In 2011, you will see enterprises change their previous way of thinking about enterprise mobility and adopt a much more user centric approach. The focus will be on providing workers with the information that they need at the exact time needed to perform a task, allowing the worker a view into back-office systems and a look at new subsets of data derived from a mashup of data stored in multiple back-office systems. This user centric approach will greatly increase apportion of mobilization projects throughout organizations.

Here are some key predictions for enterprise mobility in 2011:

• Enterprises will adopt a business-to-everyone approach to mobility.

As organizations recognize the information, they will discover that the needs of employees, partners, and customers are rooted in the same data sources.  Business apps will learn from consumer apps, in that the user experience will be intuitive and supportive of the job function.  Consumer apps will learn from business apps as back office systems and data stores are opened to provide more and more information to engage with the customer.

• Mobile mashups will dominate the direction for enterprise mobility solutions as mobility vendors focus on the mobile user’s perspective.  

Legacy mobile solutions “mobilized” a single back-office system, but today the data needed is often broader than one solution contains.  As individual enterprise solutions are less likely to house all the data needed by a mobile employee, mashups will be the key to providing the data from various back-office systems and data stores in order to provide information on-demand to the mobile user.

• Tablet devices, like the iPad and Galaxy Tab, will pick up where the Smartphone left off in freeing individuals from desktop and laptop computers. 

 More people will use these devices for more complex work activities previously too “big” for a Smartphone, like email threads and reviewing documents.  As a result we expect to see the amount of mobile applications designed specifically for these larger screens increase rapidly in number. There will be a dramatic business-to- business demand for these powerful “super apps” on tablet devices, driving demand and thus rapidly increasing development. This means we will also see rugged cases for these devices become more common as initial concerns over durability surface.

• Enterprises will rapidly start to adopt consumer grade devices (Smartphones and Tablets) in place of company issued mobile devices, especially those mobile devices that employees are already bringing to work, for business functions.   

Initial concerns over durability of these devices will be eased when the employee is using their own device and/or with the increase in rugged cases.  We also expect that this trend, as we pointed out during 2010, will reduce the need for mobile device management solutions in many cases.

• Packaged solutions for mobility and previous legacy on-premise solutions, like Mobile Workforce Management Dispatch and Scheduling, will be revolutionized into nimble, SaaS offerings. 

Although this is good news for the Small to medium size business market, as these previously unaffordable solutions are made available to the masses, larger enterprises will also begin adopting subscription solutions due to the rapid deployment and lower support costs associated with these packaged solutions.

Enterprise Mobility will be a dynamic and rapidly evolving industry in 2011; proliferation of consumer grade devices, the need for data mashups presented intuitively to a mobile worker, and the dependence on that information to increase job performance will become necessities for creating a competitive advantage in business. As leaders in enterprise mobility, Smartsoft Mobile Solutions will provide best-in-class mobile applications allowing organizations to roll-out nimble and efficient mobile offerings to their employees and customers.

For More Information Check Out:

Smartsoft Mobile 2011 Enterprise Mobility Predictions – Part 1

Smartsoft Mobile 2011 Enterprise Mobility Predictions – Part 2

Leadership in Enterprise Mobility: Five Tips to Improve your Businesses Efficiency in the New Year

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