Mobility: the indispensable 21st century business enhancement

Have you checked your email on your phone today? It’s a rhetorical question, because of course you have. In the rare case that you didn’t, you likely fielded Whatsapp messages and phone calls related to your business.

Not too long ago, many of those functions could not happen if you weren’t present at a fixed point, such as a desk. But business is about processes and relationships, two coalfaces that rarely stay conveniently in one spot. Today business happens on the move, because that is where business flourishes. The mobile device has been a welcome companion and enabler of this.

Since the arrival of the smartphone a decade or so ago, first with the Blackberry and then the iPhone, the mobility world has exploded. Very few people in your company don’t own a mobile device – and those devices are effectively computers. A decade ago, did everyone in your company even have a computer to call their own? Now they do – and those devices literally are theirs. That is a remarkable seachange that often goes unappreciated due to its universality.

Over the last four years there has been a distinct growth of smartphone users in South Africa, coupled with more device options and more reliable connectivity. As a consequence, many IT companies offer mobility solutions. But do any of them start by asking what you want to gain from mobile’s growing impact?

Mobility is prolific because it comes in many shades and styles. Mobility can hold the core of a business solution or it can be an enhancement to a solution. For example, your printers don’t need mobile devices. But the right solution can let you manage your print environment anywhere from a mobile device.

The same goes for Enterprise Content Management (ECM), which would be poorer today without mobile enhancement. Sitting in a departure lounge halfway across the continent, you can still approve workflows and capture important documents right there on your device. You can issue invoices in real time and access crucial company intelligence as you need it.

Mobile devices can drastically enhance field reporting such as stock takes. A simple tablet can be the beating heart of an interactive shopping kiosk that attracts customers. Imagine the happiness of your salesforce when the company CRM transforms from clunky deskbound admin to a liberating well of information, available right there as the deal is being made. Instead of always having to be present at the office to do work, everything is in the palm of their hand on a mobile device.

What can mobility do for your business? To gauge this, you should rely on only the best advice, such as those from ITEC’s skilled consultants and solution integrators. They exist to understand your company and then recommend the best way to improve what you want done, not what the market wants to sell to you. From the right functions through to the best security, with a partner such as ITEC you can get both the momentum and peace of mind you need.

Mobility doesn’t mean developing an app. It does not require you to reinvent your business. Instead mobility is key to enhancing existing systems with new ideas, which in turn enables your culture to explore the growing potential of modern business technology.

You and everyone you know already own these devices. They have already changed your life. Now let them help grow your business.

END