What are the 3 critical success factors for enterprise mobility?

By 2024, deskless workers are expected to make up 60% of the workforce, which means businesses are tackling mobility with the hope of increasing productivity and improving operational efficiency. To do this, businesses need to realize there is so much more to implementing a mobility solution than just choosing an attractive handset. Effective mobility should be about implementing an interoperable, flexible solution, that offers the highest level of security. Any business that ensures their mobility deployment meets these three requirements will see a strong return on investment (ROI).

Let’s look at these 3 factors in more detail:

1. Interoperability

Most businesses will find that they run many legacy systems accumulated over the years which could be an obstacle when deploying a new mobile solution. However, a truly versatile solution will integrate seamlessly within existing systems, ensuring that the communications network is no longer tangled up in a web of communication silos or outdated technology that can hinder employee productivity, efficiency, collaboration, and even safety.

Ideally, when selecting a mobility solution, you should look for a vendor that can offer direct integration with all global technology leaders. A fully customizable, interoperable mobile solution should provide a connection between legacy systems and future applications, help streamline operations, and increase ROI. Not only this, but there will be a significant cost reduction in systems installation & integration, operations, capital, and IT upgrades –to name a few benefits.

In addition to integrating seamlessly with your call server, you must also consider a vendor that interoperates with mobile applications, a solution that is built preferably on an Android platform, as Google has been at the forefront of integrating app interoperability for some time now and this interoperability is necessary to future-proof your investment.

2. Flexibility

System flexibility and scalability have always been required for an efficient and effective communications infrastructure. As your system grows, it must be able to scale to accommodate more internal and external users without points of failure.

Therefore, when it comes to mobile solutions, businesses need to ensure that their selected solution meets their current requirements and has the flexibility to be integrated and adapted to new technology to meet the organization’s future needs and growth goals.

As businesses take on the challenge of migrating to next-generation networks, they are faced with the difficult decision to upgrade existing systems and software or bite the bullet and implement a new unified, interoperable communications platform. Upgrades tend to cause more issues as existing systems will often not support the latest technologies resulting in the need to be replaced, which means there will be compulsory downtime, significant capital investment, and multi-year roll-outs, causing an extended amount of hassle for the business.

When choosing a mobility solution, businesses need to ensure it is flexible to adapt to the company’s future strategies, whether that’s expanding with new sites or new employees, which will require additional mobility infrastructure and handsets, or to defend the bottom line and scale down to reduce spend and protect profitability.

3. Security

Having chosen the right system, the next step for businesses is to address the issue of security. One of the biggest threats that businesses face is cyberattacks, which are expected to cost businesses globally $10.5 trillion annually by 2025; this explains why the security of networks is increasingly under scrutiny. When implementing a new mobility system, security must be a key priority. Solutions should house an infrastructure that is secured from theft and hacking of both company information and private client or patient data. Not only this, but regulations continue to change,  forcing mobile solutions to be flexible to comply with new regulations.

Businesses should also reconsider promoting a BYOD (bring your own device) policy for employee workflows Suppose the devices being used are for both business and personal use. In that case, a whole ream of security risks arises, as not only are these devices more complicated for IT admins to manage onsite but these devices will be used personally in public places where they will no longer be held in a secure environment and without data encryption. Also, consumer devices are much more appealing to thieves and therefore are more at risk of being stolen, meaning it is possible for sensitive business information to fall into the wrong hands. Enterprise-grade solutions using Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM) help businesses manage and maximize security in a mobile enterprise.

Conclusion

When an organization is looking to upgrade or install a brand new mobility solution, they need to fully articulate and understand their “why.” The business needs to determine if the goal is to enhance productivity, introduce operational efficiencies via new applications, or simply save time with core operations. Needless to say, there will be cost savings and rapid ROI, none of which will be achieved without choosing a solution that is interoperable, flexible, and secure.

Here at Spectralink, offering professional, rugged telephony solutions combined with our decades of experience at the helm of mobility innovation is at the center of what we do, enabling businesses to reach their productivity and efficiency goals and make mobility work for their enterprise needs.

Looking to deploy a mobility solution? We share the secrets of what you should consider before selecting an enterprise mobility solution in our latest guide.