Mobility has been accepted as the most disruptive technology innovation faced by enterprises today. In the past few years, mobile devices have evolved from just providing enterprise email and data on-the-move to introducing applications and services that have changed the way companies do business. Mobility can help companies leverage contextual data to reach out to their customers more effectively.

There are more mobile phones in the world today than toothbrushes and going forward a growing majority of the total workforce will be using mobile technology by 2013. These startling shifts in the adoption of communications technologies have made Enterprise Mobility one of the most disruptive technology innovations in recent times that government, policymakers and corporate leadership teams are still trying to understand fully.

According to CMR, some of the key trends in Enterprise Mobility during 2013 will be:

• BYOD extending the scope of mobility: While enterprise mobility in its current state is still novel, BYOD has undergone substantial and consistent growth in the past few years. The growing comfort level with BYOD and its associated mobile security solutions will allow the trend to become more commonplace in enterprises. The rate of adoption will further be driven by new smartphones and tablets that hit the market, consequentially attracting the attention of employees who are continuing to drive the consumerisation of IT.
• Creating New Mobile Driven Business Processes: The adoption of smartphones has reached even the traditional sections of the workforce. With disappearance of the business / consumer divide in terms of adoption of technologies, companies are increasingly forced to revamp their business processes, so as to realise the potential benefits of mobile devices. These new business processes, centered on the concept of mobility, which involves technologies such as Cloud and Analytics, use context-driven and location-aware data to influence the way companies function.
• Defining Business Models for Mobile Implementation: The speed of innovation around mobile technologies, combined with multiplicity of platforms and releases have stretched the resources of companies. Mobility today offers newer business streams, but managing mobile implementation has become a much more complex affair. Companies need to look beyond the models they have been using to manage their IT and look for mobility specific business models such as On-Demand Provisioning, Pay-Per-Use Pricing and free+premium model for app usage.
• The digital “CXO Connect” will enable big decisions on the fly: CEOs have unique demands. Despite the availability of key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards that offer mobile versions as well, executives are not able to take a ‘deep dive’ while they are out of the office. In 2013, however, mobility will become more than just a “lifeline” into the office. Mobile access to enterprise data and analytics will lead to a true virtual office enabling strategic decision making based on information that can be accessed on a smartphone or tablet.
• IT Policies vs. Smartphone App Explosion: The availability of sleeker, better equipped phones in the market are making traditional corporate IT policies redundant, or less useful at the very least. Companies are facing tremendous pressures from their employees for better devices or worse still, to adopt a “bring your own device” (BYOD) policy. The implications of such policies to security are tremendous. These pressures add complexity to management of apps and devices for enterprise IT leaders.

In spite of this fast changing scenario, enterprise IT managers have a tight line to walk with their mobility strategy. Every enterprise leadership team has to determine what benefits mobility can bring to their business. And the time to do so is NOW!