Mobility solutions are a huge part of our everyday lives. In the U.S. alone, consumers are spending 5 hours per day on mobile devices. In 2010, a fourth of internet traffic was from mobile devices. Today, over 70% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices.
Growing investments and advancements in mobile technology make it the preferred platform for accessing and sharing information. Regardless of industry and business, the opportunities mobile solutions can create are infinite. This presents new opportunities and challenges for business leaders.
The long-term success of the modern enterprise depends on developing mobility solutions. Today, more CIOs are considering a mobile-first approach for their digital transformation strategy. However, few businesses are prepared to create and implement their strategy.
The idea of incorporating mobility into your company’s digital roadmap can feel daunting without the right expertise. In this comprehensive guide, I will show you how to develop an effective enterprise mobility strategy, for success during your digital transformation journey.
So what is Enterprise Mobility?
Enterprise mobility is the deployment of mobile solutions across an organization. It leverages mobile tech to connect people, processes, and data. Enterprise mobility improves how consumers interact with products and services of an enterprise.
“An effective enterprise mobility strategy is not about determining pros and cons, rather embracing the overall impact that new mobile technology will have on the future of your business.”
Enterprise mobility solutions can:
- Provide customers with the ability to self-provision services
- Create new user experiences that are simple, personal and smart
- Remove complexities from internal processes
- Build new revenue systems around data
Of course, enterprise mobility is ineffective in a silo. Enterprise mobility is part of an overall tech narrative. It works with other digital initiatives within your business.
Benefits of an enterprise mobility strategy
Consumers will benefit from a mobility strategy. But what about your business and employees? Businesses centered on mobile apps can reap greater benefits.
An enterprise mobility strategy will:
- Improve security
- Increase productivity
- Reduce operational costs
- Make Informed Business Decisions
- Prevent Data Loss
- Improve employee retention
Recent Enterprise Mobility Solutions Trends
Enterprise mobility solutions vary widely by industry. However, every business must have an enterprise mobility strategy that is:
- Unique to its own industry
- Addressing its specific business needs
- Based on its current stage of mobile adoption
Below are some examples of mobility solutions that have disrupted several industries:
FinTech
Mobile payment solutions are advancing quickly. They offer consumers easier ways to pay with their mobile device. Only 3% of payments being made via smartphone in the U.S. As a result, tremendous opportunities exist in FinTech.
Construction
Mobile is transforming the real estate and construction industries. For example, augmented reality for mobile devices allows anyone to visualize a space. Builders can overlay BIM models on the construction site. Architects can present architectural models in 3D. Home buyers can "walk" into their new home miles away without leaving their living room.
Retail
Mobile apps are capable of providing a richer in-store customer experience. Consumers can receive notifications about sales as they walk through store aisles. Regular customers can enjoy the benefits of a loyalty program. A perfect example of this concept in action is the Target mobile app. Users can access the Target app to locate products at their preferred store. Users can plan grocery lists in advance and purchase items for pick-up. Users can also scan in-store items for additional savings and rewards.
Logistics
Enterprise mobility solutions are moving the supply chain with apps for fleet tracking, inventory management, and order fulfillment. In logistics, the advantages of working smarter with mobile apps are apparent.
Healthcare
Mobile is making an impact on telehealth and telemedicine. Healthcare providers can provide remote digital healthcare services. They offer their patients convenience, choice, personalization, and control. According to the American Telemedicine Association, more than 15 million Americans received remote medical care last year. In contrast, almost 40% of tech-savvy consumers still don’t know about telemedicine. Over the next few years, we can expect more consumers to utilize remote medical care services. The benefits of mobile solutions are infinite. With all these opportunities, you might ask, “why isn’t every business focusing on enterprise mobility or have an enterprise mobile strategy?”.
In our years of experience, we’ve discovered the same pain point. Most businesses don’t know where to begin. Implementing a mobility strategy can be a daunting task. Below we show you how to develop an effective enterprise mobility strategy.
Key Steps for Your Enterprise Mobility Strategy
An enterprise mobility strategy is a part of your digital transformation strategy. Drafting a strategy for any organization can be overwhelming. However, if done right, your enterprise mobility strategy can scale business growth. You can evolve with the changing tech landscape and growing business needs.
An enterprise mobility strategy can:
- Increase market share
- Improve staff productivity
- Reduce operational costs
- Provide real time access to data
- Enable multi-channel collaboration
- Identify the unique selling proposition (USP)
- Level the competitive landscape
There are six steps to create any successful enterprise mobility strategy. Let’s get into discussing these steps.
Defining Your Business Needs
Enterprise mobile initiatives can solve your business problems, find you new customers, and help create innovative solutions to grow your business. Before you start, you need to establish your business needs.
Ask yourself:
- What are the enterprise mobility trends in your industry?
- What are the core products & services of your business?
Where do you see your business in the next 3, 5, and 10 years?
Conducting Competitive Research
Search competitor websites and online mentions. If they have applications, you can learn more about them on the app store. Once you identify mobile solutions based on your competitive research, answer these questions to fine tune your enterprise mobility strategy:What mobility solutions have your competitors built for their employees and customers?
Will this app solve any business problems or create value?
What impact new mobile apps will have on your business processes?
Setting Strategic Goals And Objectives
The first two steps in our strategy guide help you identify your needs. Next, we want to prioritize your needs with goals and objectives.
Important questions to ask:
- Which apps will have the most impact on your business, employees, and users?
- Is your business ready to support this app?
- Is mobility the right channel to deliver the solutions the solutions your business needs?
Take as much time as you need to drill down into your goals and objectives. Outline your desired business outcomes carefully. This will make it easier to measure key metrics for future success.
Choosing The Right Mobile Experience And Platform
There are two recommended approaches for delivering mobility solutions:
Native Mobile Apps
Native mobile apps are built specifically for iOS or Android. Users must download them from the app store to a mobile phone or tablet.
Mobile Web Apps
Mobile web apps are websites accessed from a mobile browser. Mobile web apps are responsive and can look like a mobile app.
Choosing the right mobile platform is essential to the success of your enterprise mobility strategy. Once you make this decision, it can be difficult and costly to reverse it.
These questions will guide you in the right direction:
- What mobile platform will your app support: iOS, Android, or both?
- How do users interact with your applications?
- Will your app need access to a device feature like camera, speaker, GPS, accelerometer, or bluetooth?
Creating A Plan For Continuous Delivery
In mobile app development, you will need to continue supporting your apps to address bugs, new features, and security vulnerabilities.
These questions will help you create your agile development plan:
- What apps and features will be of most value to users?
- Can you prioritize your app features in high, medium, and low categories?
- What new services will your business be introducing in the coming years?
Outlining A Security Strategy & Incorporating Governance Policy
Last and certainly not least, you must outline your security strategy and internal governance policy.
Your governance policy should address:
- The development processes
- Device provisioning
- Data access and security
- Interruption coverage / disaster recovery
- Mobile application management
- Ongoing infrastructure improvement needs.
The following questions will help you establish a good governance policy:
- Who are the different stakeholders/personnel involved with your mobile initiatives?
- What BYOD, CYOD, and COPE device policy will you need?
- How will you secure your APIs?
- What security solution will you use to ensure data security?
Conclusion
A successful enterprise mobility strategy needs sufficient planning and coordination within your business. But, it can become a cornerstone of your company’s digital transformation journey.
What is your organization doing for enterprise mobility?
I’d love to hear what questions you may have about your company’s mobility initiatives and digital transformation. Post in the comments!
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