Business Tips for Implementing Mobile Solutions

Hardly a day goes by without some major announcement on a new technology, tablet or smartphone.  The marketing push is so great that you HAVE to get it! But stay focused on reality and not the hype. For example, Unified Communications was an absolute necessity a few years ago but there wasn’t the traction vendors thought. In layman terms, the pain (financial or otherwise) wasn’t enough to migrate to the new service for a lot of us. Same with LTE mobile devices- they give you more and are faster but the reality of existing contracts and corporate practices could make it impossible to replace what you have. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a mobile strategy for business; if anything all this hype should make you do a plan. Here are some tips for implementing mobile solutions and to make it easier to do. I’ll state upfront a lot of this is not rocket science but you’d be surprised at how many organizations don’t take the time to properly plan and execute.

Current State, Future State and How to Get There
First, put some analysis into how you would use any new device with what you currently have. In the last two years literally millions of newer smartphone and tablets have been bought- mainly Apple and Android devices. The whole BYOD (bring your own device) to work has caused major disruptions to the workplace and in particular IT departments. We’re being pushed into the BYOD adoption and if not planned properly, you’ll see 3 or more devices on the desk- a business phone, a business smartphone, a personal smartphone and most likely a tablet (it’s becoming a necessity).

To net it out, just doing a current state, future state and mitigation plan will help you enormously. Put it in writing, get senior management endorsement and refer to it as your mantra for the work force.

A Proper ROI Analysis is Key
You need to cost justify any mobile investment. Just because it’s difficult to do doesn’t mean you should not do a proper ROI review. When dealing with ROI, there are both hard costs and actual savings that need to be assessed. For costs, these include the actual cost of new devices and applications and the network and service costs in maintaining the equipment. For savings, you should also include the reductions in operational or infrastructure costs that may result including possible savings in reduced staff. Soft costs, like increased productivity, improved customer satisfaction and better data quality (reduced human error) can be identified but use caution if trying to include this in the ROI. You need to be specific and it needs to be measurable. For a sufficient ROI payback, 18- 24 months should be the maximum.

IT and Best Friends
If you don’t own IT, become best buddies. At a minimum, any corporate information transmitted to mobile devices will need their approval. If you are responsible for IT, embellish the opportunity of giving the right information to the right people so they can do their job better, make more money for the company and you can become a major contributor to the team’s success.

It’s understood that IT departments have been historically cautious about opening up the network and allowing full access to any mobile device. To be fair, IT needs control over how and under what circumstances mobile devices can access corporate systems. Finding just the right balance—maintaining the integrity and security of the network while allowing easy access to the applications users need to be more productive—will give you a competitive advantage. Some organizations are being held hostage by IT and this is unfortunate. IT is the friend here, not the enemy. Internally, mobile and IT have to be on the same team. It’s a delicate play and it’s best to communicate and plan together.

Mobility is One of Many Investments
Spend time in determining how your mobile strategy fits into your UC and other collaboration plans. The reality for a lot of organizations is that their mobile strategy is getting higher priority. Mobile technology and services are moving faster and the needs to stay competitive make it impossible to ignore. In many cases, it’s easier to cost justify mobile investments. At the same time, it’s pretty clear that the needs and tools for doing business when mobile are very different than the tools offered within an enterprise environment.   

Always remember that one of the key reasons for implementing solutions such as UC, cloud services, collaboration tools and mobility is for companies to improve their business processes, communicate better and be more competitive. This doesn’t happen just by having a cell phone as an extension to your business line or being forced to accommodate personal devices in the workplace. Companies need a tight coupling of the many types of mobility solutions that are offered with an integrated and secure enterprise system and collaboration environment to get the relevant information when mobile. The focus of your UC/ cloud/ collaborative capabilities should be on the enterprise AND mobile needs. Be clear when mapping these out.

The 4 R’s of Mobile Planning
Here’s something to keep top of mind; it’s called the “4 Rs”. When you analyze your mobile business requirements, detail your current expenses and future costs and develop plans for the appropriate mobile solution, answer these 4 simple questions:

-Are you doing the right things (hardware, apps, contracts, access)?

-Are you doing them the right way (Apple’s iOS or Windows or Android smartphones, tablets or laptops)?

-Are you doing them with the right people (Executive needs are different from Sales, Service personnel)?

-Are you getting the right results (can you demonstrate a positive ROI, better customer interaction)?

Look at all of the stakeholders (e.g., IT, Legal, HR, Sales, Marketing, etc.) and the hardware, software and security requirements they need. Look at the existing mobile apps and capabilities that have been proven successful in the market (don’t reinvent successful apps that are accepted and proven).

Get Help if You Need It
Remember that the whole reason for looking at new mobile capabilities is to communicate better, close business faster, stay closer to customers and hopefully reduce costs. The challenge is aligning people, processes and technologies to make it all happen seamlessly. It's not an easy task when people are busy and mobility is not a core technology. This is where we help. We assess what you currently have and what is available in the market. We cost justify your investment to allow you to implement new platforms/ services. And we can help you deploy in the most cost effective way with minimal interruptions to let you do what you do best and that is run your business.