How Mobility Can Improve Process Efficiency for Your Company

Mobile Man / Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Imagine you’re a sales rep and you’re out on the road a lot. It’s the Eighties and the way you do business is processional between the office, meeting your clients, returning to the office to input the various paperwork and data manually and repeat: you’re back on the road. Now imagine having the first Carphone, before anyone else. You can suddenly call ahead to your appointments; you can do your phone deals while you’re driving to meet a different client; you can change an appointment if some better opportunity presents itself; you can get a colleague in the office to input your reports and data as you make your next appointment. In essence, the Carphone has given you the gift of flexibility and your levels of production skyrockets as a result. More sales for you and your company, better bottom line, and you help your company streak ahead of the competition because you’re the only one with the phone.

Today’s Carphone takes the form of a smartphone or tablet and innovative mobile apps based in the cloud. And If you can make your business more efficient in the way your employees can get their work done, then that is going to have a majorly positive outcome on your IT services ROI and, ultimately, your bottom line. And one of the best ways for you to get more from your teams is giving them the flexibility to work when and where they want through mobile working.

Let’s talk shop

The marriage of collaboration, communication and technology have been key to better business practices ever since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, and it’s as true today as it was back then. If there is a common thread to these innovations, it’s in the evolution of our ability to communicate. From the telephone, to email to the cell phone, to IM from your tablet or mobile. With the tech curve as fast as it is, the difference between a business thriving and failing is its ability to adapt to the changes in the way they do business.

One of the major benefits of business mobility is being able to remain connected no matter where you are. Whether that means out of the office, on-site, working from home, or from the train or airport gate on the way to a meeting, having access to your documents, seeing your colleagues’ edits and comments and being able to contact them instantly from anywhere means you can effectively keep out in front of your work and increase your productivity.

Simple economics

Gartner – the technology research experts – predict that by the end of 2017 the demand for enterprise mobile apps will outweigh the available development capacity by five to one. That’s quite a stat. How we view this information is important. On the one hand you could, perhaps, say that the advances in technology are slowing down— (they’re not); or, as the report goes on to say, that enterprises find it a challenge to rapidly develop, deploy and maintain mobile apps to meet increasing demand, as it is exceedingly difficult and costly to hire developers with good mobile skills.

You could (and should) look at it slightly differently: this demand means that if your business is not already planning a mobile, cloud strategy, you are at risk of being left behind by your competitors, big and small. Also, according to Gartner, employees today across the digital workplace use an average of three different devices in their daily routine which will increase to five or six devices as the Internet of Things makes its way into the mainstream.

What are your priorities?

It’s becoming clearer that mobility in business is an important step for every organization going forward. So, when asked how ‘mobility’ can improve process efficiency for your company, the immediate answer should be: you need to keep up with the pace of change or risk falling irreversibly behind. Sounds kind of scary. But beyond the need to keep up, bringing mobility to your business processes will also:

Enable superior, customized collaboration — your employees and teams can keep in close contact, work together, bring valued opinions and sign off work from anywhere, at any time, in a way that suits them.

Make best use of your data — making use of the information you collect on a daily basis is one of the best ways to make informed business decisions that will have a positive effect on your bottom line. Gain a better understanding of your customers, as well as how your employees work best.

Work securely — set and specify your own policies to your methods of work. Ensure policies are in line with your business practices, philosophy and compliance responsibilities. 

SharePlus has collaboration and productivity at its core

SharePlus is just one of the mobile tools offered by Infragistics to companies that are demanding complete and effective solutions for giving their business processes a mobile dimension and strategy. To try it free for 30 days, sign up for a demo today.

For more information on how SharePlus can help your institution transition in the modern way of working anywhere, anytime, visit the SharePlus site, or contact us today.