Enterprise Mobility is…
Sunday, November 4th, 2007We have had one-on-one discussions with 36 companies in the last 60 days to talk about Enterprise Mobility and the challenges related to this fragmented and confusing environment. And the confusion starts with the definition of Enterprise Mobility. Depending on the organizational perspective and the current pain, the definition varies.
From a Finance perspective, Enterprise Mobility is…a growing and out-of-control expense. With the proliferation of mobile devices including cell phones, smartphones, wireless broadband cards for laptops and other data services, the wireless budget is big and getting bigger. It has already surpassed wireline spend in most companies.
From a Security perspective, Enterprise Mobility is…a significant source of liability and exposure that needs to be controlled. Talk to any company recently impacted by lost or stolen computers containing sensitive company data. Multi-million dollar recovery efforts are commonplace as lost customer or employee data makes headline news and government regulations force companies to provide long term protection for those impacted by the breach.
From an IT perspective, Enterprise Mobility is…a complex set of technologies made up of feature-rich mobile devices, incompatible operating systems, fragmented wireless networks, security tools, and a growing number of mobile applications. All of that coupled with the challenge of keeping up with continuous innovation in technology, the threat of security breaches, and too many cases of irrational end-user demands.
From a Workforce perspective, Enterprise Mobility is…a mission critical service provided to the mobile workforce comprised of everybody, not just sales or field services. Productivity, customer service, and competitiveness are increasingly dependent on enterprise mobility. Companies that fall behind or poorly manage this environment put themselves at risk.
Whatever your current description of enterprise mobility is today, you will eventually need to address all of these concerns and issues. We have built MobilityCentral with this in mind. We are building one solution for everything mobile with an extensive partnership network that includes carriers, device management tools, security tools, and more. MobilityCentral is designed to address the challenges of spend, security, support with role-specific interfaces for the stakeholders responsible for these concerns.
Tags: enterprise mobility, IT, kblog
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November 9th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
This is a great post and got me thinking about our own problems here. Especially after my wireless bills last month. I was traveling and surprised when I came home!!
I can’t wait for this service to be available for the SME.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Good Service to Enterprises
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
So what are the real problems that are solved by taking applications out of the office? Who benefits and how are those benefits translated into an ROI that executives can reliably make decisions on? I see a lot of hype about the mobile worker, the need for real-time access but I don’t see enough about the problems / pinch points that are being mitigated. Are the problems vertically oriented? Is one vertical more prone to success stories over another or should companies who provide a mobile enterprise solution be focused horizontally and rely on the enterprise owners to taylor horizontal solutions to their vertical segment? Sorry I’ve got more questions than answers but it would be nice to open this dialog up to those with IT management ownership and get them to describe their problems in their own words. And, it would be great if the users would chime in and say what they need IT to support. Sometimes the disconnect between what makes a user more productive and what makes an IT manager look good to the executives leaves a gap that is not being bridged. So, what do you know….
February 27th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Great set of questions. I too would like to hear the voice of IT and the user community in describing the problem that mobile technology solves. With the projected number of smartphones expected to grow from 80 million today to over 300 million by 2011, enterprises have bought the mobility value proposition in a big way.
From my perspective, the 24 by 7 worker and the accelerating pace of business are big reasons. I am writing this post while watching the 10 o’clock news using my Sprint Aircard. Why?..the next three days are already booked and business simply won’t wait. Keeping the conversation going with the business community means responding while on the commuter train. While grabbing lunch. After the kids go down for the night. And of course, in the long security line at the airport.
To state the obvious, the killer application on mobile devices continues to be email. People have quickly learned to thumb type and the form factor works for quick email conversations or texting. We have adapted to the tiny devices and their limitations. But that is changing. The iPhone and devices from competitors that respond to this new web-centric form factor will begin to change the way we use these highly mobile devices. Change is relentless, innovation is incredible.
IT only recently inherited the management of mobile devices. Just a few years ago, cell phones were often managed by procurement or finance and the focus was keeping the cost down of wireless services. In most enteprrises, IT wanted nothing to do with these devices. As cell phones grew up to be smartphones with access to enterprise data, IT was forced to step in and take ownership. After numeruous headline stories on lost and stolen devices with sensitive information created million dollar recovery efforts, IT was charged with securing devices. In addition to securing enteprrise data, IT is asked to provide end user support struggling with a broadening array of features and enterprise connectivity issues.
Let’s hear what others have to say about the enteprise plans and problems with mobilizing the workforce.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Can somebody point me to a Wireless Expense Managemn solution that deals with Data cards?
Regards,
Jeff
April 29th, 2008 at 8:45 am
MobilityCentral provides electronic invoice processing, bill presentment and cost allocation for cell phones, smart phones and air/data cards.
April 12th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Just grabbed the feed… thanks for posting this.