5 Steps to Integrating Mobility In the Workplace

In many companies, the increased reliance on mobility and the introduction of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) occurs incrementally and without a real plan. This often leads to what one of our customers described as the “wild, wild West”: meaning, business processes change dramatically, employees don’t understand the rules or what their rights are, the network is suddenly overloaded, etc. Taking the following five steps can prevent this situation from arising while empowering your organization with a successful long-term mobility strategy.

1. Assemble stakeholders

All relevant stakeholders should embrace decisions related to your mobility strategy; make sure to involve them in the strategy process. Business users understand the use cases. Security should provide input on protecting data and privacy. Legal and Compliance must address applicable laws and regulations in relevant jurisdictions. Human Resources should ensure use cases properly align with employee roles and duties. And IT must understand which systems and processes will be required to securely implement the strategy and enforce policies. Consider forming a steering committee. The committee can also decide who ultimately is responsible for driving the program forward. This determination varies from company to company.

2. Clarify your use cases

Regarding roles and responsibilities, who will use what kind of devices for what functions? Will the varying groups require phones, tablets, laptops or all three? Should these devices be corporate owned, BYOD or both? Is a constant connection to the Internet required? Does there need to be a persistent image on the device? Should there be restrictions on the personal apps users can access?

3. Document the rights of users and the business

With a corporate-owned strategy, the rights are clear. The company owns the devices, can limit what users do with them and can wipe all data if necessary. BYOD is more complicated. To protect corporate data, does the business have the right to access personal data on the device or confiscate it altogether? If an employee leaves the company, does the business have the right to wipe all data, including personal data? Who pays to replace a lost or damaged device if something occurs at work? Where does the employee go for technical support for the device? Will the employee be reimbursed for plan minutes used for business calls? This is a law now in California.

4. Keep employees informed of progress

For most companies, implementing a mobility strategy means many process changes that take place over an extended time period. Keeping people informed—even through simple emails that update which devices or apps are available or if there’s a policy change—reinforces the importance of the program. This also heads off employee frustration, promotes adoption and encourages following proper security and use guidelines and policies.

5. Measure results

The steering committee should determine how to measure success while closely monitoring progress, regularly reporting on results and adjusting the strategy as necessary.

Taking these steps will ensure your company maintains control over the evolution of its mobility strategy, which will maximize productivity gains and employee satisfaction while reducing legal, regulatory and security risks.