Seven steps towards a mobile communication strategy.
Identify your business goals.
There are many business drivers for implementing a mobile collaboration strategy. Enabling remote working. Recruiting and retaining global talent. Reducing capital or operational expenditures. Identifying your business goals will help you develop a mobile collaboration strategy that will provide the greatest benefit to your enterprise.
Choose your architecture.
The right architecture will leverage what is already in place and create efficiencies. Consider which OS, mobile platform, network, telecom infrastructure, and security will work within your current IT infrastructure. What technologies do you already have that you can scale or leverage? You may want to consider a cloud-based approach. Offering flexibility and scalability, cloud-based applications, and delivery of information, it can play an important role in mobile collaboration.
Know your users.
Users will have different needs across the organization, depending on their role, tasks, and preferences. Understanding their requirements will help guide you to the right technologies for maximizing productivity and enhancing employee engagement.
Select your devices.
Choosing the right devices helps ensure your end users will actually use the technology to perform their day-to-day tasks, making them more productive. If the devices are not the right fit, they simply won’t be used.
Choose the right management model.
Choose a management model that gives IT control while still meeting the needs of your end users. Consider these three models: Virtualisation of applications and desktops optimises enterprise applications for mobility. Mobile Device/App Management (MDM/MAM) allows you to manage the configuration and security of laptops, mobile devices, and applications to help protect sensitive data. Mobile hypervisors enable you to manage apps, data, policies, and settings on devices without touching any resident personal data, effectively creating two virtual devices: work and personal.
Select a pilot group.
Before you fully enact the strategy, do a test deployment to a smaller group. Get feedback, analyse the results, and work out the bugs before deploying to the whole organization.
Support implementation.
Change doesn't happen overnight. It is likely to take some time for users to get up to speed and make full use of the technology now available to them. Keys to a successful implementation include: Training, IT support, ongoing monitoring and analysis.
