Throwback Thursday: Enterprise Mobility Is Dead

Throwback Thursday: Enterprise Mobility Is Dead

Almost two years ago, we declared Enterprise Mobility dead! (Yes...seriously!)

And frankly, in the right context, it is dead.

Mobile business just business as usual these days. And that's the point.

Read more in this week's edition of Throwback Thursday!

Zach Messler

Enterprise mobility is dead.

Yes. You read it right.

Enterprise mobility is dead.

Oh, don't get me wrongÖworkers use their mobile devices to get things done.

They use their smart phones to do more than just check emailÖtheir tablets and phablets and iPhones (oh my!) to accomplish work tasks. And, it doesn't matter the industry.

Mobile is everywhere. It's used by airports for faster incident management; by insurers to speed claims, allowing adjusters in the field to share data the moment they capture it; by energy companies to keep everything operational; by financial services firms, government agencies, transportation companies, manufacturing, life sciences, healthcare, you name it. So much so, it's hard to believe...Can you believe the iPhone was first introduced in 2007?

But enterprise mobility? It's "mobile business." And that's quickly become a thing of the past.

Why? Mobile business is less about mobile and more about business. In the end, it's just getting work done more easilyÖ.more quicklyÖmore productively.

Eventually, mobility becomes a cute word we used to sayto make business sound cutting edge.

Enterprise mobility at its core is a way to accelerate businessÖto more quickly increase growth, cut costs, improve efficiency, maintain complianceÖ.you get the gist. And, in this sense, it is very much alive.

So how can you better ensure success?

• • Engrain enterprise mobility in your organization so your sense of mobile business becomes just business.

You get there by becoming natively mobile; by building applications with a mobile context. Align with both employee and customer expectations, flowing information in real-time. Give people what they need, at the moment they need it, on the screen they prefer, in the format they expect.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as we all evolve from mobile business to just business:

• • Can your employees capture and share information from outside a normal work environment? Make work in the field easier than work at a desk, addressing information capture and access from anywhere in a way that's inherently intuitive.

• • More than access, can your employees accomplish tasks on a mobile device? Mobile is a lifestyle. This is as true at home as it is in the workplace. Make your mobility strategy a natural extension of work in the office. Provide the ability to get everything done more easily, whenever, wherever, however your workers prefer. Let all applications interact with the same data, process and each other to drive the best actions.

• • Do your mobile capabilities let your employees, customers, constituents, etc. take full advantage of their devices? Your applications can be even more powerful if they can use the native device capabilities like GPS, barcode scanner, and camera...not to mention offline capabilities and added security.

So ignore the buzzwords. It's not mobile business. It's just business. Let's take care of it.

Zach Messler