Fighting the mobility confusion

Mobility and mobile devices are not the same thing. More specifically, mobility is a mindset. It's an approach to the core processes of business which dispels the traditional notion that work can only be conducted in a specific place, at a specific time, and with specific people.

Mobility has the potential to drive significant, tangible benefits to organisations in three main areas: productivity, engagement, and differentiation. In an environment where access to decision-ready information is no longer a benefit but a business necessity, a mobile-enabled workforce will in turn lead to simplified work processes, more collaborative workflows, and overall higher productivity.

When they have choice in mobile devices and applications, businesses can engage their customers, employees and partners with contextually-aware tools that address individuals at their “point of need”. Furthermore, the “liberating effect” of a highly productive and engaged workforce can lead to innovation, cost efficiencies and a greater potential for service differentiation. The traditional view of operational benefits from cost management, connectivity management and device management are still important, but organisations can only realise the full potential of mobility by confronting the strategic benefits and not just the operational ones.

However, most businesses and individuals are still squarely focused on mobile devices rather than taking a broader view of mobility. This needs to evolve and directly address the challenges to wide-scale mobility adoption in the enterprise: the balancing of the needs for security, cost management, application management, and user demands for an uncompromised personal user experience. To fully realise mobility's potential, executives need to look at ways through which they can knock out these restrictions and subsequently enhance their business fundamentals.

Bring your own mindset

That isn't to say mobile devices aren't important – far from it.

The International Telecommunications Union's latest report into ICT found that more than six billion people globally owned a mobile phone in 2011; Forrester's 2012 report “Mobile is the New Face of Engagement” predicts global mobile spend will hit $1.3 trillion by 2016. The resultant opportunities for businesses are accompanied by some significant workforce trends: of the 350 million employees using smartphones by 2016, more than 200 million will bring their own device, according to the same Forrester report.

However, mobile devices are themselves just the platform through which new behaviours and values are emerging on a global scale. Mobility, as a perspective, should concern itself with how businesses can leverage these new behaviours and values for maximal advantage, rather than being caught up with different device models as is currently the case. That's why businesses must take the specifics of mobile devices out of the picture before putting forth a mobility strategy.

True mobility becomes possible when decision-makers can power their device strategy with capabilities in three important areas: choice, flexibility, and control. The upsurge in BYOD adoption means choice of device and network is essential to engaging employees with any mobility strategy. Organisations, for their part, require the flexibility to switch between devices and carriers to ensure mobility brings about continual gains to cost-efficiency and productivity. And the issue of control – over what devices serve the business, and how they are allowed to operate – directly impacts the viability of mobility policies and company security within the broader organisational ecosystem. Executives need the power of choice, flexibility, and control over mobile devices and applications before they can focus on the broader business impact of mobility.

Not left to one's devices

At present, most businesses remain stuck within traditional carrier plans and contracts for their mobile devices, both of which hamper organisational ability to enact an adaptive mobile strategy. As business leaders start focusing on mobility as a mindset, rather than an issue of devices, we'll also see growth in new technologies and service models, particularly those which offer an overarching command layer for the mobile fleet. Within such systems, devices and network providers alike become organisational assets which can be selected, managed, and retired at will – without the rigidity of the pricing and service models which currently dominate the mobile landscape.

Also gaining in importance will be tools which allow organisations to manage and monitor their current mobile deployments regardless of differences in device models, operating systems, and carriers. Macquarie Telecom's cloud-based FleetView tool, for example, provides real-time management and reporting across key indicators like expenditure, usage, and even differences in business and personal use.

Most recently, Fortune 500 HR firm Kelly Services deployed the market-leading FleetView to grant it unprecedented levels of control and visibility over its mobile presence. The ability to act upon these insights was also a priority for Kelly Services: with its entire mobile fleet now managed by Macquarie Telecom, the firm can not only switch between any of Australia's three main carriers but also boost its data allowance at any time without penalty. As more companies move to untether themselves from single device types and carriers, the success of service providers is going to be increasingly contingent on how much choice, flexibility and control they can offer.

From here to mobility

Businesses need to focus on mobility, not mobile devices. As more and more organisations realise that mobility is far broader than concerns about hardware or connectivity, they'll start to demand products and services which are designed to support this. Once that happens, we'll see a significant shift in mobile work practices and outcomes.

This will only occur if business leaders approach mobility as a strategic way of thinking, rather than a siloed IT issue of devices and carriers. To do so, companies need to engage with mobile service providers who offer a degree of choice, flexibility and control which allows businesses to pursue strategic improvements without worrying about technical issues of hardware and network.

Chris Greig is the group executive of Telco Business at Macquarie Telecom