Tablets and Mobile devices are spearheading the mobile work revolution – the cubicles now scoot on wheels and resources are as location independent as ever. According to the Yankee Group, the next 3 years is going see more action in the mobile device adoption front – anything smart such as tablets and smartphones is going to be as much a part of enterprises as desktops and servers have always been. With new trends such as mobile adoption at work, telecommuting, and work through BYOD (Bring your Own Device), deploying tablets and mobiles for work isn’t as easy as buying furniture for your office. Here’s how to tap into mobile work trends for your business:
Get your network ready for mobile use
You don’t want to be the company that’s playing “Catch-up” when using mobiles or tablets at work becomes as ubiquitous as the Internet itself. First, you’ll have to worry about is to set-up your infrastructure and make it mobile enterprise ready. Start with crafting employee mobile usage policies, bring in the necessary investments to gear up your infrastructure to handle or support the incoming traffic of roving devices. Ascertain levels of access to corporate data and deploy applications that make it possible for your employees to work on their devices while feeding off on your corporate network.
Roll out Deployment, phase-wise if you would like to
The actual deployment of technology to support use of mobile devices would take time depending on the size of your company. Whether you intend to supply mobile devices (corporate owned and configured, such as BlackBerry) or follow the BYOD trend, the IT department will have to install the necessary applications on the network, mobile-centric applications on mobile devices for secure access, etc. If your company is large, you might even need Mobile Device Management applications (MDM).
Establish Security protocols
As it was with networking, and then with cloud computing, mobile device usage deployment will also have to contend with security issues – it’s likely to be the biggest concern for companies. How do the employees access corporate data on their phones? What kind of security protocols are you going to use so as to not allow data theft or loss? How will you establish systems to prevent hacking or attacks? Are you going to use SSL (Secure Socket Layers)? How about full-disk access, encryption, and remote management of devices?
This is an area of deployment where you’re likely to spend a lot of time by devising strong, accurate, and strict usage protocols and employee policies.
If you’d like help with rejigging your network or to deploy mobile use for your employees, do feel free to contact us and we’d love to help you.
714-333-9620