If a company with enterprise mobility is a sleek sports car, a company without enterprise mobility is a bulky jalopy. So which would your company rather be?
Enterprise mobility can sound like a bit of a buzzphrase. Still, this common business tactic can significantly increase a company’s efficiency, productivity and bottom line by ensuring that employees have everything they need to do their job — no matter where they are.
Are you interested in incorporating accessible remote work resources into your company model? Here’s everything you need to know about enterprise mobility.
What is Enterprise Mobility?
Enterprise mobility is an approach to work that prioritizes employees’ ability to easily and smoothly engage in remote work. This usually entails updating professional expectations to include remote work, allowing work to be conducted on remote laptops and devices and the widespread usage of cloud storage.
Picture a remote sales team — if the members don’t have access to the company cloud, customer relationship management (CRM) tool or virtual desktop while on the go, they may leave money on the table. Ensuring your team stays connected from anywhere maximizes productivity and profit.
While it’s simple to understand, it can be more challenging to execute. However, you’ll find that the longer you wait to create enterprise mobility, the less confident you’ll feel that your company is doing everything in its power to stay current and efficient.
Why is Enterprise Mobility Important Going into 2023?
The pandemic permanently changed the workspace in several ways, one being how employees and potential employees want to shape their work day. As a result, enterprise mobility is transitioning from an exciting perk to an expectation among new hires. With that shift, here are reasons why enterprise mobility will become even more prominent in the coming years.
Desirable employees are looking for remote and hybrid options. Did you know that 55% of employees want to remotely work at least three days a week? High-quality candidates with professional opportunities will prioritize the companies that offer this kind of flexibility over companies that don’t. If you want to increase their interest and desire to work for your company, offering hybrid work options is a great place to start.
Enterprise mobility widens your candidate pool. If your company is located in a smaller city, there could be a lack of qualified candidates to consider for hire. Adopting a level of enterprise mobility means you can hire outside your headquartered location and assess candidates who are well suited for the job but who do not livet in the area.
Offering remote work options allows for more flexibility. Real life needs flexibility, from work travel to picking up kids from school to heading to last-minute doctor appointments. Easy remote work options allow employees to take work back home, so unexpected circumstances don’t cut out the entire workday.
There is less of a reliance on offices and in-office hardware. If you’re looking to cut costs, as many companies are, enterprise mobility can help reduce leasing costs and office rent. Some companies that have turned to a fully-remote or hybrid office system have downsized their offices to hot seats or even just meeting space. Whether this is an option for your company is up to you, but enterprise mobility is the path that will create space for the opportunity.
How Can Enterprise Mobility Benefit Your Business?
Easy data sharing and collaboration
Collaboration between coworkers becomes much more streamlined when everyone is confident that everyone is looking at the most recent data version. With tools like cloud storage and virtual desktops, everyone can access the same information and discuss, edit and improve on data sources or ideas in real time.
Reduced operational costs
One of a company’s most prominent costs is infrastructure and maintenance. Incorporating a portion of remote or hybrid workers can significantly reduce these costs. Using personal devices for work, such as personal smartphones, can also reduce overall hardware costs.
Better data organization
Switching to cloud data storage and CRMs can create a new opportunity to re-evaluate how your company houses, edits, shares, archives and stores data. By taking some time to analyze your data organization goals, increasing enterprise mobility will also mean creating an easy-to-use data organization system that employees can access from anywhere.
A stronger focus on data security
With personal devices, remote tools and a work-from-anywhere mindset, cybersecurity and data protection is at the forefront of any great enterprise mobility model. Having reliable enterprise mobility resources prioritizing robust security will cut down on cyber threats and avoid the data loss and damage accompanying cyberattacks.
What are the Major Obstacles To Enterprise Mobility?
Outdated software and hardware
Relying on the hardware in your office means that only people in the office can benefit from those resources. Having hardware or software only accessible by in-office workers creates an imbalance that can impact collaboration, communication and productivity.
Outdated mindsets
Sometimes, the most challenging thing to get past in creating enterprise mobility is the stigma that if you aren’t in the office, you’re not working. Especially when the right tools are accessible to remote workers, many employees feel more productive out of the office than they do in the office. Whether it’s communication between peers or from management to employees, enterprise mobility won’t work at its best with an outdated mindset in play.
Lack of communication
As with any business model, communication is critical. If management or project coordinators don’t have a way to check in quickly with remote workers, that confidence in remote worker productivity may falter. Consistent communication will counteract that concern and bolster confidence in the efficiency and dedication of remote workers.
How to Create Enterprise Mobility in Your Company
Cloud Storage
Secure data storage that can be accessed off-site is the pillar of effective enterprise mobility. Great cloud computing delivers computing services like backup, storage, networking and software applications over the internet, so remote workers don’t need to come in for maintenance or software updates. It also creates an easy and efficient way to communicate and collaborate with coworkers working on the same data set or project.
Voice Solutions
Does your company field a lot of client calls? That doesn’t mean your employees must be stuck to an office desk. Voice services allow your team to respond to company calls from their personal or company mobile phone. Not only does this give your employees an opportunity for higher-quality phone calls, but it also allows the calls to be fielded over Wi-Fi so team members can answer calls anywhere with an internet connection.
Data backup and disaster recovery
No matter where you’re working from, data loss happens. However, solutions like off-site backup options keep your data safe and secure if something happens to your mainframe or data collection tools. Whether caused by innocent user error or malicious attacks, ensuring your company has a dependable data backup and disaster recovery plan will minimize any chances for permanent data loss or damage.
Virtual Desktops
For many companies that want to lean into a remote work environment, creating virtual desktops on the cloud that operators can connect to from anywhere makes sense. These systems can be designed using a public or a private cloud and benefit from lower costs and ease of management and maintenance.
Cybersecurity
The quicker you find cybersecurity vulnerabilities, the less likely they will cause lasting damage. And when employees are working away from the office and IT team, it’s imperative they have the tools and knowledge they need to avoid attacks and identify malicious activity. Providing your remote work staff with cybersecurity training can help put protective measures in place and boost employees’ skill sets as they work out of the office. Now more than ever, instilling confidence in your employees helps them handle current and future crises in a systematic and streamlined way.
MDL can help
MDL’s enterprise mobility solutions will ensure that your company is prepared to create a streamlined and productive work-from-anywhere culture. From safe cloud storage to a 24/7 help desk, your employees can do great work from wherever they are.
Rely on the Professionals
A long list of security measures and responsibilities can help protect your data, and it can be overwhelming to take it all on internally. However, MDL can handle your entire enterprise mobility system, so you can rest easy knowing your sensitive info is in good hands.
Many assume that outsourcing their technology needs comes with a hefty price tag. However, with affordable solutions for businesses of all sizes and industries, MDL Technology is there for your IT needs every step of the way. Contact us today to learn more.
