For good or bad, the phone is now the tether to both the digital workplace and personal life for most people. Consumerization and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) are some of the results of this trend, as discussed in a ComputerWeekly.com article by Gartner.
It’s about meeting the expectations users have, which are driven to a large extent by their experiences with consumer products. Users won’t be happy if they’re expected to work on a company phone that isn’t as powerful as their personal phone. In fact, BYOD largely exists because people change their personal technology at a faster rate than corporations can.
By the same token, our experts have seen that mobile collaboration solutions are more important than ever. Users are able to access their personal social networks, banking, shopping and almost every other facet of their lives via mobile devices, and they expect the same at work. Web conferencing, instant messaging and email are the most common work activities on smartphones, Gartner reports in the article.
Mobile devices can also be used in more innovative ways. For example, tablets are great for quickly sketching out ideas or reading long documents with rich media, while smartphones are useful for on-the-go messaging. Apps are more affordable than applications to test and use, which makes finding and implementing innovative uses easier. Enterprises can have a few people test an app at a minimal cost, and if it doesn’t work out, it’s fine to abandon the plan. With applications, you have to build an infrastructure in-house, making for a much longer and more time-intensive process.
Providing mobile access to the collaboration platform can also really improve user adoption. The truth is, people have had bad experiences with different collaboration tools, and once they have a bad experience, they don’t want to touch the solution again. But they’re often very open to using their smartphones — mobile provides instant gratification. As a result, introducing collaboration tools via a mobile device, even if it’s the same collaboration system that people have used previously, is a great way to draw people in and give them a new perspective.
We suggest that companies consider having devices set up for specific types of employees. For example, a sales tablet would have all of the sales apps built in, while a tablet for IT would service those unique needs.
Finally, what’s really great about mobile devices is that they don’t store much information. It’s all stored somewhere else, usually the cloud. As a result, if someone breaks a smartphone or tablet, it’s easily replaceable. The data can be pulled from the cloud and synced to the new device, a solution that should be pleasing for the user, the business and IT.
Source: Computer Weekly, September 2013
For good or bad, the phone is now the tether to both the digital workplaceand personal life for most people. Consumerization and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) are some of the results of this trend, as discussed in a ComputerWeekly.com article by Gartner.
It’s about meeting the expectations users have, which are driven to a large extent by their experiences with consumer products. Users won’t be happy if they’re expected to work on a company phone that isn’t as powerful as their personal phone. In fact, BYOD largely exists because people change their personal technology at a faster rate than corporations can.
By the same token, our experts have seen that mobile collaboration solutions are more important than ever. Users are able to access their personal social networks, banking, shopping and almost every other facet of their lives via mobile devices, and they expect the same at work.Web conferencing, instant messaging and email are the most common work activities on smartphones, Gartner reports in the article.
Mobile devices can also be used in more innovative ways. For example, tablets are great for quickly sketching out ideas or reading long documents with rich media, while smartphones are useful for on-the-go messaging. Apps are more affordable than applications to test and use, which makes finding and implementing innovative uses easier. Enterprises can have a few people test an app at a minimal cost, and if it doesn’t work out, it’s fine to abandon the plan. With applications, you have to build an infrastructure in-house, making for a much longer and more time-intensive process.
Providing mobile access to the collaboration platform can also really improve user adoption. The truth is, people have had bad experiences with different collaboration tools, and once they have a bad experience, they don’t want to touch the solution again. But they’re often very open to using their smartphones — mobile provides instant gratification. As a result, introducing collaboration tools via a mobile device, even if it’s the same collaboration system that people have used previously, is a great way to draw people in and give them a new perspective.
We suggest that companies consider having devices set up for specific types of employees. For example, a sales tablet would have all of the sales apps built in, while a tablet for IT would service those unique needs.
Finally, what’s really great about mobile devices is that they don’t store much information. It’s all stored somewhere else, usually the cloud. As a result, if someone breaks a smartphone or tablet, it’s easily replaceable. The data can be pulled from the cloud and synced to the new device, a solution that should be pleasing for the user, the business and IT.
