Mobile Workforce will Become the Norm in 2016

Charles Darwin once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.” IT companies have embodied this philosohphy in their very veins. 

Driven by the two major necessities of optimizing resources and bringing in business agility, more than 40 percent of organizations across major industry verticals in India considered this change of adopting mobility as top enterprise IT strategy for the upcoming year, according to a recently published research by IDC.

Following the lead, Shalil Gupta, Consulting and Insights director at IDC, shares his insight on this changing business dynamics, and how CIOs need to respond to them.

How has enterprise mobility evolved and what will this year bring for this domain?

If 2014 and 2015 were the years of the initial & nascent steps into enterprise mobility (EM) both from the perspectives of development and adoption, 2016 and beyond are going to set the stage for enterprise mobility 2.0 and potentially enterprise mobility 3.0.

IDC predicts that a large swathe of enterprises will adopt enterprise mobility; provided, some key considerations and value additions are orchestrated in its manifestation.

What are the top three trends which will drive enterprise mobility in 2016?

The three trends that we see emerging this year are regionalized and customized aspects, user interface and user experience, and cloud-based enterprise mobility.

Regionalized & Customized: As enterprises are setting up shops across the length and breadth of the country and with regional workforce, cultural and regional aspects of language will have to be addressed.

Preference will become increasingly important as organizations have more flexibility in building their workforces—office-bound, remote or a regional mix—and as more workers have the tools to choose to work remotely.

UI & UX (User Interface and User Experience): With greater demands for ease of navigation and usability, enterprise mobility modules will see a 

drastic change in form factors with increased intuitive navigation. Developmental focus on design will be important while addressing the need for innovation in driving intuitive, engaging and inspiring apps.

With the consumerization of IT, consistent user experience across devices and ecosystems is imperative; which is symbolic in the advent of notifications becoming the new user interface.

Cloud-based Enterprise Mobility: For enterprise mobility’s sustained adoption and use in a multi-platform enterprise mobility management without comprising on security or performance, it is imperative that enterprise mobility modules move to the cloud.

With business leaders and executives needing anytime – anywhere access to business data in a secure manner, enterprise mobility on cloud is going to be a reality inasmuch it is the predominant way to provide integrated solutions. It is viable, cost effective and serves developing cutting edge innovations for customization to clients. Complex IT infrastructure will be systematically replaced by cloud technologies that are viable as well as lead to higher customer satisfaction levels.

How important will this technology be in 2016?

Enterprise mobility adoption will, in the future, be a true reflection of the real needs of an evolving and mature workforce – that demands an experience that is always connected, secure, rich and convenient to use.