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Business Mobility: Put A Cherry On Top
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What is business mobility? If you ask a CEO, it’s the ability to respond to pending emails while on the way to the airport. If you ask a sales representative, it’s the ability to access important information during a customer visit. For a knowledge worker on a virtual team, it’s the ability to be in a seminar but still receive and respond to an urgent request to review a document by the end of the day.
Mobility makes business better. It gives us the freedom to collaborate and transact business outside traditional workplaces and times. It is communication on the go, with access to the right information at the right time. Mobility makes us more productive, but it also gives us the flexibility to manage the complicated and ever-increasing demands of our work and personal lives.
Mobility is much more than technology. To successfully embed mobility in the fabric of a business involves understanding how people, processes, and technology interact to get work done. Consider, for example, each area’s perspective on what a mobility solution should provide:
People: Appropriate and easy access to information and applications regardless of location, time of day or device
Processes: Cost-effective solutions that improve process efficiency and meet business objectives like improved customer satisfaction or reduced operational costs
Technology: A scalable, secure, and interoperable infrastructure that meets business and worker needs
The benefits of mobility on the people aspect of an organization are numerous and far-reaching. While most of these benefits tend to be non-financial and qualitative, investments in human capital are often the difference between success and failure. As you work to account for workforce, workplace, and management issues in your mobility solutions, you will begin to see benefits like the following:
• Increased employee satisfaction
• Increased employee motivation
• A healthier balance between work and personal life
• Better use of corporate facilities
• Increased individual efficiency and higher team performance
Technology underpins the benefits that come from mobilizing people and processes. As you consider the part that technology will play in your organization’s mobility strategy, be sure to:
• Leverage existing network infrastructure, hardware, and applications whenever possible (e.g., voice, email, databases, and authentication)
• Create an open and flexible environment that can adapt and grow with your business and mobile workforce
Fortunately, many mobile technologies can be built on top of your organization’s existing wired network and security infrastructure.
As you begin to assess your existing infrastructure, ask questions such as the following:
• How do we shape our business to take optimal advantage of innovative mobile technology…quot;and what are the risks?
• How do we standardize, support, and synchronize innovative mobile tools?
• Does our existing email system meet our workers’ needs? Can it be mobilized? What is needed to mobilize it?
• How important is remote access to internal databases and data?
• Can workers access internal applications, including custom-built applications and packages like SAP? How well do these internal systems integrate?
• What types of authentication processes need to be followed? Can existing directory and authentication systems like Active Directory and Radius work in mobile scenarios?
• What are the best methods of ensuring the security of company confidential information such as corporate contacts, email, business strategies, and sales forecast numbers?
Incorporating mobile capabilities into your organization will play an important role in enhancing productivity and competitiveness. A mobilized business should have the following characteristics:
• Mobile technologies are an integral part of the corporate IT infrastructure.
• Corporate information is appropriately secured across locations, systems, and work practices.
• New capabilities are achieved by adding mobile elements to business processes.
• Global and intercompany task forces can form quickly and work efficiently.
• The role of the corporate office and dependence on a nine to five time window diminish, providing the freedom to work where and when it is most convenient.
• Physical space is used for productive face-to-face work.
• Employees have more balance between work and personal life.
Reference
A Holistic Approach to Business Mobility White Paper from Nokia
Posted by ROOT Technologies
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