Mobile Enterprise - Research Paper Example

Mobile Enterprise Mobile Enterprise Many companies are nowadays turning to more technologically advanced operation systems in a bid to try to improve their efficiency and to gain advantage over their competitors within any given market. Mobilization is one such technique adopted by businesses and it refers to the incorporation of the use of mobile device technology such as cellular phones, tablets or PDAs in the day to day running and operation of its core operation functions. Mobilization has many benefits. For instance, it opens foreign markets to prospective investors and facilitates the flow of information and ideas within and outside of organizations. In so doing, it promotes innovation and at the same time creates a freer working environment that in turn promotes employee satisfaction and subsequently, service delivery. For all its benefits, mobile enterprises face the danger of losing information due to the adoption of this operation strategy. This paper seeks to comprehensively discuss mobile enterprises and determine whether they provide a safe operating platform for businesses that have adopted them. Introduction Mobile enterprise refers to those corporations that have adopted the use of wireless mobile devices in running their core operation functions. Mobile enterprises are fast coming up in the modern business market. This has been attributed to the vast availability of technologically advanced mobile devices in addition to the ever increasing demand of accessibility to corporate resources by today’s workforce. Mobile enterprises provide a platform through which employee and stakeholders alike are able to access these corporate resources on mobile handsets at any time and from any location. In some cases, companies have become more liberal in permitting the access of resources through personal handset devices rather than through company-owned mobile handsets. This initiative dubbed the “bring your own device” (BYOD) has been welcomed by other and criticized by a few. Its proponents consider it to be beneficial since it cuts down on the company’s costs in purchasing mobile devices for its employees. Its opponents, however, argue that it constitutes a serious breach in information security. The dominant enterprise platforms in the market today are Apple’s iOS and the android system. There are three major forces driving the need for mobile devices in business. Technological convergence, rising affordability and the growing availability of connectivity services have led to many businesses and organizations adopting mobile devices to incorporate all their stakeholders in their operational functions. Reports from the International Telecommunication Union indicate that about 5.3 billion 3G-enabled mobile users are spread over 143 nations worldwide (Cognizant, 2014). Mobile enterprise systems enable organizations increase their productivity and delivery to their customers by providing their employees and partners with the means to work at any time and in any area. However, with these benefits also come serious drawbacks. For instance, digital systems are not completely secure and in addition to this, mobile enterprising may undermine the management structures set up in an organization. The Benefits of Mobile Enterprises As mentioned earlier, the huge demand for mobile devices in businesses and organizations have been fueled by an information-hungry workforce and the competitive nature of today’s business markets. Large organizations worldwide are striving to develop a flexible work environment for their employees by placing higher priority in the flow of information and other workplace resources. These organizations believe that the freedom in the workplace improves the productivity and delivery of their employees even though it may bear greater financial implications (Broadsoft, 2011). The competitive nature of today’s business markets has necessitated the need for quick flow of ideas and information amongst the various players in the respective markets. In trying to outdo each other, many businesses have adopted the creed “information is power.” Mobile enterprising facilitates the flow of ideas and information over great distances under a short period. As a result, of this, many organizations have resorted to enterprise mobility to ensure that they are kept abreast with emerging trends and they get the latest information in any market that they operate. Mobile enterprises form part of an important strategy when it comes to venturing into unknown or foreign markets. For companies that are venturing into unknown markets, it is essential that they be privy to the trends and preferences prevailing in these markets. In such cases, therefore, the access to information becomes a significant step towards establishing themselves in the market. The increasing accessibility to bandwidth has opened up markets for all players in different industries worldwide. This has arisen from the fact that employees and partners can run virtually anywhere (CGI, 2013). It has also meant that worker’s schedules have become more flexible allowing them to become innovative and analytical when venturing inside new markets. Mobile enterprises have also enhanced the mobilization process in organizations by improving how people relate around each other in the workplace and the manner in which work groups are organized. Through the adoption of mobile devices, teams can liaise and work together from separate geographical locations allowing them to operate towards a common goal. Through status reports and real-time location, teams can carry out their mandates in unison without necessarily being in the same geographic area. Modern communication technologies have incorporated web, voice and video conveyance to promote social collaboration so that teams can acquire and share resources easily. This reflects positively on worker productivity as well as employee satisfaction in the workplace. Mobility benefits consumers by availing to them better quality services. Through the use of mobile devices, customers have access to real-time mobile query services. This ensures that customers benefit from accurate inventory information on demand. Similarly, order placements and payment procedures can be remotely done from the customer’s place of choice. Customers are also able to receive real-time alerts and notifications of any developments and this adds value for their payment. Mobile devices also improve the customer-care and support services offered to customers (Sawyer, 2012). They improve the response time to customer’s requests by on-field support teams by availing manuals and diagnostic tools. In addition to this, junior technical employees are able to benefit from the technical expertise of more experienced staff to deliver quicker and smarter responses to their clients. All these factors combined lead to customer satisfaction. In the case where complex products that require constant monitoring and maintenance are stationed at the client’s premise, the quality of response with regards to how fast and how effective can be greatly enhanced through mobility. Organizations that are optimizing the capabilities of wireless support devices are gradually establishing themselves over their rivals in their respective markets (Kompella, 2013). In recent times, technological advancements have shaped the manner in which businesses manage both their internal and supply chain relations, especially with regards to the flow of information. The existence of performance monitoring support structures has improved the manner in which tasks are designated and performed by creating awareness on the contexts of work tasks. Through mobile data capture features, real-time streams are provided and delivered between various end devices to ensure that information flows. This in turn ensures that asset and data management is easily tracked so that issues can be foreseen and dealt with in real-time. Mobility has also altered business operations at the management level since it enables an organization’s management to assign, reassign and optimize duties centrally to increase self-sufficiency and ensure that work is completed in due time. Mobile reporting systems help managers in decision making by availing to them situational information in real-time. This allows managers to make more informed decisions in a timely manner. The incorporation of mobile gadgets in the workplace has also enhanced on-the-job training and the manner in which companies offer support to asset utilization and internal operations. These translate to improved supply chain management and a well-coordinated inventory structure (Scornavacca, 2008). As the organization adopts the use of mobile device systems, the need for a physical workspace is gradually reduced. This can allow the business cut down on storage costs through space sharing. From an organization’s perspective, the control of mobile devices is relatively easier due to emerging control developments that allow the management stay on top of things. Convergence features enable the collection and storage of data centrally such that, in the case of any data loss, backups of this data are already stored in a secure location and can be accessed by any employee. From asset tracking, any incident of theft can be observed and the necessary measures taken to ensure that the stolen devices are rendered inoperable. The Challenges of Mobile Enterprises Mobile technology is ever changing. As a result of this several best practice techniques have been put forward by several established organizations. These numerous roadmaps have in turn created a challenge where certain strategies overlap or contradict leaving smaller firms at a disadvantage as to which practice would best suit their business. The complex nature of some devices also means that organizations have to continually train their staff to ensure that they are at breast with emerging technologies. This means that the businesses have to incur additional training costs to achieve this. In addition to this, businesses have to ensure that their experienced employees are satisfied so that the organization can retain their expertise and knowledge away from prying competitors (Brans, 2008). Mobile device systems also provide a major security concern. Where both worker’s personal data is stored together with corporate data, there exists serious a serious breach in privacy that may lead to one party losing their data. Most chief executive officers and managers consider security to be the greatest challenge affecting the rise of mobile enterprises (International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, 2012). In some cases, especially where markets are competitive, businesses tend to hold on to their “trade secrets” to ensure that competitors are not privy to any information that would give them an edge over their organization. In such instances, the used of mobility systems can be quite risky since workers can easily be enticed to give away the company’s secrets. Due to these security risks, businesses have been forced to further seek the help of highly skilled professionals who can offer to them any resources and technologies that would help the company to avoid the risk of such losses. Mobility has also been known to undermine the authority of existing management systems in particular businesses. Since worker’s working hours and location are more flexible under mobile enterprises, workers tend to wander from the directives of their work supervisors (Turban, 2011). In addition to this, mobilization requires the undertaking of further additional costs not only for management and training purpose, but other costs incurred in operationalizing mobile systems. These costs include investment costs, licensing fees, taxes and insurance among others. However, many of the advantages of mobile enterprise systems are immeasurable and they often lead to significant resource saving measures within companies that practice them (Hoang, 2008). Recommendations for Mobile Enterprises Without a doubt, information security poses the greatest challenge to mobile enterprises. Due to this, many measures have been developed to try and improve information security and other shortcomings of mobile enterprises. One such measure involves the adoption of Mobile Device Management (MDM). This refers to an approach whereby software protocols installed in mobile devices can be monitored and controlled from an in-house system or through cloud-based methods. The advantage with MDM is that it is useful for almost any devices that require verification. In addition to this, it enables organizational management structures manage corporate resources without remotely being in a particular area. From MDM, companies can monitor the activities of it workers by carefully looking at the information and resources they seek through the mobile systems. They can, therefore, prohibit or control the