Knowledge workers and front-line personnel, familiar with the convenience of phones, tablets and rugged devices, are taking a “more is more” approach to mobile. Today, the number of devices per employee is growing and the types of devices are expanding as well. Thanks to smart phones, convertible laptops and tablets, the average number of connected devices an enterprise needs to support has risen to 4.6 devices per user, up from 4.1 in 2015. With millennials,
the number is even higher with 5.8 connected devices per user at the beginning of 2017.(1) In the past era, IT had to support only two device types – the desktop or the rugged mobile depending on job type. In this era, the number of devices and device types has increased substantially and can be expected to continue to rise. This proliferation of devices and device types just caused mobile complexity to take another big leap.
3. Velocity of mobile’s OS and app changes far outpaces desktop updates: Users are adding devices at a growth rate of as much as 580%, complicating speed of change. Not only do internal Help Desks have to support devices from previous eras, monthly Operating System and Application updates for mobile continue to stream in. The rapid frequency of these updates, which occur on a third party’s schedule, come with little advance notice. In the desktop environment, Operating System (OS) updates can be expected every two to three years, while mobile’s operating systems usually receive major updates every six to 12 months. In addition, minor OS refreshes take place in between these major updates.
4. Constant flow of OS upgrades distracts IT: Compounding the fast-track pace of updates is the lack of tools to control users’ upgrading efforts. For example, each Android release is managed not through a central authority, but by each mobile operator. This lack of synchronization often forces the enterprise and its users to manage a constant stream of updates by operator and device type over many months. In this era, the complexity of managing app and OS changes, while overseeing device upgrades and the proliferation of custom applications, escalated severely. As a result, the burgeoning demands of mobile and its users’ sky-high expectations have distracted IT staffs from their business- critical responsibilities.
5. Demand for 7x24x365 mobile connectivity: Enterprises are being asked to support all of this mobile growth with traditional support options designed for desktop-based devices and applications. Simply put, mobile devices aren’t used like traditional desktops and mobile support doesn’t resemble Help Desk-based troubleshooting for desktops.
Additional pressure on the enterprise comes from the need to eliminate, or at least minimize, users’ downtime due to non-functioning mobile devices and applications. The majority of today’s mobile end users say customers (66%) and colleagues (70%) expect them to be available outside of traditional work hours, and mobile is how they maintain contact.(2) Mobility is becoming a 7x24x365 asset for most enterprises today, and the underlying support infrastructure has to be there to support always on availability.
