Special Report: Advice from Mobile Experts

Mobility Experts
This report consists of the answers that seven enterprise mobility experts recently provided me in response to the question, "What advice do you have for companies considering implementing enterprise mobility solutions?"

• Make sure the users get to provide feedback and direction.  Make sure the mobile users will use it.  Make sure the mobile application actually supports the work and the way the work is done in the field.

• Think bigger.  Mobility is not a nice to have or a fad.  It is here to stay.  It will be here for the rest of your career.  It is now a core component of your IT environment.

• Plan on supporting your employees' personal devices.  Have a strategy for supporting personal mobile devices, and develop policies for managing and supporting them.



• Companies need to think outside the box.  They need to think from the outside in.  They need to think about what is needed by the mobile user and what is possible in a world of mobile devices and mobile workers.  They should NOT focus on simply extending traditional ERPs out to mobile devices.  Mobile is so different.  It should not be just another IT project that goes through a traditional IT committee.  It needs to be discussed in a different context.

• In 2011 enterprise mobility is not a nice to have, but a business requirement.  Mobility is a core strategic imperative for the enterprise.  It is well past the point of early adopters.  Less than two percent of Aberdeen’s survey respondents say they have NO intention of adopting mobility.  It is now a given. There are new and increasing pressures on the corporation to accommodate mobility.

• Let's talk about what companies should not do.  I have seen many companies try to build a strategy around what smartphones they happen to have in their pocket.  Some companies say to me, “We use BlackBerrys, so we need a mobile application for a BlackBerry.”  That is a wrong strategy, as mobile devices will change, but you want your enterprise mobility strategy to be long lasting.  That is not a good strategic view.

• A recent Sybase report says that 20 percent of survey respondents plan to deploy more than 20 mobile applications; so make a plan as to how you can support twenty enterprise mobility applications.  What is required to support all of those different mobile applications?

Notice of Whitepapers:
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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