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Six things to consider before devising your mobility strategy

By Gareth Madden, sales director with MJ Flood Technology

Tablet PC with cloud of application icons flying arroundEmbrace Mobile………….. You really have to. And that’s not just us saying it. Every piece of research screams mobile and business organisations are taking new products and services to market with a ‘mobile first’ mentality.

Take Three’s recent report on the use of smartphones in the business community. Over half of respondents said their smartphone is the single most important piece of technology allowing them to do their job. And a whopping 70 per cent of business people use smartphones every day.

It’s never been more important to develop a mobility strategy for your business. By failing to create one and preventing staff from using their own smartphone or tablets for work-related processes, you’re missing out on all the benefits that a mobile workforce brings; increased productivity, better efficiency and the opportunity to generate deeper engagement with your customers.

• It might sound like a challenge but consider some of the following high-level tips on mobility strategy, before you start your journey towards safe, secure, anytime IT services and happier staff and customers.
• Embrace mobile and ensure that sponsorship for the use of mobile technologies comes from the top down. Senior managers should lead by example and create a positive vibe around the importance of not feeling tied to a desk.
  Identify the needs of the people in your organisation. Different functions will have different requirements. Customer-facing staff or those managing social media or communications may have a more active role to play than those involved in back office functions.
• Buy in from all department groups is critical. It will take definitive thought and planning on how it should be implemented to ensure total productivity effectiveness.
• Ensure security takes centre stage, by wrapping your environment in a secure, robust platform without unnecessary limitations on what people can do or access. Failing to do this could stifle productivity.
• Make it simple and transparent for staff and avoid complication as this may create an environment where they will be tempted to circumnavigate certain processes leading to potential security risk. Process standardisation will ensure uniformity of access. For example, it’s important to provide staff with single sign-on, simple file synchronisation and above all easy, reliable access to the applications they need to do their job.
• Finally, don’t fall into the trap of providing a solution for today. Your strategy must anticipate future environmental changes and encompass new products, services and associated workflows being developed as part of your company roadmap.

MJ Flood Technology has a dedicated Mobile Device Management (MDM) managed services department, dedicated to planning, implementation and ongoing support and management of mobile devices in the enterprise. We also assist organisations in devising mobility strategy and developing usage policy and processes around smart device usage in the workplace.