conservative industries like the Department of Defense (DoD), the potential risks of increased access to information far outweigh the advantages of convenience.
• Increased Productivity – Mobility results in an increased productivity of employees outside of work. Employees could use their mobile devices to connect to company email and/or document systems in order to finish up their work, facilitating frequent and convenient after-hours work. Additionally, business travelers and sales personnel would be able to ensure productivity while outside office.
• Collaboration – Linking up devices may encourage people to connect together more frequently, leading to more effective communications.
• Cost Savings – Simple access to emails for about 100 people in an organization could result in increased productivity of about half an hour per day, leading to increase revenues by about $1.5 million over 3 years[3]. Other observable benefits also help increase revenue over the course of time.

Conclusion

While the advantages of enterprise mobility mentioned above are not comprehensive, they are the most obvious ones. Listing all the reasons behind the demand for enterprise mobility and the advantages would entitle a thoroughly elaborate document. However, bearing in mind the most obvious facts mentioned in this write-up, the need for enterprise mobility in technology enabled business environments cannot be refuted.

To Find Out More

Logix Guru provides state-of-the-art enterprise mobile application development consulting and solutions. In order to find out more about adopting enterprise mobile applications for your organization, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

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