For any company, agency, or organization that is looking for ways to better the end user experience, a good first step is to listen to the collective individual, whether it is your user base, your own employees, or your constituents, because they comprise the greater combined voice that will truly determine if you are successful.

When I speak with organizations about “what does mobile success look like” I discuss how a great strategy can deliver mobile enablement.  And the result of mobile enablement is greater efficiencies, improved effectiveness, and error reduction for their work force.  None of this can be accomplished without champions of your organization that can step back from their daily routines and look through a consultant lens.

As a source of inspiration I suggest two books, The Mobile Wave by Michael Saylor and Citizenviille by Gavin Newsom.   The common element of both books is technology, but at a deeper level, these books are about the power of the end user:  the employee, the customer, the citizen. To take it one level deeper, how does a certain technology enhance or better the end user experience?

Related:

Explore our resources on New Work Models to see how technology can transform your workplace

Discover how to build user-friendly apps with these posts from Networking Exchange blogger Doug Sillars

What do you think? Are you tapping into the everyday genius of your employees and end users? In your opinion, what is the next technology that will transform the world as we know it?

Mobile apps make it easier

What I find when I travel is that the little things add up. It’s not just about saving steps, but securing peace of mind.  Next time you are running to the gate think to yourself, did I do everything to minimize my time to the terminal?

A few airport enhancements and mobile technologies can help travelers save time.  Utilizing a mobile-optimized airline application can allow you to search for earlier flights (saved me an hour and a half by identifying an earlier flight in route to the airport from the cab), eliminate the need to print out your boarding pass from the airport (saving another five minutes), locate your terminal using a GPS enabled on device map, use the TSA PreCheck to save ten minutes checking in. If you’re riding in a mobile friendly taxi, they can swipe my credit card and email my receipt within seconds  (5 more minutes saved).

What does that equate to?  I have to lug my precisely packed bags through the airport for 20 less minutes less, and I can be home an hour and a half earlier thanks to the application that I have on my smartphone.

Building brand loyalty on-the-go

It’s a given for me that the infusion of mobile technology in this example is a time and anxiety saver, but it offers a terrific benefit to the airline too: it builds brand loyalty.  When I consider my airline, I do think of the small things: legroom, on time arrival, charges for bags, etc.  What has moved quickly to the top of my list, as the ultimate differentiator is “do they have a good mobile application?”  If you travel enough you know what I mean, you can request near real updates, can check your frequent flyer balance, and with the tap of a few quick screens, you can generate a mobile boarding pass providing you one less item to carry.

And so when I see an airline that has a very friendly mobile application, they have gained brand loyalty in the palm of my hand. This principle can be applied across industries, using technology to remove small steps from the process, adding up to one big happy customer.

So I ask you to look at your industry and something you do on a daily basis and ask “how does (or could) mobile technology save you and your customers effort, resources, stress?”  You might be amazed at the many ways mobile technology is infiltrating the masses and impacting it in a great way.

What are your favorite travel-friendly mobile applications? What situations could be improved by a mobile app?

I’ll make a blanket statement and say that we all take technology, in one form or another, for granted. It is not until we are without it that we realize what an important role it plays in our daily lives.

As recently as just a couple years ago, a computer crash would have completely prohibited a productive work day, but with BYOD and the cloud, my computer problems didn’t mean the equivalent of  taking a sick day.

Over a twenty-four hour period, without my main computer, there is really very little that I wasn’t able to accomplish from a work perspective.  Other than having my frequently accessed documents locally saved on my desktop and the ability to edit a full range of documents everything was at my fingertips on my smartphone or tablet, thanks to the cloud and mobility.

A mobile-friendly IT policy

What does all this mean?  Think mobile for all aspects of your organization.  How would your organization respond if their computer crashed for the day?  Or a week?  Could you still be effective?  Could you still serve your clients or perform your core competencies.  If the answer is no, you should start to reevaluate the role mobile plays in your daily activities..

In my opinion, a few necessary components should be implemented for a mobile progressive organization.  Now remember, these are all things mobile:

Strategy – Determine why you are introducing or supporting the mobile initiative.  i.e. how is it going to better the organization?

Center of excellence – Who in your organization should influence your policy?  And what does it look like?

Device, application, and content management solution – Do not think just about the device, consider the application and content also.  And while I mention apps and content, don’t overlook enterprise application stores.  They are becoming relevant and necessary very quickly.

Application development – Consider creating applications that are just as intuitive away from the office as if your workforce was behind their computer.  What you’ll find is these apps can offer a better user experience than your traditional back office application.

Professional services – They can be internal or external resources but mobility requires a dedicated resources and mindshare to handle new requests, existing deployments, and next generation projects

So, my questions to you are:  What do you most miss the most when you don’t have your computer?  And is it something that if you proactively plan for could be accomplished via a mobile device?

