Enterprise Mobility has transformed quickly in the past few years. Five years ago, enterprise mobility was a large enterprise need that was largely driven by BlackBerry devices and primarily used to support remote workers who were fully detached from the office, such as field service and remote sales personnel. Although these cases still exist, the emergence of iOS, Android and other new mobility platforms has provided the business with new value propositions as mobility has become a business enhancer throughout line-of-business departments.
In addition, companies have increasingly allowed handsets that are not directly purchased from the enterprise to gain access to business-based network and applications. In the October 2010 report “Controlling Wireless Expenses," Aberdeen Group found that 72 percent of organizations had at least one individual-liable handset being used for business purposes. On average, 23 percent of these companies’ devices were owned by the employee. Although there are management challenges associated with the “bring your own device" approach, it has led to quick growth in the use of mobility throughout the business environment.
To understand how companies have sought to take advantage of this new proliferation of handsets, mobile applications and connectivity, Aberdeen studied more than 400 organizations in 2011 for the research brief “Enterprise Mobility Management Goes Global: Mobility Becomes Core IT." One key pressure loomed above all others: the demand to provide productivity gains associated with mobility to the entire organization. Fifty-five percent of respondents identified this as a key global pressure whereas 37 percent referenced the need to deploy mobility so that they could become more operationally efficient as a whole and 26 percent were struggling to harness the increasing capabilities and complexities of new mobile devices.
To provide productivity gains and improve operational efficiencies, these companies should seek to connect all mobile devices used in a business context with an enterprise-wide application. Companies typically are connected through one of three ways: email, phone system and enterprise applications (e.g., ERP, CRM or social software). Email access often is provided with network access while enterprise applications access can be given through Web-based or VPN access if a mobile license is purchased.
