Understanding business teams
Relying on spreadsheets can no longer support today’s mobile employees. Business teams now both want and need to work in a more agile way and this will accelerate even further as the digitally-savvy ‘millennials’ enter the workforce.
Therefore, business leaders need to understand how their teams are working today, and also how they will be working in the future.
Do they have structure? How do you create a sense of shared culture? Do they work on laptops, or are they working from a tablet or smart phone, or both? By understanding how a team works and what tools are needed to help support the teams businesses can implement the correct mobility strategy. Choosing a software platform that enables businesses to develop their solutions once and then deploy them to multiple devices and operating systems helps them to support their business requirements.
Understanding customisation
Many businesses are moving away from off-the-shelf software and applications, choosing instead to create their own custom apps. Customisation is allowing businesses to create software specifically tailored to their own needs.
Off-the-shelf software often seems the most cost effective approach at the outset, because the initial purchase is usually at a lower financial outlay. However, if it doesn’t suit the business’s exact needs, which is near to impossible, then a far higher price will be paid in the long run, through ineffective workflows or post project customisation that is outside of the initial budget. Therefore investing in software and apps that can be customised from the start will deliver a far greater return and equip the business for future growth, adapting with business objectives as they change.
This advantage is multiplied when the customisable application is a low code platform. Low code platforms make it easy for citizen developers to create highly useful and powerful custom apps without a deep knowledge of coding. By using a low code platform, businesses can achieve a high speed of development, low cost and increased ability to meet unique needs that will benefit and empower teams to be more proactive.
Understanding BYOD
BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device, which allows employees to use their own device for work purposes, continues to have a place to play in many businesses.
BYOD initiatives are often preferred by employees as they are able to use a device they are comfortable with. Meanwhile businesses can benefit by reducing the costs involved in rolling out corporate devices to all employees.
However, many businesses have fallen short of realising the true benefits of BYOD by starting and stopping at the device implementation phase. Businesses need to have a true understanding of the full picture of BYOD and what is required of their mobility software on these devices to deliver efficiency to employees.
Does the mobile app work on different devices? Does it support mobile browsers? What security is in place in case the device is lost or stolen? Can employees access the data offline?