Two recent white papers (“The Rapid Evolution of Mobile” and “Mobile’s Most Daunting Challenge: Support”) and related blog posts on “Mobile’s Complexities” and “The Current State of Mobile” explained how mobile became so complicated so quickly. We also identified how support expenses are the number one concern of those responsible for controlling the total cost of ownership for mobile. This white paper explains how enterprise-level mobile planning can unite siloed projects, achieve economies of scale and lower the support costs for mobility.
Why do enterprises launch mobile pilots and even complete full-scale deployments without an enterprise mobile plan? Too often, planning is perceived as a long, painful process that slows everything down. With users demanding always-on connectivity and 24x7x365 support, few companies can afford to slow things down. However, taking the time to create a mobile strategy sets the enterprise up for success and is well worth the effort.
A new wrinkle that affects mobile planning has surfaced, not at the enterprise level, but with line-of-business executives (LOB). LOB executives, not IT, are now funding mobile 74% of the time, which makes their voices louder during the planning process.(1) When LOB controls the mobile purse strings, pressure mounts to deploy quickly, which can make planning an afterthought. This scenario is especially common with companies, lagging behind on mobile, that feel competitive advantage slipping away and an urgency to act swiftly.
However, taking a hurried approach to enterprise mobile can be counted on to create a “disaster,” according to a leading industry analyst.(2) “Mobility at scale is a far different management beast than mobility at small, well-controlled proof-of-concept levels,” Tony Rizzo of Blue Hill Research points out.(3) As companies rush ill-planned mobile rollouts across an enterprise, these projects can quickly exhaust support resources, sending mobile costs spiraling out of control.
Last week’s white paper, “Mobile’s Most Daunting Challenge: Support,” explained why
complexities abound in enterprise mobile.
A few of these key complexities include:
