Corporate Mobility: We’ve Only Just Begun

by Dave Moorman

Corporate mobility has been in the headlines so much over the past few years that you might assume its potential has peaked. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every day, application developers debut new products that businesses can implement to fuel the mobile productivity of their workers. For SMBs, the proliferation of BYOD (bring your own device) policies is making it easier—and more affordable—than ever to bring mobile devices into the workplace.

Of course, BYOD comes with risks, but that’s a topic I’ll cover in depth in a different article. Today is all about how you can maximize these devices to propel your business success.

Email: As I mentioned in an earlier blog, numerous surveys report that employees frequently check corporate email during off hours. The amount of benefit your business gains from this is staggering: a study by Good Technology, as reported in August 2012 by CNBC, indicates that after-hours email checking and other “work from home” adds up to a month and a half of overtime, per year.

However, that same article cautions that companies should enable, not expect, their employees to spend time on work issues and email after hours. The key is to strike a balance between employee satisfaction and accomplishment—that’s where the greatest productivity occurs.

Expand Your Boundaries: There are so many helpful business apps available for smartphones (many of them free) that you’re doing yourself a disservice not to explore them. For example, Bump lets two individuals with the app installed exchange business card data, photos, and other information simply by bumping their phones together. And, Bump is cloud-based, not Bluetooth-reliant, with a “smart” protocol that ensures it sends your information only to the phone you actually bumped.

These are just two of the many, many great ideas SMBs can adopt to increase their employees’ mobile productivity. There is a world of opportunities available to you (I’ll share more ideas in future articles.)  If you find yourself uncertain which ones to adopt (or how to make them safe), we’ll be happy to help you develop a roadmap that’s both dynamic and safe.