A Mobile Strategy That Helps Your
Business Evolve
Contributed by Shane Avron on May 8, 2014 in Information Technology
An IBM/Oxford Economics survey of
businesses around the world reports that 81
percent of them see mobile capabilities as
changing the way they do business.
Maintaining a mobile strategy is not easy, but
the returns in attracting customers and
increasing your employee productivity might
be worth it to your company. Here are few
considerations when planning your
company’s next step into the world of mobile
services.
Mobile Strategy Is Not Just About Supporting Devices
Going mobile for your customers is about creating a new user experience on their
smartphones and tablets. It’s about flexible schedules and work locations for your
employees. It’s thinking about how to deliver your product and service messages to
consumers who take a few minutes at a time to view information on their mobile devices,
and make purchase decisions in those few moments. Wired says that a mobile strategy is
about redefining how your company does business on mobile tools.
The Internal and External Impact of Mobile
CIO.com states that when a company implements a mobile strategy, they too often focus on
the external apps used by consumers. A complete strategy incorporates your internal staff
and determines how they will do their jobs with mobile devices.
Your sales force can become more mobile with smartphones that access cloud-based
customer management tools such as Zoho CRM. Your bookkeeping staff could be a
collaboration between virtual assistants and full-time employees with software solutions
like Intuit QuickBooks . Marketing, graphics design and social media management can
collaborate on projects from anywhere with tools such as Evernote.
Reducing Vulnerabilities
The challenges that come with this internal flexibility include opening your company up to
potential data loss, corruption and theft. Whether you provide mobile devices for your staff
or implement a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy, extra protection of the company’s
digital assets is necessary.
Mobile device management (MDM) tools help you control access by mobile devices. The
primary benefits of an MDM include:
registering supported devices and only allowing them to access your systems
creating workspaces that restrict the company information that a mobile device can
access
monitoring and logging mobile device activity
disabling access by mobile devices reported as lost or stolen
remotely wiping company data from lost or stolen devices
Redefining Roles
You’ll get the most from your mobility strategy if it includes the operational changes that
make the best use of the technology. You won’t be able to put tablets in the hands of your
bookkeepers, give them access to a cloud-based accounting system, and expect them to be
productive. How can mobile make that staff more efficient?
There will be areas of your company where mobile doesn’t make sense. Don’t force it if it
doesn’t fit. The bookkeeping area could be one of those areas. Your staff can still access the
cloud-base apps from their desktop and laptop computers. You and other management
levels can use mobile apps to review your cash flow and receivables.
The Cloud Dilemma
Mobile devices and the cloud are inseparable. This can lead to problems when members of
staff download suspicious files to their devices. Those files could end up in the company
systems, notes Information Week . Tight controls on where people get their files are possible
by creating internally managed private clouds. Enforcing the use of tools that scan for and
isolate malicious software is another part of any mobile strategy.
About Shane Avron
Shane works in Internet advertising, and writes about advances on the social Web and more.
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