Now is the right time to consider your organisational approach to mobility. Regulators demand ongoing improvements in efficiency, look for more evidence when considering asset investment plans and want to see a step change in the approach to customer satisfaction. This means that utilities must:

  • be better at what we do – by optimising processes and workflows
  • be precise and correct – by creating and consuming data at the lowest level in the process
  • make the right decision the first time – by being transparent
  • have access to information when and where we need it.

And organisations are responding. 95% of enterprises are currently implementing or planning to implement new mobility initiatives.i As an example, the percentage of technicians with wireless access to a formal packaged field service management (FSM) solution in a large enterprise will increase from 12% to 40% by the end of 2012.ii The range of business functions that are looking at mobilising their operations is expanding too.

Technological advancements in smartphones are also driving the change. There are over a billion smartphones in use today. Users are leading the demand for applications to improve their processes. Business benefits from mobile solutions are now understood. We have witnessed field employees:

  • improve productivity up to 100%
  • make massive vehicle carbon footprint savings
  • attain high 90 percentile performance for customer service service level agreements (SLAs).

However, many companies are wondering how best to respond to the mobile revolution affecting their organisation today. Some organisations are approaching mobility in a disjointed way, which has implications for security and business benefit realisation.

What is a mobile enterprise strategy?
Simply put, an enterprise mobility strategy is a set of ground rules that govern mobile initiatives: that is it defines the way in which you intend to deploy mobile technology to achieve your organisational goals.

A strategy must be fully integrated and dynamic
A mobile enterprise strategy should be process driven. If your business processes are static you can decide on a static approach; one that is simple and easy to maintain. If your business processes are dynamic and ever changing, then you will need a strategy to support this change. A complex strategy may be required which requires more effort to maintain. Ultimately, your business requirements and not the technology should define your strategy.

A strategy must be easy to understand and enforce
To succeed, you must define a clear governance model and responsibilities. The governance model must enable change and the governance board must have a mandate to make decisions. Multiple stakeholders need to be represented. An enterprise architectural group must be used or created.

The importance of an enterprise mobility strategy
Increased demand for mobile business process applications has implications for device and data security, software and device deployment and management and control of process and data workflows. By formulating a mobile strategy you define how these issues will be managed and controlled before they get out of hand. A key decision is is about the technology you should use. Should you invest in point solutions or move towards a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP)? The ability to manage issues depends on this decision.