| Business deliverables | |
| “Enterprise mobility can also provide business benefits which can be quantified and quickly add value. Business Intelligence is an example of this” |  Ergo : Jimmy Sheahan, technical director |
| The single piece of advice I would give to organisations considering a mobility strategy is to focus on business deliverables. Organisations have to ask the question “what will support productivity and effective decision making, while adding value for the business?”In order to do this you must reach beyond the IT department to other key areas of business management. It is important to involve both business and IT decision makers to ensure that you achieve the most from your enterprise mobility solution.
Involving the business enables the delivery of tangible business benefits through the alignment of IT and business strategies. It ensures delivery of a no-compromise enterprise mobility solution that aligns Mobile Device Strategy with a business led mobile “App Store” and application roadmap; not to mention uninstructive security. Enterprise mobility can also provide business benefits which can be quantified and quickly add value. Business Intelligence (BI) is an example of this where application usage stats and other key information can be summarise into Key Performance Metrics for senior management. 
Essentially, focusing on business outcomes that drive and deliver true business value will facilitate IT in delivering a truly enterprise class solution. Recognising that delivering business value is as important as the technological advancement, Ergo’s experts work with its customers IT decision makers and line of business managers to identify the key deliverables and build an enterprise mobility strategy around these requirements.
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| Mobility group | |
| “Make sure that there is a ‘mobility group’ within the organisation responsible and accountable for the enterprise’s mobility initiatives” |  Trilogy Technologies : John Casey |
| An organisation’s mobile strategy should be driven by its specific business needs and business opportunities. Understanding how a mobile workforce with the right mobile tools can enhance a business is a key driver for all decisions around mobility.Make sure that there is a ‘mobility group’ within the organisation responsible and accountable for the enterprise’s mobility initiatives. This mobility group must be comprised of representatives from across the impacted groups/departments and include technical, support and research and development personnel and/or an outsourced partner. This mobility group should be the group that developed the enterprise mobility strategy and will know and understand first-hand the desires, needs and existing behaviours of employees, their objectives and those of management. They will have taken security for compliance, device management for administration and application development techniques for optimal user experience into account. They will consider the totality of the mobile experience and understand all of the possible ways sensitive data may be lost or compromised.
The organisation’s business objectives and the implementation plan will dictate which technologies will be required to protect the data. A business must be able to provide, manage, secure and update application and device policies in a mobile world. Understanding the enterprise mobility strategy and how it was developed will allow the mobility group to properly and effectively enforce, manage, monitor and further develop realistic mobile business policies for employees. Trilogy designs and delivers ICT solutions to meet organisations’ strategic business needs, followed through with leading edge managed services and 24/7 support.
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| End-to-end visibility | |
| “A unified strategy allows organisations to create a single point of management, which reduces infrastructure and personnel costs and streamlines operations” |  VisionID Ltd : Cathal Murtagh |
| A unified enterprise mobility strategy is key for all organisations to compete in today’s fast-paced world of mobile business applications. Companies can take advantage of next-generation cellular, RFID, Wi-Fi, mesh and broadband technologies as they emerge.They also gain unparalleled, end-to-end visibility into the data that drives their business processes and they can offer workers, customers and business partners secure anytime, anywhere access to this data. Most importantly, a unified strategy allows organisations to create a single point of management, which reduces infrastructure and personnel costs and streamlines operations. Creating a unified enterprise mobility strategy is a simple task that will have significant benefits for every organisation, including a reduced cost of ownership for your wireless infrastructure and the ability to draw all mobile resources into your business intelligence network. With a unified wireless architecture, mobile users are empowered to make business-critical decisions from any device at any time and IT is seen as a strategic partner in keeping organisations on the cutting edge.
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| Objectivity, knowledge and expertise | |
| “Resellers can help their customers through the transition as they start to select technology that will allow them to build a platform that truly delivers secure, compelling access to applications and content” |  Arrow ECS UK : David Ellis, director of strategy |
| Building an enterprise mobility strategy requires objectivity, specialist knowledge and technical expertise. VARs, consultants and system integrators should therefore be the first point of contact for any organisation considering an enterprise mobility strategy.Resellers should ask their customers three basic questions; what applications does the business need, who will use them and why? A mobility strategy that is planned from the ground up in this way will be more robust and extensible than anything that starts with pressure from end-users.
There will be challenges to overcome; differences between generations of IT systems, incompatible data types, formats, syntaxes, screen sizes and operating systems, to name but a few of the integration, management and security challenges. Resellers can help their customers through the transition as they start to select technology that will allow them to build a platform that truly delivers secure, compelling access to applications and content. How much of this is retained on-site versus how much will transition to a cloud or managed service model remains to be seen, however. Consideration also needs to be given to policy and governance, security, change and device management, with all departments from legal to HR being involved in the overall mobile strategy. Getting these parts right will, not only help with adoption throughout the organisation, but will also prevent issues later on. Ultimately organisations needs to view mobility as a business project and at its heart there needs to be clear goals for improving productivity, profitability and reducing costs.
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| Keep it simple | |
| “Make it simple for the users and do not complicate the process or all your hard work will be for nothing as users will be tempted to circumnavigate the process leading to compromising on security and work ethic uniformity” |  MJ Flood Technology : Gareth Madden |
| A mobile strategy promotes greater productivity — there is absolutely no doubt about it. Gone is the day when companies were missing a trick by preventing their workforce from using their own tablets or smart phones for work related processes and not offering them a company alternative. A mobile strategy produces many added benefits that only mobility can offer.MJ Flood Technology was an early adopter and now a Platinum provider in this core provision having a specific MDM department dedicated to planning, implementation and management.
The first thing for the organisation to develop is the absolute need to embrace mobile and identify clearly the needs of your people. Buy in from all department groups is of extreme importance. It will take definitive thought and planning on how it should be implemented to ensure total productivity effectiveness. You need to develop a strategy that allows you to wrap your environment in a secure robust platform without unnecessary roadblocks on what people can do or access in order for users to boost their productivity. Make it simple for the users and do not complicate the process or all your hard work will be for nothing as users will be tempted to circumnavigate the process leading to compromising on security and work ethic uniformity. It is important to provide them with single sign-on, simple file synchronisation and above all simple reliable access to the applications they need to boost their performance. And finally, don’t fall into the trap of providing a solution for today. Your strategy must anticipate future environmental changes and encompass new propositions being developed within the company roadmap.
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