I’ll write business plans only to have my idea usurped and executed rather well.  One of my so called “business plans” was a mixture of sports and technology; one is my passion, and the other my career.

How cool would it be to attend a live sporting event and enhance it with your smartphone?  You know, stuff that is almost common practice nowadays, like using your device as your ticket?  Or something more advanced, like real-time video replays and live statistics. Or even better – why not order food using your device from your seat? This was my idea years ago, and surprise, it’s available now and expanding quickly across sporting venues globally.

Using technology to simplify and or enhance your daily activities is a trend that is not going away; it’s just picking up speed. Whether it’s booking a hotel room at Marriott or finding new recipes from Hy-Vee, the mobile channel allows organizations to differentiate themselves, and we as individuals benefit.

Now here’s the challenge.  I put this one on myself.  The next time I have an idea, I’ll try to make it a reality.

For those of you who have a great idea for your company and are interested in taking action, do it. And if it involves developing a mobile application for your organization, AT&T has expertise to help you with your initiative.

Have you ever had a great idea that someone else developed? We’d love to hear about it…and next time you have a big idea, let AT&T help you make it a reality!

• Mobile security
• Application and content distribution, management and wrapping
• Securing data at rest and in transit
• Workspace management

Are you still with me?  Netting this out, organizations expect MDM’s inherent core features such as device lock and wipe as a bare minimum, but they also need to keep their eye on what’s next, because in actuality, it’s already here.

Mobile Enterprise Management solutions are beginning to differentiate themselves in their maturation of addressing customer needs.  By providing more functionality, at the application, content, and data level, organizations can also benefit from enhanced security features, more granular visibility to content, and offer better support to their end users and customers.  Don’t just take my word on the progression — in the mobile management space, analysts are saying the same thing.

So the key takeaway is:  don’t settle with status quo.  There’s more than just looking at the device, think about the information that enters, resides on, and exits the device.

Though the handset is what your employees hold in their hands, it’s the application and content that can provide tangible results to your business.

Learn how mobile enterprise management offers a variety of options to help protect your organization while transforming your business with mobility.

What MDM challenges does your organization face? What solutions will you provide to break free of the status quo?

The common belief around BYOD is it can be a management headache and data loss risk.  This can be true if your BYOD inventory is not properly managed.  There are many documented best practices to help manage and secure your mobile environment.

In reality, BYOD may be viewed through a different lens for each organization.  Many organizations have an opportunity to capitalize on their BYOD policy and use it as an efficiency creator and morale booster, not just a way to help secure personal devices trying to access the corporate network. This video shares tips on building your BYOD strategy.

Employees in today’s workforce are transcending the traditional 9 to 5 work days and developing routines that mix professional tasks with their personal lives. Organizations that can tap into this trend reap the benefits of employees who are connected up to 24 hours a day.  From first-hand experience, having a work application within arm’s reach on a mobile device translates into getting things done during off-peak hours and weekends, and amazingly, it doesn’t feel like work.

Mobility-savvy organizations realize this trend and take advantage of it by turning normal “in-office” tasks into transformational mobile applications.  These applications allow your employees to work at their preferred time and in the most convenient manner.  What can that translate into? A more efficient workforce that can lead to better customer service, improved operations metrics, and a bolstered bottom line.  And to think, it empowers your employees, by allowing them to do what they want, when they want, and in a highly secure manner.

I’m all for making things easy, and here’s the top four strategies you need to help build/refine your BYOD policy:

1. Do you have a clear end goal?
2. Do you have a strategy to reach that goal?
3. Do you have a management and security solution in place?
4. Do you have the right team that can assist?

Do you have these strategies in place? To learn more about using BYOD to boost productivity in your organization, go to www.att.com/mobilemanagement for ways to help catapult your organization to the next level.

Jim earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, with a concentration in entrepreneurship, finance and marketing, and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Frostburg State University, where he graduated cum laude.

Before his role in marketing at AT&T, Jim served as mobility strategic account manager for Baxter International Inc., Kraft Foods, McDonalds and Motorola, among others. In this role, Jim helped clients exceed their organizational goals while creating a seamless customer experience.

Jim started his career as a sales associate for AT&T Wireless, where he used AT&T products to help customers solve their challenges.  Soon he was promoted to sales account lead, then progressed into sales management before becoming large account sales executive.  A Cingular Summit Award Winner in both 2004 and 2005, Jim was also selected for the V.P. Round Table Discussion Board and acted as a mentor to new account managers.

He lives in Chicago with his wife, and in his free time enjoys travel, photography and a variety of fitness endeavors – walking his basset hound, lifting weights, practicing yoga and training for and running marathons. His current goal is to run the five World Marathons – Chicago, New York, Boston, London and Berlin – within one calendar year. He also enjoys reading biographies about successful individuals.  Some of his favorites include Warren Buffet, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs.