Smartphones and tablets initially penetrated the enterprise space as a tool for messaging, email, schedule management and web browsing on the go. The convenience and flexibility drove widespread use and mobility adoption, and have slowly lead to a transformation in how businesses operate. The result is an operational climate in which ease of use, responsiveness and adaptability are the norm. While smartphones and tablets provide unrivaled flexibility in terms of enabling users to access services when and where they need them, many of the more robust, modernized solutions are still just out of reach for business users. Computerworld reported that many companies are still rooted in their legacy systems and have been struggling to get their IT infrastructure updated to empower mobile users.
Being mired in an outdated IT environment can lead to significant challenges when it comes to sustaining day-to-day operations. While your organization may not have embraced mobile, plenty of consumers have. Those potential customers expect organizations to offer the mobile-friendly service models increasingly available today, and companies need to embrace the technology or risk falling behind.
Using Enterprise Mobility to Transform Operations
When businesses transition to modernized, mobile-enabled apps, they can empower their users to take on new workflows and get the job done with much more flexibility than they could in the past. For example, in sales, users can:
- Show prospective clients high-quality digital materials, such as videos or product photos, regardless of where they are at the time.
- Access invoices, bills, price estimates and similar key materials via the web so they are dependent on paper forms that can’t be filed until later. This allows for faster transactions and stronger responses to customer experiences.
- Leverage customer relationship management systems on the device to get key data to build relationships whether meeting a prospect for coffee or staying up to date on contact details heading into a conference.
These types of capabilities are all about responsiveness, flexibility and stronger customer interactions. By giving users the apps and services they need to work in a way that closely aligns with their everyday activities, those employees can then be more active and engaged in how they interact with clients.
Sales is just one part of a company that can shift in response to mobile. The implications are actually far-reaching:
- Field services or maintenance teams can access key data and update work orders in real time without having to go back to a computer.
- Production teams can connect with management and collaborate regardless of their location.
- Leaders can access key organizational data on the go so they’re never in the dark when problems arise.
These types of capabilities are founded in the inherent capabilities of mobile devices. TechTarget described the situation simply, explaining that mobile devices extend business processes, eliminate redundancies and streamline everyday operations.
Leveraging Mobility in the Enterprise
Modernizing IT environments to support enterprise mobility strategies requires a great deal of change, and securing devices themselves also poses major challenges. Organizations must develop strategies to manage apps and devices side by side to keep the configuration under control.
As businesses embrace mobile devices, many run into a situation in which easy access to app stores leads to employees leveraging non-sanctioned solutions for work purposes, leaving customer or employee data outside the control of the IT department and exposed to the limited security capabilities available through consumer apps.
Businesses that want to take full advantage of the operational capabilities on offer through mobile devices must be able to manage and control endpoints and applications without creating complexity for end users.
The Deep Freeze MDM platform is designed to find this blend through capabilities that offer powerful functionality to protect assets while also ensuring ease of use at both the user and IT department level. This is accomplished through:
- Automated enrollment systems that allow IT to create regulations and practices that users follow to quickly and easily get devices set up on the network.
- App management tools that let IT setup portfolios of approved apps based on user role and responsibility.
- Permission management tools that let IT set detailed regulations around license usage and app access across the configuration.
Mobile-enabled operations can transform businesses, empowering them to keep up with shifting customer demands by becoming more flexible and responsive in how they operate. However, mobility comes with some security and management risks that can’t be ignored.
As organizations work to optimize and modernize their configurations for mobile, they must carefully consider what they need to manage apps and devices effectively. Streamlined, user-friendly solutions can be invaluable in eliminating overhead and giving IT the tools needed to manage devices without getting bogged down in red tape.
Contact us to learn how Faronics can help your organization embrace mobility seamlessly.
