Developing a Corporate Mobility Policy
The mobile enterprise is a reality today, because many midmarket companies are using mobile computing and communications technologies to build the bottom line. Managers have long understood the value, in terms of both productivity and profitability, of mobile telephony, and today, cellular is the most widely deployed corporate mobile application, outpacing the combined expenditures for text messaging and mobile email by tenfold.
In light of its success as a mobile application, cellular provides a window into the contours of enterprise mobility, because the managerial questions posed by cellular extend directly into related mobile computing environments. In a recent poll conducted by SearchMobileComputing and the Mobile Enterprise Alliance, 58 percent of midmarket information technology (IT) managers stated that their company does not have a clearly articulated policy for cellular purchases. With new cellular telephones supporting email, instant messaging, gaming and content downloads from the new third-generation (3G) wireless data networks midmarket corporate IT and telecommunications (telecoms) managers find themselves facing a potentially unmanageable set of devices, applications and service contracts.
Many tech-savvy workers are driving corporate adoption of mobile technologies, and the growing wave of user-purchased and provisioned cell phones, personal digital assistants and smartphones presents numerous challenges for IT organizations where the natural inclination is for managers to turn off, shut down and deny access to any new devices. Some corporate telecoms departments have begun to lock down their cellular purchasing, but the so-called firewall approach is considered by many to be an institutionalized form of denial.
In the midmarket, mobile technologies offer significant operational and competitive advantages. It is powerful for a company to put mobile computing in the hands of workers who spend much of their time in front of customers. With up-to-date inventory information immediately available, sales teams and delivery drivers can give customers information about upcoming orders as well as the availability of specific items. At the same time, workers can leave their clipboards in the office, collecting customer data electronically. In eliminating a step (and a person) in the data entry process, corporate IT managers can drive significant returns on investment (ROI) by improving the accuracy of the information in corporate applications and databases.
The advantages of mobility clearly outstrip the risks and management overhead, but for midmarket companies to effectively harness mobile technologies, they will need to develop a companywide set of policies outlining which groups of workers get what types of mobility. Developed properly, this corporate mobility policy is more than a document it is the outcome of a set of activities that asks difficult questions, identifies groups of mobile workers, involves key constituencies and builds consensus around mission-critical mobile applications.
This makes the question what is a mobility policy? synonymous with how do we develop one? This white paper identifies the key questions that a mobility policy seeks to answer, then we discuss the process involved in answering these questions. Finally, we discuss the implications of mobility in midmarket companies.
A CORPORATE MOBILITY POLICY There are several questions that a corporate mobility policy seeks to answer. The best way to discuss this is with an example that starts with a worker out shopping on the weekend. This worker walks past a wireless store and sees a promotion for the newest smartphone. The phone costs $99 with a two-year contract renewal. The workers contract is up and he decides to renew his contract and gets the phone. At the same time, the worker adds a data plan to support mobile email. He also downloads several ringtones. He pays for this with his personal credit card.
On Tuesday of the following week, the worker fills out an expense report, requesting reimbursement for the new phone and plan upgrade. His manager approves the expense and each month thereafter, the worker expenses his cellular bill, including ringtone downloads, text messaging, roaming, personal calls and so forth.
There are four separate questions that arise from this object example. These questions center around who owns the device, the cellular telephone number and the contract; what applications the worker is authorized to use; who pays for the device and the services; and finally, who manages the individual aspects of the users service.
Ownership: The question of ownership goes beyond the device itself. If the worker expenses the purchase of a smartphone, then its a corporate expense, and the company needs to decide how to manage it over time. Is it an expense? Or is it an asset? And over what depreciation cycle? What happens when it gets lost? What happens when the worker leaves the company?
The same holds for the cellular contract. Is the contract a short-term liability? If so, for whom? Or is it an ongoing operational expense budgeted at a departmental level?
Finally, there is the cellular telephone number. When a worker leaves the company, will he take a client list with him to a competitor? Many workers rely solely on their mobile telephone number, so this can become a major issue. Corporate managers need to decide who owns what and how to account for this ownership as workers come and go.
Applications: Because users can order data services, download ringtones and install applications software on their mobile devices, IT management needs to define the authorized application set for groups of mobile workers. From there, the questions begin. How will IT ensure that workers are using applications solely within this set? What about audit? Security? Performance?
Budget: Many mobile enterprise deployments have happened at a departmental level and have been budgeted accordingly. Over time, this may change, and with those changes will be questions about who will pay for what level of mobility. Will there be a central IT budget for the device and the connectivity? At the same time, will there be a departmental budget for the application? The same holds for cellular. Who pays for what? And who polices the budgetary policy?
