Do you have the manpower you need to manage mobile?

In this era of workplace modernization, we’re seeing employees find all sorts of creative new ways to use their mobile devices to make them more productive. Whether it’s answering their emails, organizing their schedules, or even conducting meetings with remote employees, people are going mobile with just about everything. This brings a lot of promise for workers – but it also can cause headaches for IT. What are managers supposed to do about ensuring security? Access control? Productivity? Business continuity? There are a lot of loose ends to tie up if you want to deliver a seamless mobile experience.

If you ask some corporate leaders, the answer is to create a whole new position dedicated solely to managing employee mobile device use. The term “chief mobility officer” has become something of a buzzword in the IT world – countless organizations are creating new C-level positions that focus on all mobile, all the time. The thinking is that having such personnel on board helps you tackle new mobile challenges like overhauling security infrastructures and rolling out new BYOD policies.

Just because CMOs are popular, though, it doesn’t mean they’re necessarily a good idea. According to Computerworld, there’s recently been a pushback against the idea that companies should hire their own mobile executives. The news outlet reported that among larger organizations, with $250 million or more in revenue, about 32% have a CMO – and for large organizations, that makes some sense. But for smaller businesses, adding another executive to the mix is often more trouble than it’s worth. It’s another layer of bureaucracy for employees to hack through when they try to get things done.

“The problem is, you willingly create an organizational silo because you give that executive budget authority and scope,” said Brian Hopkins, a principal analyst with Forrester. “If you have too many budget authority and scope leaders running around, it makes creating those smooth end-to-end experiences more difficult.”

So what’s the solution to mobile management? Often, it’s not about hiring new people – it’s a matter of looking at your existing staff and finding ways they can work together to make mobile work for everyone.

“We’re saying the firms who don’t do that will struggle to make their growth numbers because technology is so necessary to create growth,” Hopkins said. “In a lot of cases the problem, we think, isn’t that you need another C-suiter. The problem is the C-suiters you have aren’t working together because you don’t have the right governance or the right culture.”

If you need a little help with implementing the right structure for mobile governance in your organization, that’s where our team at Zones can lend a helping hand. We have a mobile device management (MDM) offering that’s designed to make the whole process simple and easy. Whether your employees are using smartphones, tablets, or any other devices for completing their daily work routines, we can help you draw up a secure and standardized workplace environment that will make everyone happy.

Want to learn more about our MDM solution? You’re in luck. We’ve got a white paper on the topic just for you. Check it out!

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