A growing number of companies are using mobility to boost their agility, productivity, and job satisfaction. The size of the mobile workforce is rapidly increasing, and it is quite clear it is here to stay. What should companies do to successfully manage this new breed of workers? Will making wireless available, using cloud-based tools, or having hi-tech mobile devices be enough? Do they need to look beyond these solutions?
Enterprise Mobility: Changing Your Mindset
Creating mobile workforces begins with a change in mindset; you need to embrace flexibility — including working outside traditional business hours — to allow employees to focus on their tasks. Employees expect access to company IT resources from anywhere and anytime. They use various devices, including laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Therefore, companies must be able to provide the required support to their employees, irrespective of their locations or device in use.
Enterprises must ensure that employees can access their email programs, contacts, calendars, spreadsheets, and other documents from remote locations. In fact, a large number of companies already incorporate mobility concepts into their regular work experience.
According to Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) primary research, around 29 percent of laptop users and 58 percent of mobile device users purchase their own devices and carry them into their workplace. Being chained to a static office environment is no longer preferred by employees. When it comes to business IT resources, unlimited mobile access is key.
Why is it Difficult to Adopt Mobility?
There are numerous challenges in introducing enterprise mobility. IT managers are often unable to support the influx of new requirements and mobility needs. Fortunately, it is worth the pain as enterprise mobility offers the reward of improved workforce productivity.
The process changes in IT operations are not trivial. With requirements for existing server and desktop supports preoccupying IT administrators, meeting the security and compliance objectives of enterprise mobility becomes an additional burden. While IT administrators already need to provide after-hours support, when a security breach happens, for example, implementing new procedures becomes increasingly challenging as it requires providing extended support to additional operating systems and mobile devices.
Security remains one of the major challenges for adopting enterprise mobility. Although it is the responsibility of IT administrators to ensure the secure delivery of services, employees must also ensure that the devices and applications they are using are optimally configured and properly managed to perform business tasks securely.
Another challenge facing enterprises is that they prefer to have complete control of their employees. They are not enthusiastic about giving employees the freedom to work from remote locations or to use any device without restrictions. This is one mental block companies need to overcome in order to empower their mobile workforce.
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