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Once upon a time, IT directors gave employees a
locked-down desktop PC with access to an approved list
of enterprise software and a basic functionality company
mobile. Today, people expect to make their own decisions
about the devices and the apps they use at work.
Some employees even base their next career move on
the flexibility and choice a business gives their people.
It sounds like a tale with an unhappy ending, especially if
users dabble in shadow IT, running apps on devices that
are not approved by the business. But the story doesn’t
have to end badly. In fact CIOs who prioritise work on a
mobility strategy will be best-placed to face the future
with confidence.
Research from publishing firm TechTarget suggests 37%
of IT leaders plan to implement a mobility strategy for
their business this year. With the right type of strategy,
CIOs can allow users to feel they have the freedom to
benefit from the flexibility and choice of the digital age,
while also ensuring the IT team keeps a grip on devices,
apps and – most crucially of all – data.
So, how do you create a future-proof framework
that provides benefits to your business and gives its
employees the flexibility they desire? We believe there
are five key strands that should be considered:
1. Flexibility
Working patterns of modern employees have been
changing, with the office layout a contributing factor. Dr
Nicola Millard reminds us that: “The traditional open plan
office is generally designed with capacity rather than
collaboration in mind. Sometimes the only option is to
move away from the distractions of the office and work
at home or in a local coffee shop.”
Different employees will have different needs – but to
stop the IT team responding to individual demands,
develop a strategy that has flexibility at its centre.
This enables the IT team to accommodate the different
working patterns of employees without creating a
specific mobility plan for each one.
Don’t forget to look at upcoming trends when you
develop your strategy. Analyst Ovum believes the next
phase of flexibility will involve mobilising as many internal
processes as possible, allowing workers to perform key
tasks from any device or location. Your strategy should
lay down the foundations that allow it to meet the
demands of the future.
2. Applications
A good mobility strategy gives employees the tools they
need to work productively from any location – and that
means having the right applications. Ovum predicts
2014 will be a big year as “Apps drive the next phase in
the evolution of enterprise mobility, creating new ways of
working, and transforming existing business processes”.
Apps that aid collaboration, such as those relating to
email, voice, video and presence, or those that provide
access to documents via the Cloud will be crucial, and
should be fully explored in your strategy.
CIOs also need to consider the best way to get critical
business information out to executives and sales
workers so they can make informed decisions on the
go. In a study by research group Aberdeen, “43% of
businesses thought staff members often lacked complete
information about their customers when interacting with
them remotely.”
Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) apps are becoming
more popular, although the same report found that
they are predominantly the preserve of IT literate
companies – with 47% of companies that have adopted
Mobile BI being IT vendors or providers.
3. Device Ownership
Smart leaders are building strategies that both increase
freedom of choice and keep company assets safe.
Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) approach is where the
business gives employees the power of choice, while still
protecting their data and allowing IT to support users.
Julian Bond, Head of ICT for Hillarys Blinds limited the
number of devices his employees could use to three
smart phones and two tablets – what he calls “BYOD,
but not any device”.
A further twist comes in the form of a Corporate-
Owned Personally-Enabled (COPE) strategy which gives
employees the choice of a device from an approved list,
which they can then use as their personal phone.
Before embarking on a strategy IT leaders should work
closely with peers in departments such as HR and Sales
to understand the kind of devices employees need.
This can also help the business to find new devices for
specific tasks, such as iPads for airline staff and
hand-held connected devices for shop assistants.
4. Security
The financial and PR costs that come with a data breach
or loss are well documented. Yet security specialist
Webroot claims 60% of employees have no security
software on the personally owned devices they use
for work.
And data security is not always part of the mobility
strategy. A TechTarget study found just 30% of CIOs are
working on a mobile device management (MDM) project
in 2014. So what can you do to minimise this risk with
your employees?
Consider implementing services like mobile application
management (MAM) and mobile device management
(MDM). These help you to lock down, control and secure
the whole device in the case of the latter, or in the case
of the former, just the apps your employees need to use.
They also meet customer data SLA’s while other benefits
include seamless upgrades and configurations.
5. Bandwidth
It’s crucial not to forget the impact that implementing
device ownership, flexibility and applications may have
on current operations. Bandwidth is often overlooked
and any future-proof mobility strategy needs to ensure
the ever-increasing need for capacity is matched by
technical capability.
Analyst Gartner notes that as the power of mobile
devices increases, so does the demand on networks and
the need to manage bandwidth. Executives at many
organisations will wonder how they can keep dispersed
workers connected at all times.
Julian Bond at Hillarys Blinds faced such a challenge
and had to create a network for 1,100 workers across
the organisation’s three main sites. The solution was a
scalable WAN (Wide Area Network) to connect workers,
that can grow as the business and its needs do.
Mobility must be at the core of any CIO’s technology
strategy. The fast pace of development, in terms of
devices and applications, means a mobile strategy is also
a moving target. But by addressing the five key concerns
above, CIOs can start to build a platform for change that
give users choice and provides flexibility to the business.
Five key areas for a successful
mobility strategy
CIOs who focus on strategy can satisfy employee demands for flexibility
while creating a platform that helps deliver improved productivity
IT Insights - Mobility Get in touch - 0800 022 3065