Management: Device and application management are often the backstop for mobility policies, with IT departments shouldering the burden for a lack of clearly defined policies across the organization. And management is more than the technology for controlling mobile devices and applications it is the fundamental question of who provides management and support for a growing number of mobile devices. For example, will the wireless operator provide tier 1 support? And if there is a help desk, who staffs it?
By asking questions about ownership, applications, budget and management, midmarket mobility managers can begin the process of identifying the answers that form a corporate mobility policy. Next, we discuss the steps involved in answering these questions integral to a mobility policy.
THE PROCESS AND THE POLICY The best way to think of a mobility policy is as the outcome of a series of managerial and information technology activities including: a mobility audit, learning about new technologies and involving key constituencies.
The first step in developing a mobility policy involves an audit. The purpose of this audit is to identify major groups of mobile workers and the mobile applications that these groups use today. These groups and applications sets will change over time, and an audit should attempt to understand that dynamic as well. In this audit process, its important to challenge assumptions about the ways in which workers use technology. For example, one Mobile Enterprise Alliance member entered an audit with an assumption that the companys sales team was the largest mobile worker group, only to learn that the sales team was outnumbered ten to one by day extenders using a virtual private network (VPN) to check email in the evenings and on the weekend. Putting names and numbers to different types of mobile workers helps management in prioritizing applications and device rollouts.
Management, both IT and line of business, should take the time to learn about new technologies, options and price points. Like the mobility audit, the goal here is to challenge assumptions and to understand options that challenge established constraints. For example, mobile email has been a costly service relying on $400 devices and data services that cost between $40 and $80 per month. Having a QWERTY keyboard makes it possible to send and receive mobile email, but there are other options. Today, a $100 mobile telephone can incorporate a $20-permonth data plan to receive email. At this lower price point, mobile workers can see incoming messages and respond via email or phone call to the highest-priority issues. Price points and feature sets provide a broad range of alternatives that will change the business model for corporate mobility; line-of-business and IT managers need to keep an open mind about where these options may lead.
Finally, management should involve key constituencies and ask for feedback. A major ownership issue is the application, and the sooner mobile workers take ownership for their applications, the better the application will be. In this process, IT should be a facilitator involved in developing applications, incorporating worker feedback, creating training programs and socializing new technologies across the workforce.
As mobility progresses from the power user knowledge worker and proliferates across the corporate enterprise, it will be necessary to incorporate alternatives that will fit into the context of larger and larger worker communities. Future solutions will include feature phones, focused device functionality, ruggedized handhelds and other alternatives that deviate from the PC in a palmtop mentality endemic to early adopters.
When management undertakes these activities, it will become easier to answer the questions of ownership, applications, budget and management, and a mobility policy will fall into place.
The options are many, and so are the architectures. Many mobile solutions use middleware to leverage the capabilities of existing back-end platforms. Often, mobile middleware will provide abstraction for the mobile device, handling the demands of occasional connectivity. As companies build more applications to support mobile environments, numerous development tools and off-the-shelf software packages are available to facilitate the process.
In the past, mobile workforce solutions required custom, one-off devices, large development teams and even larger IT budgets. Today, available off-the-shelf tools provide new alternatives for midsize companies. According to Rachel Jusseaume, marketing director at Countermind, The mobile technologies available today offer significant empowerment for small to midsize companies. With a small IT department and less then four employees managing the mobile project support and rollout, package carrier California Overnight has been able to deploy mobile applications that rival solutions from much larger competitors like UPS and FedEx.
Also, within the midmarket, companies are more likely to work with local and regional systems integrators and value-added resellers. For example, Aptilo Networks is a company that provides technology and managed services to assist companies in delivering guestworker access to wireless networks. Aptilo works with larger systems integrators as well as smaller resellers in Ciscos partner program. Torbjörn Wård, CEO of Aptilo Networks, explains the difference: We see very different opportunities through the Cisco partner program. For the most part, these are small to midsize companies with the same challenges as large enterprises but fewer IT resources.
Regardless of who develops the solution and how it gets to market, mobility is available and accessible to companies in the midmarket. In comparison to the alternatives available five years ago, todays off-the-shelf platforms for applications development, mobile management and security make it possible for small IT organizations to define, develop and deploy custom mobile applications in a matter of weeks.
So far, companies have been able to develop and deploy applications at the departmental level. For these experiences to carry over to the bottom line, it will require larger deployments across the corporate enterprise. As IT departments attempt an increasingly broader set of enterprise applications and data available to users accessing the network on personal digital assistants and smartphone devices, it will be necessary for management to develop and articulate a companywide mobility policy.
This mobility policy will result from a process that includes asking difficult questions, looking for creative solutions and actively engaging mobile worker constituencies.
