Mowbly Blog Does Your Enterprise have a Mobility Strategy? - Part 6/6

We have reached the final part in this series. This series discusses the challenges and misconceptions in adopting a mobility strategy that holds back enterprises from embarking on the right one.#16 Procrastination due to ongoing backend initiativesEnterprises always have a need to keep their backend infrastructure, systems and apps up to date. The trigger for updates could be many such as a new product initiative, migrating to latest hardware, software upgrades and so on. Such IT activities are a common story in many enterprises, but some enterprises tie these IT initiatives to their enterprise mobility strategy. The unfortunate result is postponement of enterprise mobility strategy till the IT initiative is completed and running successful.A proper enterprise mobility strategy must not depend on any specific IT initiative as the opportunity for mobile apps is across the enterprise. Any delay in enterprise mobility strategy puts your enterprise at a risk of late adoption, a more serious state to be in considering the competitive edge mobility can offer.#17 Traumatized by a failed mobile initiativeAt times a failed mobile initiative in your enterprise could become a barrier for adopting a mobility strategy. The reasons of the failure can be many like inappropriate timing of rollout, wrong type of app (website or native), poor choice of functionality, no value add to user etc.A right mobility strategy would enable you to rebound faster from such a failure situation. Say, if you had a mobility platform in place as part of your enterprise mobility strategy, the impact by the failure of one app will be far lesser and you can always move on with further apps on the platform. This may not be the case if you mobile initiative is a point solution based app.#18 Budget constraints holding me backEnterprise mobility as any other IT investment has its own capital expenses and operational costs. The major entry barrier is the expense involved in procuring devices which is mandatory as mobility strategy in an enterprise cannot be based purely on BYOD. The cost of smartphones is drastically falling down and probably a phased purchase of devices could help your enterprise to get onboard with little overhead.The other costs involved are of the mobility software and operational expenses. A yearly budget of minimum $20K seems a typical requirement to run an active enterprise mobility strategy sans procurement of devices. In most enterprises, this spending can be a little part of the other expenses incurred like software licensing cost, marketing expenses etc. And mobility is sure to provide returns to the enterprise manifold, if a proper investment is made.If your enterprise is held back in mobility strategy by budget constraints, it is the responsibility of the enterprise IT to project the return on investment the mobility strategy can offer to the management. Considering mobility is the top trend starting from 2014, a substantial investment on mobility strategy would help enterprises to be more competitive.ConclusionThat summarizes the possible misconceptions enterprises have about enterprise mobility strategy. Hope the post succeeded in clarifying these misconceptions and providing you a view as to what mobility strategy suits to your enterprise. Do leave your comments below, I am more than happy to discuss and learn.