Here are four tips to help you avoid wasting money on mobile apps!

You don’t have to build every mobile app yourself

Many companies are finding that instead of building everything themselves, they can buy a whole suite of business applications (either through a one-time fee or a subscription) and add them to their application portfolio. In some cases, free applications, or applications included in enterprise license agreements for other tools (such as Office), can allow you to build an application portfolio without spending too much money. Some applications can even connect to other enterprise services to create a consistent experience from desktop to mobile.

First of all, you should pay attention to the market before you start writing code. You may find the application you need (or an application close enough) on the market, or you may not. But by checking the market, you can get a lot of information that can help you in the design process.

The following areas deserve special attention:

Take a close look at your existing enterprise software licenses. In many cases, you may be overlooking some of the bundled applications provided by the vendor if support for mobile devices is not a primary requirement at the time.

Check out the apps available in Apple's App Store or the Google Play Store; both have a large selection of business and productivity tools.

Reach out to other businesses in your industry to find out what products they are using and what benefits each product may have.

Finally, ask your users. They have likely already found apps that help them be more productive or efficient. Asking users what apps work best for them and engaging with them closely can also help you navigate shadow IT.

Sometimes remote work isn’t about moving

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that workers can be just as productive at home as they are in the office, simply moving what’s in their cubicle to their dining room table. While this is a big project for everyone involved, for many it’s just a change of venue, not a true move.

Mobile has actually taken a hit over the past year. While we are not in the office, we are not out and about. Most business travel has been cancelled, and we are not more mobile, but more stationary. But this does not mean that tools such as smartphones and tablets are not being used. Many of us are using them more frequently and they have become our main work devices.

This doesn’t mean that companies’ previous experience managing mobile devices isn’t useful. Because many businesses already had the tools and mobile strategies in place, the transition to remote work was made much easier. And the importance of open and ongoing communication between colleagues and between IT and the rest of the company was also highlighted.

We've only scratched the surface of enterprise mobility

Looking back at this space ten years ago, you’ll be amazed at how much mobile has revolutionized how we work and live. And the pace of innovation and change has not slowed down at all. If the theme of the past decade was getting mobile into the workplace, I think the theme of the next decade will be when we can fully utilize these technologies.

Voice interfaces and ambient computing concepts will certainly be areas to watch. Many people have already experienced the charm of digital assistants. The beauty of voice computing is that it decouples tasks from devices. You can ask Siri to set reminders or calendar items or send event invitations just by speaking out loud, and it doesn't really matter which device (phone, Mac, watch or HomePod) receives the request or where the user is (home, office, car or public transportation).

Driving all of this is the continued evolution of cloud technology. The past decade has seen massive adoption of cloud products, which started out as simple storage solutions but are now much more than that. As more technology moves to the cloud, the opportunities to drive cloud computing will continue to exist. And as artificial intelligence and machine learning deepen our understanding of business data, there’s more we can learn and do with it.

Augmented reality is another growth area that hasn’t really caught on yet. Google Glass and Pokemon Go gave us a glimpse of how the physical and digital worlds can coexist. But Apple and Google are still figuring out how to most effectively deliver value, whether that requires special glasses or just a smartphone.

The mobile space will see all of these technologies evolve into a common ambient computing experience that will be with us every day, and we will learn more in the process.

Author: Ryan Faas is a staff writer for Computerworld and a technology journalist and author who has been writing about Apple, business and enterprise IT topics, and the mobile industry for more than a decade.

Original URL:

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3627288/from-mdm-to-uem-in-a-decade-what-we-ve-learned-about-enterprise-mobile-management.html