January 30, 2017
Mobile devices have had an impact on virtually every enterprise in every sector, from the largest multi-national conglomerate to the smallest Mom & Pop sole proprietor.
How and where we work … how we interact with customers, co-workers, partners, supply chain members … how our customers learn about and purchase our products and services … it all can change with the introduction of mobile devices and mobile communications.
With smart devices now in their second decade, several important best practice steps have emerged around optimizing mobile communications for your enterprise.
Step 1: Think “mobile first”
The term “mobile first” came to prominence among web designers and application developers. For these groups, it meant designing applications and web pages with the assumption that the primary mode of user interaction would be on a mobile device.
Today, the concept of mobile first has spread to operational considerations of companies themselves. In a communications context, it means assuming that users will utilize telephony and other unified communications applications on mobile devices as their primary end-points.
This has obvious potential cost savings from retiring deskphones and other fixed line UC end-points.
But it also means that your users must be able to operate standard calling features like conferencing and transfer from their mobile devices. Tango Networks offers solutions that enable full-featured UC to be extended to any mobile phone, including personal devices.
Step 2: Don’t ignore compliance
It might be tempting to focus compliance efforts around logging and archiving communications on the traditional landline phones. It’s an established and straightforward process to centrally monitor, log, record and archive these calls.
But today’s users are most likely to use whatever means is necessary to get the job done, especially in deadline-driven, time-sensitive fields like financial services and sales. Users with mobile devices at hand will most likely use them and beg forgiveness later if the call violates corporate policy.
It doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, we have delivered mobile communications solutions that enable you to centrally record and archive communications on mobile devices using the same recording platforms you use for landlines.
The solutions works even with personal devices, and removes a major compliance barrier to going mobile first and supporting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs.
Step 3: Accept BYOD as inevitable and manage it
Speaking of BYOD, it’s time to recognize that personal devices are an inevitable addition to the corporate IT environment.
There really are only two kinds of enterprises today: Those who permit BYOD, and those who permit BYOD without knowing it.
Even in the strictest, most secure environments, it’s highly likely that an employee will at some point use a personal device for work, or at least introduce a personal device into the enterprise environment for personal communications.
The wisest course is to implement a BYOD program that enables personal devices to access the corporate communications systems exactly as if they were traditional telephony or UC end-points like deskphones.
That leads to another important requirement, which is to manage the dual personas on the personal device – the corporate persona and the personal persona – and then manage the communications accordingly.
Step 4: Consider mobile-specific policies
Enforcing when and where mobile devices can be used is often a matter of safety. But there are also scenarios, such as classrooms, where it makes sense to limit the use of mobile devices to reduce the potential for distraction or disruption.
Tango Networks has introduced policy management features that enable an enterprise to enforce such mobile usage policies, even on personal devices. Solution examples include:
- Responsible driving policy enforcement that restricts mobile usage by truckers and fleet drivers.
- Campus control policy enforcement that limits mobile usage in the classroom.
Step 5: Workflow-driven mobile communications will raise your game
There are obvious potential cost savings and employee reachability gains from optimizing enterprise mobility. But many enterprises are also starting to realize significant improvements in efficiency and productivity thanks to the integration of mobile communications with enterprise workflows.
Say a sales person on the road needs to make a call to a prospective customer.
With no effort on the sales person’s part, the Tango Networks platform can automatically capture the call details and log them with the appropriate contact and task in Salesforce. The system can automatically attach a call recording in the CRM system. The workflow synchronization can work with any mobile device, even BYOD. Now the sales person is relieved of these administrative tasks and can instead spend more time selling.
By synchronizing communications with workflow, the Tango Networks platform is in effect embedding the mobile device’s “Green Button” for call activation into an enterprise process. It’s easy for employees to engage the right communication mode at the right time. Plus their actions can be logged to ensure processes are smooth and effective.
This is one of many examples of how a focus on optimizing mobile communication can yield significant operational and cost saving benefits for today’s enterprise.
Learn more about the Tango Networks Mobile-X here.
Mobile-X from Tango Networks brings next-generation fixed mobile convergence technologies to communications for the distributed workforce. Now workers in or out of the office can have seamless corporate communications, including Mobile Unified Communications, mobile workforce communications, and programs for remote working, work from home, telecommuting and business continuity.
Download the latest Trend Advisor on Mobility for the Modern Enterprise.
