We can remember a time when automation was so expensive and hard to implement that the idea of getting technology anywhere but your IT department was unthinkable. We didn’t think about user satisfaction because there were no alternatives. Getting new technology took years.
The Mobile Wild West
Today we have a different problem. It is easy for any business function or department to find mobile apps that help people get work done by visiting the App Store or Google Play Store. Then, we strong-arm IT into supporting our devices and connecting us to our enterprise applications. Our business platforms in Marketing, Finance, Logistics, Human Resources, and everywhere else give us mobile apps our IT departments don’t even know about.
CIOs everywhere have nightmares of leaking data and ever-growing support demands. It seems like a modern “Wild West” where everyone has a mobile device and isn’t afraid to use it.
Mobile Users Drive the Agenda
The easy availability of mobile apps for personal consumption has created a demand for the same ease of use in daily work. In the consumer app market, most applications are failures. On average, only five percent of users still use an app 90 days after installing it. Most apps are deleted after first use.
Things are no better in business apps:
- “Nearly 80% of enterprise mobile apps are abandoned after their first use.
- 64% of employees cite poor user experience as the reason for rarely using enterprise mobile apps.
- A study of 1,000 full-time and part-time employees reveals that 43% of smartphone users and 41% of tablet users are not impressed with the corporate mobile apps they’re expected to use.”[1]
The Need for Enterprise Mobile Strategy
The path ahead requires strategy and governance, and enterprise mobile strategy should be an integral part of the business plan.
The future of mobile is changing the way we communicate and work, and it extends far beyond consumer marketing. In the modern enterprise, we use mobile devices for everything we do, and that includes interacting with partners, suppliers, distributors, and each other. Moreover, it is now a necessity for workplace learning.
As you fold your mobile operations into your digital strategy and data governance, we want to offer a few considerations that may help guide your efforts.
- Consider creating an app store. It can be a gentle way to persuade ungoverned app users to support the strategy and will make it easier to control what apps your people use.
- Monitor and analyze network traffic to see which apps and devices are in use. Understand the security challenges each one presents.
- Extend data security governance to mobile devices and apps and educate users on their role in security.
- Whether you use in-house app developers, non-coding apps created by business users, or work with a mobile application partner, adopt integration standards across the enterprise with REST/JSON mobile APIs. Make it easy for your app developers to security connect their applications to your business platforms.
- When you develop mobile apps, consider design first, then technology. It doesn’t matter how well it fits the device platform if the design doesn’t engage your users.
The wave of technology we experience now is only the beginning of the changes we will see in our lifetimes. We hope we have given you some useful things to think about as you prepare for your digital future.
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