dissemination of information in a manner that suits its operations. MDM systems can be costly to set up and run. However, software applications such as cloud-based systems are quicker and cheaper to set up and use. Some MDM systems make use of containerization capabilities that depend on data encryption to keep corporate and personal data separate. This becomes especially useful under the “Bring your own device“ (BYOD) programmes. Some businesses choose to adopt both MDM and containerization practices. Studies have, however, shown that this greatly increases the complexity of the system and, therefore, it fails to be as efficient as they would have been individually (International Business Machines, 2012). One of the greatest challenges of securing mobile enterprises lies within the design of the mobile devices themselves. Their size is aimed at enhancing portability but at the same time increases the ease in which they can be lost or misplaced. In case of theft, functions that wipe or delete information within the device after many failed password attempts will ensure that the risk of losing information in such a scenario is minimized. In addition to this, end users or management can carry out a “local wipe” in which data is remotely deleted in the event that the device is either stolen or misplaced. Devices can also be set up to automatically lock themselves after a set period of inactivity and only resume its informational duties after the correct password is typed in it (International Business Machines, 2012). Data encryption, as mentioned earlier, can provide additional security level. Many organizations prefer the use of hardware-based encryptions as opposed to software-based encryption since the former is hard wired into the device and as such, may enhance the devices’ security performance. Under such systems, very little information is stored within the device. Any data sought is requested for and received over the device for display purposes only. This necessitates the existence of network access to ensure that users are able to receive the transmitted data. As a minimum requirement, organizations can adopt the use of a two-step based user authentication system to allow workers log into the company’s information recourse centre. Each employee or partner is provided with a unique username and password key so that the business can be able to determine who accessed corporate data and the time in which they did. The passwords consist of a unique alphabetic or numeric code that is keyed in every time data is sought. More advanced authentication techniques such as the use of digital certificates and smart cards can also be used. A log of entry into information databases is kept reflecting the seeker and the time the information was accessed (International Business Machines, 2012). Many mobile users are aware of the threat of malware in mobile devices. All mobile devices can be infected by malware and this may lead to huge data loss. As such, protective measures are usually adopted. It has become necessary to protect mobile devices by using anti-malware applications that offer real-time scans. In addition to this, many businesses that use mobile device in their daily running have in place policies to safeguard mobile security. These policies are enforced to assist in the mitigation of liabilities and security risks. These policies are usually developed by the company’s attorneys sometimes in conjunction with the IT department (International Business Machines, 2012). The key points around which these policies revolve includes the mobile devices that the business will be adopting and the parties that will be privy to the specific data and applications. Additional features include privacy policy stipulating the dos and don’ts with regards to the monitored information and information protection measures to be developed. Also appearing will be the steps to be taken in the case that the end user violated the set up policies among others. Conclusion As with many business strategies, mobile enterprises have serious drawbacks, particularly with regards to information security. This, as discussed, can bear serious consequences on the organization’s operations. However, with technological advancements, newer and more secure systems have been continuously emerging, each better and more efficient than its predecessor. With the various information security measures and procedures in existence, it is safe to conclude that mobile enterprises provide a safe and efficient operational method through which many businesses can benefit. Factors such as globalization and climate change have necessitated the need for efficiency in today’s business markets and as such, many companies are turning to mobile enterprising as an efficient strategy through which they can develop. References Brans, P. D., & Basole, R. C. (2008). A comparative anatomy of mobile enterprise applications: Towards a framework of software reuse. Information Knowledge Systems Management, 7(1/2), 145-158. Broadsoft Inc. (2011) Mobile Enterprise of the Future pp. 2-7 (Retrieved Online) http://www.broadsoft.com/pdf/mobile-enterprise-of-the-future.pdf CGI Group (2013) Securing the Mobile Enterprise pp. 1-5 (Retrieved Online) http://www.cgi.com/sites/default/files/white-papers/Securing-the-mobile-enterprise.pdf Cognizant (2014) http://www.cognizant.com/perspectives/forces-driving-enterprise-mobility (Viewed 16 April 2014) Hoang, A. T., Nickerson, R. C., Beckman, P., & Eng, J. (2008). Telecommuting and corporate culture: Implications for the mobile enterprise. Information Knowledge Systems Management, 7(1/2), 77-97. International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, (2012) Developing more effective mobile enterprise programs, pp. 2-10 (Retrieved Online) http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/enw03011usen/ENW03011USEN.PDF Kompella, K. (2013). Enterprise mobile marketing: Making the right moves in a rapidly evolving field. KM World, 22(5), 10-11. Sawyer, T. (2012). Mobile Devices Are Keyto Business Intelligence. ENR: Engineering News-Record, 269(16), 45. Scornavacca, E., & Barnes, S. J. (2008). The strategic value of enterprise mobility: Case study insights. Information Knowledge Systems Management, 7(1/2), 227-241. Turban, E., Volonino, L., Sipior, J. C., & Wood, G. R. (2011). Information technology for management: Improving strategic and operational performance. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley. Read More