Every enterprise needs digital transformation solutions at various levels. With growing complexity in the carving and adopting of digital solutions, challenges like supporting a global customer base, operational services, and business communication have reached extremes. To foster enterprise efforts in the digital transformation journey, mobile enablement stands out as one of the prime factors.

Roadblocks to Mobile Enablement

The number one reason companies aren’t implementing their digital transformation is because they don’t have a mobile enablement strategy in place. Also, they aren’t quite sure where to start in the process or even what it takes to develop a mobile app. Fortunately, there are companies out there willing to help.  A few other common issues that prevent companies from developing or implementing a mobile strategy are:

• Lack of resources
• Improper alignment with business goals
• No robust mobile enablement road map 
• Overtaxed IT department
• Difficulty integrating into existing systems
• Finding the right team and mobile enablement partner
• Adoption of a new process
• Cost

Components of Mobile Enablement Strategy

Getting a mobile enablement strategy isn’t a single dimension in nature, rather it is a multi-dimensional approach. Drafting a successful enterprise mobile enablement strategy requires a well-developed roadmap. Here are the components that are must consider in drafting a robust mobile enablement strategy:

• Align with Business Goals
  The mobile enablement strategy goals should be well aligned with business goals. The ROI element, like, Time-To-Market is gaining a competitive edge. The positioning of business services in the market needs a strong study of market analytics and comparison models of the business elements.
• Adoption plan
  The success of the adoption plan will directly impact employee productivity. Necessary learning programs and continuous improvement in the methods and workflows will lead to employee satisfaction.
• Key driving factors
  The 3 key driving factors for mobile enablement are:
  • Meet growing customer expectations
  • Solve business challenges with innovative solutions
  • Business processes to adhere to current trends of the industry standards
• Optimize Business Operations and Processes
  All the business operations need to be optimized for the benefit of the organization. The processes must be streamlined for the smooth functioning of the processes without any risks and limitations.

Mobile Technology Leaders are two times more likely to have experienced both revenue growth and IT budget increases of at least 10% versus their industry peers. In addition, the study finds that Mobile Technology Leaders increase customer satisfaction and interaction, enhance employee productivity and increase sales due to their advanced use of mobile technologies." - IBM Research

Mobile Enablement Approach

With the priority for the mobile digital channels, businesses today execute a mobile-first approach for the overall digital transformation plans. As a priority business requirement, the mobile-first approach considers the user experience element for the mobile solution as the key. This approach should consider parameters of the current procedures and software tools used in the business operations. This will also require an adoption lead time for the paradigm shift for the users. This risk is being covered with necessary workshops for the users – internal users and external.

The mobile-first designs take care of the enhancing user experience while working on the screen designs, content, navigation and device screen form factors. To strengthen the user experience; user experience analytics, usage patterns, and other behavioral aspects are captured. These analytics will be considered as input to improve the mobile user experience.

Mobile Enablement Solutions

Mobile solutions will span to include industry-specific needs. Industries include telecom, automotive, manufacturing, BNF, logistics, aerospace, retail, healthcare, eLearning and media. Mobile solutions can also include operations that are agnostic to the industry like HR, finance, accounting, shared services operations and so on.

Mobile solutions can also be categorized as B2C, B2B, and B2E applications. Solution B2C is for the end consumers and typically for large audiences like eCommerce applications. The B2B mobile enablement solution is between two or more business entities, like business apps for partners and vendors. Whereas the solution B2E is internal to businesses for employees only like ticketing applications within the IT department for support operations.

What Aspects to Consider in Choosing Right Mobile Enablement Partner

Mobile enablement isn’t as easy as it appears. Choosing the right partner is key for the successful implementation of the mobile enablement strategy. So, make sure the mobile partner mobile enablement plan ensures the following checklist:

1. State-of-art mobility labs
2. Define digital transformation with mobile as a digital channel
3. Help customers to understand the digital journey
4. Define product roadmap aligning to the business priorities
5. Possible mobile analytics are captured for future business decisions and improve mobile solutions
6. Diversified solutions with native, hybrid and web mobile solutions
7. Achieving enterprise-grade user experience
8. Adhere to development standards and best practices
9. Elements like automation, DevOps, security, and compliance make our solutions more robust
10. Innovation is the key