The modern work environment is changing too rapidly for the common men to comprehend but the keen observers will always get to the sources of the shift. We all talk about technologies and innovations but often overlook the role played by people. It’s basically the people who are driving the change – the employees, the field-force, the customers, the industry leaders, the decision makers, the consumers, and the end users. The two things that all of them seek are flexibility – the freedom to work from anywhere, anytime without any hassle or restrictions, and speed – to get things done quicker with easy access to relevant information and equipment.
What is a mobile digital transformation?
By mobile digital transformation, we mean a digitally driven organization at the core of which lies a mobile-first culture – something which is not just a buzzword anymore but rather has become a necessity for a thriving organization that believes in agility, innovation, and success. In fact, mobility is the first step towards digital transformation and a company without a well-laid strategy to drive a mobile-first environment often ends up losing valuable customers to the competition.
Enterprise mobility invariably drives faster decision making, real-time collaboration, clear communication, access to the right information, quicker issue resolution and enhanced customer experiences, which in turn provides what people want the most – instant gratification.
As mobile phones have become an integral part of our entity, businesses must tap into this opportunity to create beautiful user experience powered by flexibility, speed, and performance, for both the employees as well as the customers.
When an enterprise develops a genuine aptitude for propelling a mobile-driven corporate culture, it naturally builds the capability and intelligence to accelerate a business strategy based on modern digital technologies. They understand that to drive a true digital transformation, a company needs a combination of right technologies at different user levels. A workforce that has already experienced the blessings of mobility tend to be more receptive when it comes to exploring and leveraging digital tools, devices, platforms, and software.
Hence, mobile-driven work culture has the capability to integrate and converge digital transformation with technological advancements like Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Robotics, Deep Learning, Big Data Analytics, and other future innovations.
How a company can drive effective business mobility at different levels?
Mobility is the first and the foremost element in your digital transformation roadmap, in fact, it is where it all starts from.
Employees and end users: Today’s employees have gone a step beyond ‘mobile-first’; they now prefer ‘mobile-only’. The reasons are obvious – an enterprise encouraging mobility automatically drives employee flexibility to work from anywhere and anytime, which in turn expedites productivity. Likewise, when field forces and remote workers are provided with handheld devices, it is expected that they are going to accomplish business tasks in real time wherever and whenever their jobs take them. Mobile devices make them work smarter, faster and better. In a global study conducted by Economist Intelligence Unit, it has been established that mobile-first corporate environments experience an increase in employee performance, collaboration and engagement. It is clear from the study that companies that have supported strong mobile technologies have seen witnessed considerable growth in productivity, creativity, satisfaction, and loyalty.
IT team/Admins: Enterprise IT team plays a valuable role in ensuring that employees can maximize the usage of these mobile devices provided to them to get their office works done on time and with precision. Mostly, employees are provided with corporate-owned mobile devices that are managed at the backend by the company’s IT team who apply a set of comprehensive company and security policies and management features with the help of a Mobile Device Management software. It’s the job of the IT team to remotely publish and share useful apps as well as valid enterprise content on the users’ devices in real time, which would aid in effective decision making and issue resolution. The IT team/admin is the bridge that connects user needs with corporate goals. It’s the IT team’s job to manage, secure and monitor all these mobile devices and corporate data carried by them.
Leaders and decision-makers: As a CIO, it is significant to not just have an intention to drive a company-wide mobile-first culture, but to also have a mobile strategy ready while considering all important facets and practical concerns like data security, controlled communication, device management, access control, and user experience. While it is necessary to provide the employees with the right mobile tools, it is also mandatory to ensure that they are being used optimally without being misused. For Decision makers and leaders, it is vital to have a reality check done before implementing enterprise mobility and that will require evaluation of factors like budgeting, IT-ROI, implementation of robust security measures, executing a mobile device management platform, cost of ownership and creation of a mobility framework and roadmap strategic to overall business growth and revenue.
A mobile-first culture has less to do with the latest technological innovations and more with a fine balance between the human interpretation of technology and organizational culture. It all initiates with a sense of curiosity and hunger to explore and do better work, faster with improved results. A mobile-first culture is more about a human mindset than corporate planning. Achieving a mobile-first approach will take an attitude of fostering a culture that welcomes, understands and assimilate the benefits of using mobile technologies, in order to gain individual work satisfaction as well as to drive customer experience and organizational revenue at large.
