With the increasing number of smart phone users and applications, it is very compelling to expect companies to add Smart Phones to their list of internally supported devices.
There has been a widespread curiosity about Smart Phones applications among C-Level executives at different companies. Many companies have bought Smart Phones in a hope of increasing productivity, gaining operational efficiency, improving customer intimacy or establishing a new channel for sales. Many Enterprise level applications are out there in the market already and employees have been trying to execute work related tasks from their Smart Phone Devices. But how secure is it? Is it as efficient as other devices? Will Smart Phones seamlessly integrate with the existing ecosystem of other devices? What are the use cases and what is the ROI? Can the IT provide same level of support for Smart Phones as it does for other enterprise devices? These are still some unanswered questions.
The ecosystem is complex with too many carriers, handset vendors, application stores, and third party distribution channels, and this multiplied by the number of mobile device platforms could make the deployment and maintenance of smart phones in companies extremely complex, time consuming and costly. The lack of standards could make the life of IT team miserable, and it might be very difficult to ensure security and to put in place a plug and play system that can easily be scaled.
Many enterprise level applications like Salesforce have developed mobile applications, but until the surrounding ecosystem allows for integration and two way communication, it will be very difficult for the enterprise applications to reach wide scale adoption. One of the major success factors for Salesforce, besides its pioneering cloud capabilities, has been the flexibility that it provides by integrating with email clients, other CRM systems, websites etc. This has been possible because of relatively standardized internet space, unlike the mobile ecosystem, which still remains scattered and complex.
In conclusion, Smart Phones will need to move towards a more standardized model before they can become enterprise-class devices. With 4G and increasing popularity of cloud computing, Smart Phones might find a way into companies by offering a platform just as capable as other enterprise devices.
Nick Parmar, Mobility Expert at Apexon is hosting a Webinar on the top 10 mistakes committed by companies while deploying mobile solutions. I encourage you to attend this webinar to find answers to some of the questions raised above.
Register for the Webinar here.https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/855893336 . Time and date: 2-Nov-2010, 10:00 AM PST.
