Lack of mobilization = less productivity that could have increased your earnings

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In 2BM we conducted a national survey on how far Danish enterprises are today, in terms of mobile enabling their business. Based on the responses from these customers, representing six different industries, we found several interesting insights.

If you look at the present state, 57% of our respondents says that they currently provide their customers access to their core systems via mobile phone.   Interestingly, only 23% of the same companies say their employees have mobile access to the core systems. Companies therefore have a greater focus on serving their customers with mobile access than they do with their own employees.

While this explicit prioritization seems natural to most enterprises, those of us who work with mobilization everyday, see this lack of employee focus as lost potential. Mobilization of internal systems means more effective and satisfied employees, optimized workflows and a much stronger bottom line.

Fortunately, our survey shows that the companies are well-aware of the potential. 73% say that they can easily see the benefits of mobilizing one or more business systems, but unfortunately there are many (59%) who say they have challenges to translate these mobile ambitions into reality. That’s almost two thirds that struggle to get their mobilization projects executed.

The IT department is perceived as a mobilization bottleneck in large companies

One of the more noteworthy findings – which also can cause the lack of implementation for mobilization projects – was that half say their IT department cannot provide mobile solutions at the speed required by the business. Answers also show that 72% say that the mobilization projects that exist within their business today, are being controlled by different parts of the business (not including IT). This makes it very clear that IT is regarded as a bottleneck.

With the IT department out of the loop, there are potential challenges in relation to ensuring the solutions that are implemented support the overall strategic, IT architectural and security requirements from the organization. From a strategic perspective, our survey shows that only very few (less than 25%) of the apps that are being developed in companies today are actually part of a clear strategic plan. This means that most application projects are driven by good (and perhaps spontaneous) ideas and passionate sponsors, but from my experience, it also means that the apps are not properly planned and anchored in the company’s overall strategy.

‘Security’ is (unnecessarily) made a barrier

In our survey 40% state that security concerns are the biggest barrier to lead mobilization plans into action. I have to be frank and say with the dominant ad hoc approach to mobile projects, I believe there is reason to be concerned about whether security is under control. By ensuring good anchoring in the management and good cooperation with IT, these safety concerns can quickly be eliminated.

My clear recommendation is that first of all to distinguish business critical and non-critical data. It is important to mobilize the areas that will provide the greatest business value and this does not necessarily need to be areas with business critical data. For example, a work order for a maintenance technician does not need business critical data, but you gain significant business value by using a mobile tablet to execute and report on maintenance tasks. Security does not need to be an innovation barrier – the solutions to secure data, business critical or not, is already available, especially in the form of solutions from IBM.

Most of the challenges that our customers are experiencing with mobile projects can be solved using existing technology and does not have to be developed by your company. I therefore recommend that you explore IBM’s MobileFirst Platform, as it provides solutions for the most complex mobile challenges that many companies face today. According to Gartner and Forrester, IBM’s MobileFirst Platform is the leading platform for developing mobile solutions in enterprise companies.

If you are having any questions don’t hesitate to email me at mgp@2bm.com.

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“2BM are specialized in Enterprise Mobility and a certified IBM Business Partner, extending IBM’s market leading expertise within Mobility, IOT and Analytics on the Bluemix Innovation Platform to our enterprise clients”