Many of the companies that allowed BYOD in 2012 offered email, contact and calendar applications access. In 2013, most firms plan to offer access to other business applications and processes. Selecting the appropriate processes and applications to mobile-enable is a critical element of any enterprise mobility strategy. To mobile-enable the business, CIOs need a strategic plan that:

•          Supports both corporate and personal-owned devices. An enterprise mobility strategy should support multiple devices per person as employees bring in smartphones and tablets. With the rapid consumer adoption of mobile devices, consumers are bringing personal devices into the workplace. In 2012, many CIOs responded to this demand by creating the policies and deploying the tools to enable a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program. Over 67% of firms surveyed in the Lopez Research “Q/4 2012 Enterprise Mobility Benchmark” stated they plan to or already allow employees to use personal devices to access corporate data. Businesses are also considering purchasing tablets for corporate use to support a growing need for data at your fingertips.

•          Rebuilds business processes to work in a mobile world. New mobile operating systems and devices will force companies to change how applications and business processes are designed. Employees expect real-time, on-demand access to business applications on mobile devices with user experiences that are on par with consumer apps. CIOs must find a way to mobile-enable business applications and processes, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), in a way that is usable on mobile devices. Future mobile applications must also be device-aware, location-aware and network aware.

•          Creates portable business services. Mobility and cloud computing will change how applications and processes are constructed. Instead of business services being locked to the device or to the business location, employees will be able to securely authenticate to corporate services on multiple device (e.g. a desk phone in a client’s office or a screen at the hotel) and from multiple locations (e.g. hotel, home, client’s office). While devices will be intelligent, the availability of virtualization and cloud computing means software can be decoupled from hardware and from a physical location will be possible. Identity solutions — the ability to validate employee identity and thwart unauthorized access — will become critical. Identity solutions should provide single sign-on, federated identity management, mobile identity, API security and social identity integration.

The mobile track at E2 Conference is designed to discuss the management, security and business processes changes that an organization must navigate on their journey to become a mobile-enabled business. Becoming a mobile-empowered business is about more than supporting BYOD and buying app development tools. It is about reimaging work. E2 Conference started with this theme by looking at how social technologies changed work and E2 Boston will continue on this theme and pick up mobile, along with several other key factors disrupting the enterprise.  I hope to see you there.

A post by E2 Conference co-chair and InformationWeek Editorial Director, Fritz Nelson

Depending on the day, I’m either delighted or frightened for the modern CIO. The technology-driven pace of change has always been blindingly fast, but there has never been a more disruptive time in the corporate enterprise, at least if you’re a CIO.

On the one hand, the corporate end-user, your enormous and never-bashful internal customer has developed an expectation driven by positive experiences with consumer technology, and suddenly they’ve become experts at your job. Not only do they want to bring that technology to the workplace, they also want Oracle Financials to work like Intuit, Jive to be just like Facebook, their company-issued Dell laptop to work like an iPhone, and expense reports to operate like Pinterest. And while these demands drive you crazy, you know they’re probably right. Continue Reading »

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