With the whole of society connected at all times through their mobile devices, it seems a natural assumption that your business should follow the trend. Not only does it provide additional convenience but it also helps to establish your organization as a forward thinking company and a more desirable place to work.
But, business mobility isn’t necessarily a good fit for every establishment. Before taking the plunge, there are a few things to take into consideration.
1) Is it Manageable?
Adding mobility to your business takes quite a bit of expertise on the part of your IT staff. The first question you should ask is if your existing IT management and infrastructure is able to handle a mobile systems operation. The ability provision licenses, provide access to several folders, dashboards, applications, and other mobile featires to multiple types of devices is necessary to make your mobile initiative a success.
Also, security is a concern when it comes to mobility. Is your business’s IT department set up to vouch for the security of the information traveling over your extended network?
2) Will it be Device Agnostic?
Consider all of the information you’d like your employees to have remote access to from their personal devices. If your business has a bring your own device policy, this is of even greater importance.
Will these applications be compatible with Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, and other mobile devices? If you find that there are certain bundles of information that is not easily accessed from a variety of platforms, you may have an issue on your hands.
3) Is it Scalable?
Depending on the service you employ, how scalable is the infrastructure? Will it work if your small business expands by 10% or 50%? What about cost? Will the price of mobility be something that prevents you from further adoption down the line?
As your employees begin to connect more and more to the network through various devices and as your organization grows, it is vital to consider how far you’ll be able to take your mobile business intelligence plan.
4) Do you have an Employee Compliance Plan?
While a mobile network is very beneficial to employees, it comes with issues as well. Before fully launching your mobile strategy you’ll need to have put together a plan to make sure your employees are all on the same page. This includes proper employee training and a comprehensive understanding of how going mobile will actually make their work life better.
Additionally, if you work in an industry in which there are strict compliance issues, such as in healthcare or the financial industries, you’ll need to create a concrete plan as to how you will be able to remain compliant with the addition of your mobile capabilities.
5) Does your Organization even Require Increased Mobility?
While the thought of being able to connect to your organization from anywhere at all is an enticing one, it may not be worth the expense and legwork to implement if it truly will not make a significant difference for your business.
If you routinely have employees on the road, calling into the office to have documents forwarded to them or to have someone lookup an important stat before entering a customer meeting, then you bet you’re a good candidate for unified mobile communications. On the other hand, if your employees are regularly on the road but don’t need access to onsite programs (think a catering company), you probably don’t need to mobile solution.
Keep in mind that even if the majority of your employees would not find it necessary to have increased mobile access you could still be a great candidate for a mobile system. If your executives are routinely on the road or you’ve got a handful of people working from home or even in other states, a mobile solution would still be something work looking into.
Have you considered these or other questions in the decision to make your business more mobile? Let us know in the comments below!
