Seemingly overnight, mobile devices have become common, and accepted, platforms for getting work done. This phenomena extends across all industries and encompasses a vast array of working tasks, from healthcare workers entering patient data in mobile clinics to HVAC technicians downloading schematics during on-site maintenance. It is a digital transformation, a sweeping change in the nature of work, and its impact is felt in almost every enterprise.
In response, forward-thinking leaders need strategies and solutions that will let them manage mobile devices in ways that enhance worker productivity while also ensuring safety and data integrity. Here are five mobility management trends they need to consider.
5 Mobility Management Trends
1. Companies are Becoming More Proactive
The COVID-19 pandemic drove an increased amount of reactive behavior as companies quickly had to adapt their IT systems in the face of constantly changing health advisories and work restrictions. Leaders also needed to balance the obligation to maintain business operations while protecting the safety of their employees and customers. And now that the world has demonstrated how the nature of work can be digitized and transformed, companies are taking a proactive approach to digital transformation and mobile device usage at work. Leaders must now ask themselves: “where else could these efficiencies be deployed?” or “how else can they improve the employee experience?”
The easiest way to answer those questions is to start with your employees especially those who have never traditionally worked from an office. Try getting their input on what’s working and what’s not and what processes they’d like to simplify. Doing so helps companies identify ways to streamline functions and improve productivity through mobile technology.
2. Companies Are Embracing Corporate-Owned, Personally-Enabled Device Policies
For nearly 20 years, companies have been working towards implementing Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policies in order to boost productivity and satisfaction at work. In fact, the BYOD market is expected to reach $367 billion in 2022. However, as mobile enablement for deskless and frontline workers increases, we believe that more companies will begin provisioning Corporate-Owned, Personally-Enabled Device (COPE) policies. These types of policies allow businesses to be the owner of the devices, while employees get to use them as if they were their own personal devices. The advantage: business leaders don’t need to struggle to get employees to install company software on their personal devices while management of both hardware and software is simplified through standardization. COPE also ensures both employee and corporate data are secure.
3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Will Boost Mobile Productivity
What was once a faraway vision of the future is now a reality with the prominence of AI-powered enterprise mobile solutions for frontline workers. A huge area for AI implementation is communications, with the exploding use of Natural Language Processing (NLP). These advanced capabilities are amplifying functions such as customer service and ticketing while simplifying knowledge sharing for a whole range of team support applications from their mobile devices. AI is also moving into workflow management, which is essential for many field tasks.
4. Restricting Mobile Device Usage is on The Way Out
In another pre-pandemic study, 87% of the interviewed companies confirmed that they were dependent on employee access to mobile business apps from their own personal smartphones, with over 40% saying they were highly dependent. Effective mobility management is clearly critical to all these companies as it provides a framework for success and reduces safety and security risks for employees using mobile devices on-the-job.
The real benefit of mobile technology is the ability to empower workers with the tools they need whenever and wherever they need them. Successful companies will find ways to support the use of mobile devices in delivering enhanced productivity, communication, and safety to every business unit.
5. Companies are Creating Flexible Mobile Device Policies
Mobile device policies should be flexible so they can support specific business units, departments and work task functions. For example, distracted driving is not a major risk for an on-site IT specialist, but it’s a major concern for an IT specialist working out in the field who’s expected to drive from job to job. So how can business leaders ensure their mobile device policies and solutions are tailored to each role? Traditional MDM solutions are used to help enforce these policies, but they often can only create usage personas based on roles, and not location or other contextual triggers like movement or sensor data. However, Contextual Mobility Management uses contextual triggers to drive mobile enablement, protect confidential data and keep employees safe. These triggers can use GPS and sensor data to establish location, movement or proximity, as well as time of day and schedule information. All of this input can be applied, or not applied, tailored to meet each unique situation. The result is increased effectiveness for existing MDM solutions and robust support for mobile use policies.
Prepare for the Future
The way mobility is implemented, utilized, and managed is rapidly changing, but its importance has never been more critical. To read more about how companies are incorporating mobile device best practices into their operations, check out this case study on Terminix, a leader in their field maintaining best-in-class performance while boosting productivity through mobile technology.