Managing the Mobilization of UC

One of the great ironies of mobility is that while everyone recognizes the potential, few organizations take meaningful steps to capitalize on it. It has become abundantly clear that if we keep mobile users connected we can increase productivity, improve responsiveness, foster business agility, and attack one of the root causes of human latency. However, for the vast majority of enterprise organizations the current mobility strategy can be summarized in three words: cell phone, Blackberry, and WLAN.

So where’s the disconnect? While wireless visions abound, most organizations’ plans for mobility seem to stall in the starting gate. That reluctance is grounded in concerns about complexity, cost, security, and ultimately user acceptance. Organizations lack the know-how to translate that mobile vision into reality, and do-nothing (or as little as possible) evolves into a long-term strategy. Part of that stems from a general level of discomfort in dealing with wireless services, but it’s more of a matter of adapting the essential elements of applications development into this new environment. In short, the primary obstacles to mobile UC deployment are now managerial rather than technical.

How to Begin

The key development which should spur enterprise organizations into action on the mobile UC front is the realization that it is happening with or without the involvement of IT. The consumer market is defining the pace of mobility, and users are bringing these capabilities into the enterprise with or without the involvement of IT. While enterprises stumble with fixed mobile convergence, consumers are jumping on T-Mobile’s HotSpot@Home service and Google’s Grand Central. Linking voice and collaborative work tools may be a challenge, but integrating VoIP with X-Box online is commonplace.

Even if these tools are not endorsed by the IT department, we are often powerless (or clueless) when it comes to stopping them. A Grand Central user can include their office telephone number in their profile, and corporate email can be forwarded to Web mail account that can be accessed by iPhones or any other semi-secure wireless device. In the end, these tools are finding their way into the enterprise, and corporate mandates banning their use are a failed strategy from the outset. Those who have witnessed the chaos that results from the unplanned introduction of new IT technologies in an enterprise environment, should have more than enough incentive to get in front of the curve on mobility.

The Mobilization Process

Here’s an outline of a process that organizations can undertake to begin mobilizing applications.

- Define the Vision

Any mobility plan must begin with a vision of how you see mobility augmenting the organization’s effectiveness. That vision should address not only immediate requirements, but how the business will evolve in the coming years. Clearly, this vision cannot come solely from IT, as it must jive with the plans of the business units. The sales group may be planning to mobilize CRM while service requires mobile dispatch and job ticketing. For organizations with remote assets, machine-to-machine asset management systems might have the highest priority.  and security may need remote site monitoring and emergency dispatch. Technology in search of a problem is the wrong approach, you must understand what the business is doing and determine how mobility can advance those objectives.

- Secure Management Commitment

Including the business unit plans and objectives in developing the vision goes hand-in-hand with the other major component, which is securing management commitment. Business people in organizations of all sizes are interested in how mobile technology can support their business plans, but they need to see workable solutions that address real business needs. When we can demonstrate our ability to mobilize line of business applications, business people will intuitively recognize the flexibility and responsiveness that can result.

- Assess Existing Systems and Capabilities

With a clear picture of where we want to go, the next step is to figure out where we are. That gets down to an assessment of the mobility tools and network services we have in place and their ability to work into that vision. It also includes a review of the existing mobile devices, applications platforms, security infrastructure, and development tools. You will also need to assess your internal skill sets to determine their suitability to the task. Most organizations will be light on mobile applications development expertise, so the question will become who should be retasked to take the lead on these initiatives, and what type of training and preparation will they need. For the initial foray into mobility, outsourcing applications development and systems integration may be the best way to begin developing the necessary internal skill sets.

- Preliminary Project Selection

The key step will be to actually do something. Many organizations are great at developing detailed strategic plans, but can never seem to “pull the trigger”. Whatever it is, do something! The best advice is to build on something you already have like mobile email. Extending existing capabilities is always easier than starting with a blank sheet of paper. When building on an existing application like mobile email, the user population will already be familiar with the basic operation of the devices and operating system. You should focus on one or two applications at most, and work closely with the business managers on their deployment. Mobile UC capabilities are an excellent starting point, as they build on communications capabilities the user has in the office.

- Focus on Management System Development

A major part of the pilot will be designing and testing the management systems we will need to support the mobile devices and applications. As a minimum we will need to inventory devices, train users, provide remote support, ensure security, download software and security updates, confirm policy compliance, plan for device repairs, password recovery, and lost devices. In short, we have to look at all of the real world situations users will encounter and have procedures that will support the user community.

- Project Review and Assessment

The key to any successful pilot is an organized process to assess the results and identify the areas where improvement will be needed. The users will be the primary arbiters of our success. Mobile applications are inherently different from their desktop counterparts as session duration is typically measured in minutes rather than hours. The project managers should be in touch with the support and help desk personnel to monitor the types of questions and problems that are reported. During the pilot they should also sit down with the users to see how they are using the application, the type of problems they encounter, and gather suggestions for improvements and enhancements.

The effectiveness of the management systems should also be measured along with the volume of queries per device to determine the size and composition of the support force that will be needed for a full-scale rollout. 

It is critically important that the tone of that review be to learn what we need to go forward, rather than assigning blame for things that didn’t work as planned. The idea is to develop the expertise needed to incorporate mobility in more applications, and to do so in the most effective manner possible.

Conclusion: Set the bar higher and repeat

The next key step will be to make the necessary adjustments to your systems, and then do it again in a more challenging environment. Organizations that hope to go from nothing to the ultimate mobile solution in a single leap are doomed from the outset. Mobilizing applications is a process, not an event. The key element however will be to get our systems in place to do mobility in a business-like fashion, and begin exercising them in more important and challenging applications. Without a doubt, mobile applications are coming, and organizations must begin developing their internal capabilities to plan, design, implement and support them.