Is Enterprise Mobility an Over-hyped Fad or the Future?
Mobility in an enterprise setting has always come with its share of woes, especially when it comes to security.
50 percent of smartphone users do not use even basic security features like 4-digit PIN codes. More than two-thirds of the smartphone users do not bother to backup their data to an external source. Combine this with the fact that over 3 million Americans lose their smartphones every year and you begin to get a pretty bleak picture of mobility.
Despite these challenges, most of the organizations have already implemented or are implementing an enterprise mobility strategy. Naturally, this raises a simple question – is enterprise mobility just a fad that will fizzle away when enterprises begin to encounter bigger problems with it, or will it evolve and thrive?
To find the answer to this question, we must understand where enterprise mobility comes from and where it is going.
The Adage Goes, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention”
Mobility has been a critical aspect of modern enterprises for as long as it has existed. Previously, the workforce used mobile devices to communicate with each other and the clients on calls. It later included text messages too. However, the smartphone revolution added new dimensions to this technology.
Today, enterprise mobility users spend more time doing anything but calling and texting. They are using smartphones for everything – finding relevant data about clients, responding to their requests, generating invoices, participating in video conferences, using emails, and other work-related tasks. The applications of smart devices in a business environment are tremendous.
However, enterprises are rightfully worried about the safety, security, and integrity of sensitive corporate data. That’s why a multitude of enterprise mobility management solutions have cropped up over the years to address these issues, among others, and to make enterprise mobility a reliable, secure, and productive strategy for businesses.
But why should businesses bother about adopting enterprise mobility in the first place? Because it offers terrific benefits that cannot be ignored:
- Productivity boost
- Better data-driven decision-making among employees
- Optimum utilization of resources
- Superior collaboration between employees
- Data loss prevention
- Expense reduction
These benefits bring increased revenues and even sustainable competitive advantages for businesses in many cases. Naturally, enterprises are not keen on giving up on mobility anytime soon.
Surely the Future Might Look Different?
Of course, the future of enterprise mobility will look very different from what it is today. Although it is difficult to predict the long-term prospects of enterprise mobility, we can already see some indications into what it will look like.
By 2025, there will be an estimated 21 billion IoTs. The workplaces will be buzzing with IoT activity. Printers, thermostats, lighting systems, coffeemakers, copiers, sensors, and a plethora of other devices are increasingly getting connected to the internet and managing them would be a nightmare without robust enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions. Thankfully, the new generation of EMM solutions are already capable of onboarding such devices and allowing enterprises to manage them from a centralized point. However, the real challenge would be the emerging industry-specific IoTs.
Auto, manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, and every other industry will be inundated with IoTs designed to address typical challenges of the respective areas. Their adoption will be accelerated by 5G technology. 5G will revolutionize the IoT industry in unprecedented ways. It will open new possibilities and make IoTs even more essential to the very survival of businesses. And, these devices will have to be managed easily, effectively, and securely.
Mobility will continue to play a crucial role in the business environment for the foreseeable future.
The focus of enterprise mobility may eventually shift from workforce-centered device ecosystem to distributed IoT-centered device ecosystem, although both will continue to coexist. In other words, enterprise mobility may transform in unexpected ways, but it will continue to be relevant and increasingly so.
It’s certainly not a fad.