Improved Productivity: Prime Reason for Embracing Enterprise Mobility

The idea of anywhere-anytime connectivity is fast becoming a reality. Gartner predicts that enterprises will gradually shift the ownership of their IT assets (PCs and laptops) to their employees over the next few years. Today, we're in the post-PC era, where most important apps are developed for mobile platform first. The tremendous growth in the mobile subscriber base has changed the way enterprise customers go about conducting their business. Business executives have started realizing the importance of remaining connected wherever they are. Blackberrys, iPhones and other similar devices have suddenly become a rage amongst business users to gain improved productivity, and cost savings which are enabled by wireless data access . A Springboard research estimates that India's mobile subscriber base will reach nearly 1.2 billion by 2015 while the enterprise mobile workforce will grow to 205 million in 2015. This will enable mobile workers to interact directly with the customers on the field instead of rushing back to the office to reach their office computers.

While both mobile and laptop are a good combination that can truly enable a mobile enterprise. But the big question is —are organizations really cashing in on the buzzword? Are organizations truly embracing these two products to make their employees productive on the move? Yes! The situation is changing slowly. Have a look at the graph below.

The benefits

Improved productivity, going by the survey, is the single most important factor for enterprises to adopt mobility in India, while employee accessibility follows next. Respondents from Indian enterprises stated the following top five benefits of mobility.

Productivity: 72% respondents stated that they had realized gains through mobility. Making corporate resources available anywhere, anytime means critical decisions are not delayed. Furthermore, business applications such as sales force automation and customer relationship management (CRM) enables mobile workers to complete tasks on site by eliminating the need to visit the office for paperwork or authorization.

Employee Accessibility: For 40% respondents in the country, the ability to reach employees through mobile devices was a major benefit. This real-time access is generally enabled through Applications such as IM, conferencing, social networking, etc.

Better Brand Image: 11% of respondents believe that providing smart mobile devices to the workforce helps to enhance the brand image of the company.

Lowered TCO: From a CapEx and OpEx perspective, 6% of respondents feel that smart mobile devices have a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) as compared to desktops/laptops.

Improved Customer Service: 4% of respondents realized better customer service delivery through mobile devices as the mobile workforce can promptly address customer concerns, provide up to date information, and finalize orders without leaving the client.

Drivers of enterprise mobility

There are many drivers that are encouraging enterprises to go mobile. India is one of the fastest growing wireless markets. Wireless technology can help enterprises not only improve internal processes but also enhance customer satisfaction. Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook play a vital role in generating awareness and improving brand image. Consumers are also increasingly seeking advice and checking reviews of products/services on social networking websites before making purchases.

Smartphones/tablets with dual-core processors/SoC and large RAMs are increasingly becoming as powerful as conventional PCs/laptops. Widespread availability of 3G/4G connectivity allows enterprise users to access, download, edit, and upload large files on the go. In addition, high speed connections facilitates real-time communication and collaboration such as video conferencing. Business apps such as ERP/CRM, BI, etc can be installed and used over mobile devices. We also see rapid change in corporate culture; employees are increasingly leveraging their smartphones to achieve a better work-life balance.

Challenges

The true meaning of mobility is to facilitate employees to work from home or anywhere. And the most basic requirement to work from anywhere is to provide a high-speed data card along with the laptop to your employees. Surprisingly, not all SMEs can provide this facility. Apart from that there is issue of data leakage due to the loss of mobile devices. It's challenging to implement uniform security code across mobile devices; the smartphones are more vulnerable compared to other devices. Loosing these devices can be a major security threat to the organization Again there are various manufacturers of smart devices running various platforms. This makes it more complicated for internal IT teams to support and secure the devices. To ensure mobile devices do not act in silos,, enterprises will have to invest in seamlessly integrating devices and apps with existing infrastructure.