Smart policies, strategies needed to support enterprise mobility

Mobile industry analyst Kevin Benedict recently channeled his inner military strategist when he borrowed the teachings of John Boyd, a noted 20th century military figure, and applied them to enterprise mobility for a recent SYS-CON Media report.

According to Benedict, Boyd taught that successful campaigns require smart people, smart strategies and smart technology. The same is true of enterprise mobility programs, Benedict argued.

Specifically, the mobile analyst chose to focus on the second part of Boyd's teachings about smart strategies. Assuming that companies already have smart people and smart technology - i.e. the smartphones and tablets in use by employees - the only thing missing for most are smart strategies.

"In order to make smart choices about things (mobile frameworks, mobile infrastructures, mobile architectures and mobile applications), it is first necessary to have smart people and smart ideas/strategies," Benedict wrote.

A poll that he recently conducted revealed that 41.6 percent of respondents have plans to deploy at least six mobile applications during the next 12 months. However, 51.3 percent of respondents admitted to having no mobility plan in place, while another 60.2 percent did not have a strategy for the use of mobile technology.

These results show that respondents are working blind when it comes to enterprise mobility. They have no direction and no goals for employees' use of smartphones, tablets and mobile applications.

Experts, Benedict among them, agree that any good mobile device management program contains both policies and strategies. The policy outlines what the company wishes to get out of a program, while the strategy details how it will be accomplished.

"Companies need an enterprise mobility strategy in place in order to know what [are] the required 'smart things' or smart technology choices to make," Benedict continued.

Given the respondents' apparent need for software, it appears that a mobile application management strategy would suit them well. With such a framework in place, companies will know exactly how they should be leveraging mobile applications, as well as have access to guidelines for how apps should be procured and downloaded.

Benedict's survey respondents aren't alone in prioritizing applications for a mobility program. According to a recent InformationWeek Reports survey, companies place more emphasis on mobile applications than on any other type of software.