When you integrate digital technology into all aspects of your business, you transform the traditional ways you operate your business and deliver value and experience to your consumers. Through this transformation, you increase your organization’s efficiency, create new opportunities for growth, and effectively meet the needs and expectations of your market in the digital age.
Mobile technology is one of the driving forces of digital transformation, as it helps businesses enhance accessibility and connectivity. Organizations adopting smartphones and mobile devices as an indispensable part of their daily operations are now connected more than ever. This, in turn, also allows them to reach and engage with their customers more easily.
This article will discuss how mobile technologies like mobile device management (MDM) bring digital transformation.
Mobile Technology as a Catalyst for Change
Mobile technology serves as a catalyst for change in the modern world. It has revolutionized the way people communicate and interact with each other. Thanks to mobile devices, communication technology is no longer a luxury like before the turn of the 21st century.
Mobile devices have also become essential tools for business connectivity, enabling employees to connect with others across different time zones and geographical locations. In other words, with the accessibility that mobile technology offers, businesses can now transcend productivity barriers that used to limit them.
Smartphones and tablets have brought social media platforms, chatting and messaging tools, and free video call apps to thousands of businesses around the globe that want to do more than just phone calls or emails to connect with employees. In fact, in 2021, more than 3 billion mobile phone users took advantage of over-the-top messaging apps to communicate, and this figure is projected to rise to 3.51 billion users in 2025[1].
Mobile technologies also facilitate and improve employee performance with almost an app for everything related to work. With apps designed to help accomplish tasks online and while on the go, businesses get to save time, cost, and energy.
Accessibility empowers employees to stay connected, informed, and engaged. They can seamlessly share ideas and information and access corporate resources.
Transforming Employee and Customer Experience
Websites and apps used to be designed mainly for laptops and desktop computers. However, with more and more people using smartphones and other mobile devices, businesses felt the need to change how they approach web and app design and optimize user experience by including touch navigation and smaller screens.
The mobile-first approach focuses on the needs and preferences of both employees and customers. This means adopting mobile-optimized layouts for websites and apps, ensuring websites are designed so that the most relevant information is easily seen on smaller screens, and using short and clear language.
Mobile optimization allows businesses to improve employee engagement, stay ahead of their competition, and increase conversion rates. That’s because 87%[2] of mobile internet users spend their time on mobile apps instead of the mobile web.
Driving Innovation and Agility with MDM
MDM solutions optimize business and IT processes by streamlining workflows, reducing errors, automating operational tasks, and accelerating the pace of work. This, in turn, leads to greater productivity and efficiency.
Mobile apps are designed to simplify complex processes, allowing employees to focus on more crucial and strategic tasks. The apps enable seamless collaboration among team members and foster greater efficiency and agility in business operations.
Mobile apps also have automation features, which can automate repetitive tasks like scheduling, and these features free up valuable time for employees to attend to high-value activities instead.
One of the key offerings of an MDM solution links it all up—application management.
MDM also facilitates data-driven decision-making by providing real-time access to key device insights analytics. It enables IT to access crucial performance indicators, reports, and insights. By centralizing device data and analytics, businesses can improve their IT operations, identify device usage trends, and troubleshoot devices remotely to minimize disruptions in productivity. Additionally, when businesses outsource digital marketing, they can leverage these insights to optimize their marketing strategies and improve overall performance.
How MDM Addresses Mobile Tech Challenges
While mobile technology offers many benefits, it also comes with certain challenges and considerations businesses must undertake. One of these is ensuring security and data privacy in a mobile environment. As more and more workplaces use mobile devices for various tasks, the risk of data breaches, malware attacks, and unauthorized access increases.
As such, organizations must set up effective security measures to protect sensitive information and prevent security threats. An MDM solution enables stringent security policies across an organization so employees can access corporate information only through predefined protocols like conditional access.
Another challenge is addressing device and platform fragmentation. Ensuring compatibility and consistency across various platforms may be hard, considering that so many mobile devices with different operating systems are now available in the mobile market. This is where MDM software that supports multiple OS types is a smart choice.
Centralized Management
The vast number of mobile devices accessing corporate data makes up for a complex management environment. For one, this could mean a logistical nightmare for IT departments, considering that each device type has its operating system, features, and capabilities. It also creates scalability issues, security inconsistency, and application management chaos.
The good news is that MDM helps address the issues related to the ever-expanding mobile device numbers. MDM helps establish a unified and scalable platform to manage diverse devices. It ensures consistent configurations, security settings, and application deployments across the organization.
Moreover, with MDM solutions, the process of deploying and managing applications across devices gets simplified. IT departments can remotely push approved applications to diverse devices, ensuring the users have the tools they need to prevent unauthorized app installations.
In essence, MDM doesn’t entirely eliminate device fragmentation itself, but it does provide a powerful tool for organizations to manage its impact.
Security and Data Protection
Integrating mobile technology into business processes depends on solid security measures to safeguard data. Because mobile access usually occurs on different networks and devices, using mobile devices provides more security-wise susceptibility than desktop use. If appropriate precautions are lacking, this raises the likelihood of illegal access and data leaks.
Knowing the variations in mobile vs. desktop usage enables companies to apply custom security systems, including multi-factor authentication and mobile-specific encryption. Companies may improve their mobile security and help create a safe, agile working environment by tackling these weaknesses.
Their portability, connectivity, and use of wireless networks make them more prone to loss, theft, and malware attacks.
However, with MDM, mobile users can enjoy robust security features to protect sensitive corporate data. These features include:
- Remote Lock and Wipe. MDM allows IT admins to remotely lock lost, stolen, or compromised devices, preventing unauthorized access to confidential information.
- Data Encryption. With MDM solutions, you can encrypt data stored on devices and render it unreadable in the event of a breach.
- Application Control. IT admins can restrict the installation of applications that are not approved, therefore mitigating the risk of malware infiltration.
Ride the Digital Transformation Wave with Scalefusuion
There is no overstating the transformative impact of mobile technologies. It has revolutionized how businesses operate, interact with customers, and compete in the digital space. With the widespread adoption of smartphones and mobile devices, businesses can enhance connectivity, accessibility, and agility.
Living in a digital era means embracing mobile technology, which is essential for any business to succeed and thrive and is no longer optional. Organizations must adapt and push for digital transformation as the workforces increasingly rely on mobile devices for daily tasks and activities.
An MDM solution like Scalefusion is a must-have in the mobile tech stacks of organizations looking to stay afloat in the digital transformation game. Contact us and get a demo to learn more about Scalefusion. Sign up for a 14-day free trial!
