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Introduction of mobile technology in business brings many benefits from increased productivity and reduced costs to employee empowerment and added flexibility in workflow. Nevertheless, the transition from desktops and laptops to smartphones and tablets should be thought through and planned as the process of enterprise-wide mobility requires the involvement of all departments, not just the IT team.
Planning Stage
Planning for the implementation of mobile technology in business, one should take into account a variety of different sectors of the company. First of all, its departments must discuss how mobility strategy can be carried out more effectively. Thus, for example, the IT team should work with the HR department to assess the possible impact of the transition of employees to mobile technology. Also, it is necessary to discuss possible security risks and whether mobile strategy will violate or empower the employees with the legal department.
Troy Fulton, the product marketing director at Tangoe, considers it necessary to ask a few questions before you implement a mobility strategy. “What’s our strategy for driving business value? What end results do we want to achieve for employees, customers and partners? And, crucially, what is our starting point in real terms? Are we codifying a policy to legitimate behavior that employees are already engaged in, or are we breaking new ground?” he said.
Implementation Stage
Second stage is the physical process of implementing the mobility strategy. At this stage, control plays an important role. First of all, IT experts should make sure that the devices are available to workers and are appropriate for their kind of work. Forward-thinking IT teams will also want to consider moving part of their infrastructure to cloud-based services. This will give employees a certain mobility and flexibility.
Also, the IT team must constantly keep in touch with the legal department, which will inform them about the level of security required for different departments. Box founder Aaron Levie is a keen advocate of such an approach. “Enterprises have to design IT with users at the center of the strategy. IT attitude has to shift from ‘IT dictates’ to ‘IT enables’,” he says.
“Mobile devices bridge home and work life more than ever before, so it’s important for businesses to define clear policies to protect staff and themselves. The IT department must work closely with HR to educate the company in best practice and policy,” mobile data gateway vendor Wandera says. “Agreed at board level, these policies need to be clearly explained by HR, including guidance on what apps to avoid on devices used for work, what information should and should not be shared on different devices, and obligatory mobile security software on devices used for work.”
Mobility in Action Stage
After the transition to mobile strategy, an active involvement of all departments and primarily HR department is required. HR department must ensure employee awareness of the benefits of mobile working environment. This could include encouraging them to work from home, arranging meetings at interesting external locations, or simply moving to a different part of the office to engage with employees that they might not work with on a regular basis.
A core of a successful transformation is cooperation. All departments should liaise with the IT team to provide information about working with the new mobility strategy.
All in all, the transition to mobile technologies in business may seem a little complicated, but the benefits of the mobility are worth it.
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