How To Be Strategic With Your Mobility Approach

By Lindsey Tishgart | July 24, 2014

In my last post, I talked about the need for mobility in business. However, if mobility is going to enable organizations to drive growth and profitability it requires, as with any other technology initiative, an integrated strategy. Moreover, organizations must deliver the power of a successful mobility vision through innovation and without disruption.

Just as we know that mobile isn’t just about one or two sexy apps, the ability to check email or browse the web on a mobile device isn’t synonymous with mobility alone. In order to deliver the true business value of mobility, organizations need to formulate a carefully thought-out mobility strategy that not only leverages the technology’s strengths but also minimizes its weaknesses within a supported infrastructure.

Determine Your Mobile Readiness

The way in which the organizations should go about realizing the benefits of mobility may depend on the state of their mobile readiness and the existence and/or maturity of their mobile infrastructure. In its simplest form, some basic questions need to be addressed before we can hand out smartphones and tablet devices or allow bring-your-own-device (BYOD) options. Furthermore, when we plan for a successful mobility vision, we consider all facets of the mobile user experience beyond the technical requirements in order to identify and address any gaps. Assessing the mobile readiness gives us the chance to safeguard our critical corporate assets and ensure success.

Implement an Enterprise Mobility Road Map

Organizations need to develop a formal enterprise strategy and a road map to provide the strong foundation that mobility initiatives need. An enterprise mobility strategy requires an integrated approach with all other mobile projects across the company, which forces standardization, thereby reducing support and maintenance costs. For example, a typical organization  may start with a device strategy that differentiates or mixes the use of company-issued devices and BYOD.

It may get more complex as you drill down into the architecture requirements for integrating data and processes with other business systems. A decision about the infrastructure will need to be made and questions such as “How do we secure corporate data, especially on the BYO devices?” will need to be addressed.

Identify Major Risks for Your Mobility Readiness

An organization’s maturity level will highlight the risks for enterprise mobility readiness; it will dictate whether a company can exploit its current information technology (IT) infrastructure by leveraging existing assets and systems. Organizations with a higher level of maturity are more likely to design, implement, and execute a successful enterprise mobility strategy because they already enjoy the resources and expertise, which allows them to deliver mobile business value effectively and consistently.

Bottom Line: An enterprise mobility strategy can’t exist separately from the organization’s business or IT strategy. However, in order for acquire a successful mobility vision, it requires a commitment that results in both championing the cause at the board or senior management level and making the necessary resources available for execution at the tactical level.

What are other considerations for your mobility strategy?


 

Kaan Turnali HeadshotKaan Turnali is Global Senior Director, Business Intelligence (BI) at SAP. He is responsible for the development, oversight, and execution of strategy for the BI platform across SAP’s Global Customer Operations (GCO) Reporting & Analytics Platform. In addition, he manages special mobile BI projects for the Office of the CEO and the GCO senior management team.

Prior to joining SAP in 2006, Kaan worked as a senior BI consultant specializing in strategy, design, and development of enterprise BI solutions for SMB and Fortune 500 companies. His background and experience in the integration of business and technology span over two decades. He is an adjunct professor, teaching BI in the doctor of business administration program at Wilmington University.

Connect with me on Twitter (@kaanturnali) and LinkedIn.

Social Media Info:
Twitter: @KaanTurnali https://twitter.com/KaanTurnali
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kaanturnali
Company Website: www.sap.com
Personal Website: www.turnali.com




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