5 Tips for Creating Success in an Increasingly Mobile-Centric Universe

The mobile revolution, heralded by introduction of the iconic iPhone in 2007, is nearly a decade old. Yet the expectation of adoption mobility by enterprises has far exceeded the reality of what has actually taken place since.

We are increasingly confronted with a posture toward mobility adoption within enterprises that has created less than desired results. Namely, mobility projects are treated like any other one-off IT project with a specific budget and set of deliverables and sent on their merry way often to fail.

So what is the formula for creating success in mobility?

#1: The first order of business in succeeding in mobility is to make it an all-encompassing strategic initiative.

First and foremost, the approach to mobility must take on a sense of urgency. The laggards in adopting mobility throughout the enterprise space risk losing it all. This sense of urgency is sorely lacking and is often grossly overlooked.

Many times, enterprises have commenced mobility initiatives with the intent of keeping up with the trends and matching competitive efforts in the space. These efforts have often resulted in failure to achieve the intended objectives and created a fair amount of confusion with respect to how best to match business objectives with mobility trends.

Fact is that mobility and its off-shooting technologies will come to dominate the entire techno-economic landscape in the near future. This trend is often labeled as Digital Revolution and regardless of moniker used; mobility is at its front and center. Therefore, a mobility endeavor must be initiated with a vision and ferocity that matches this underlying proposition.

#2: In mobility, experience is the silver bullet.

Mobility is a very complex and finessed technology. Very often, enterprises promote IT staff from within to manage mobility projects and that normally translates into a failed effort. Experience in mobility is just as important as any other IT specialty but this fact is often overlooked with disastrous results. App stores are littered with mobile projects that have received poor reviews by the user community. Factually, 70% of all mobile apps are deleted after first use.

This underscores the need to employ experienced mobile development staff to initiate and consummate mobile projects. You may want to augment your seasoned workforce with less experienced internal staff to transfer and propagate knowledge. But approaching a mobility project with an inexperienced staff is the kiss of death before even a single line of code is written.

#3: Be mindful of the slippery slope lurking in the mobile dev cycles.

A common misstep after a successful rollout is to settle into inertia. Mobility is an around the clock endeavor. Most are unaware of the need for as many as six iterative releases per annum to keep an app current and up to date. That can put a lot of strain on an inadequately staffed team and increases the chances of mishap in a single app release. Vigilance is the name of game in mobility and apps that are yesterday’s heroes may become today’s villains in a release cycle heartbeat.

#4: Stay ahead of the curve in mobile technology.

The technology in mobility space is developing at a break neck speed. The need to keep up with the rapidly evolving trends is simply an imperative. Failure to do so often results in efforts that are behind the times and possibly not reflective of a brand’s existing prominence. There is a pressing need to constantly innovate in the digital age. New technologies create new possibilities and with it new opportunities for capturing market share.

#5: Don’t look at mobility as necessarily a profit center. Look at it as an investment into the future of your enterprise.

Mobility projects are notoriously underestimated and accordingly underfunded. Allocating necessary resources to create success in the mobility space is a fundamental underpinning without which achieving desired objectives can seem like an impossible feat.

Treating mobility teams as startups within the enterprise is the appropriate approach. You are not only building products or solutions but also a foundation of knowledge and experience within the company that should be jealously guarded and kept intact at all costs.

You should not be surprised by forthcoming decisions from your mobility team that essentially translate into pivoting away from your existing mobility technology and platforms that carry sizable underlying costs. Whatever the costs may be, keep in mind that the future of your enterprise is tied at the hip to the Digital Revolution and mobility is most definitely at the center of that revolution.