By now, most enterprises are dealing with implementing an evolving mobile strategy. Some are further than others in terms of penetration among employees. Much insight can be gleamed from these real-life enterprise experiences. Here’s a look at some of the lessons:
Be Creative in the Cloud
The cloud is an incredible enabler that allows great flexibility and scalability. Many companies are building their own enterprise applications and developing online stores. The cloud is an excellent tool to host enterprise applications, especially those the enterprise develops itself.
Get the User Experience Right
To increase adoptability and usability, it’s best that the user experience follows the simplicity and intuitiveness of consumer apps. Employees expect this as part of the consumerization of IT movement. Says one developer in an interview with CIO.com, “We end up spending almost as much time on the user experience as we do on the actual coding and testing of the app." One tip is to design the enterprise app store similar to the look and feel of Apple, says one CIO since the familiarity and usability factors are extremely high with Apple.
Inspect What you Expect
To help get the user experience right, seek user feedback early and often. Measure the user engagement of applications and see which ones are really benefitting the business. Eliminate what isn’t working or being used, so IT can focus on what matters most. Do this routinely as new applications and devices are introduced to the enterprise.
Set Clear Expectations on Device and Application Support
The BYOD movement is taking the enterprise by storm. Setting clear expectations up front will go a long way in terms of enabling productivity and preventing disappointment and confusion among employees. First, decide what devices you will support, both BYOD and corporate-issued. Consider employee preferences, operating systems, and your own enterprise mobile device management tools, as those will likely have their own preferred devices and operating systems. Next, be clear on how you can support the employees, their devices, and any enterprise applications. This includes communicating reimbursement policies, security and privacy policies, access privileges, and training and support services.
Be Accessible
IT has become a true corporate partner – doing much more than supporting departments behind the scenes. Being visible and accessible to employees will help reduce adoption barriers and enable productivity, in turn empowering the enterprise mobile workforce.
