Seven Key Enterprise Mobility IT Trends for 2013
It’s that time of year again when industry pundits stick their neck out and predict what IT trends will be hot in the next twelve months. Our footprint is mobile computing in business so our seven key enterprise mobility IT trends for 2013 are a tad more prosaic than 3D printing foldable screens and High Def smart televisions. But this stuff is important as trying to balance the never ending march of technology with achieving a return on investment is where the rubber meets the road for a mobile deployment.
1. Mobility in the Enterprise
To paraphrase Bill Clinton “It’s Mobile, Stupid..” Smart companies in the enterprise have been enjoying the productivity benefits of enterprise mobility for years and many of them are on their second or third refresh. However not many expected the explosion of mobility driven apps that have come from the huge adoption of smart phones and the rise of Android and iOS. In some cases employees are now more mobile savvy than their IT departments.
The message for Finance Operations and IT leaders in any industry vertical is simple, get with it or lose out to competitors who adopt enterprise mobility apps to streamline remote worker processes improve productivity and reduce admin cycle times. We don’t expect all the new adopters to adopt a strategic to this but we can hope…
2. More, Not Less Hardware Choices
The rugged hardware device industry long tail will continue. Motorola and Honeywell have acquired companies to maintain their volume position in the enterprise mobility market. But a never ending supply of no name white label handheld and tablet devices will come out of China and Taiwan offering lower price points and non-conventional ways to market. Expect the products and service offerings to become better.
3. Security and Mobile Device Management
According to a report issued by Dark Reading 47 percent of enterprises are predicting a bigger budget for security in 2013. This has become a key area so expect Mobile Device Management MDM products such as Soti and ways of securing the apps infrastructure to mop up more IT spend.
4. Integration
Will simply become more important than ever. More mobile apps means more integration with existing ERP CRM and decision management systems.
5. Mobile Payments
In the consumer space 2013 may well be the year that consumers in stores start using the mobile wallet and contact less payment seriously.
Products such as Square that enable payments for Android and iOS and the Motorola MPM-100 will allow payment to be transacted at the point of delivery rather than at the end of an invoice paper chase. Expect this to enable more field based customer service activities in many applications such as retail dining home delivery and field service areas such as pest control.
6. Multiple OS Platform Support
Windows .NET is not going away just yet but the advance of Android and iOS into the enterprise space will compel solution providers to support apps on various platforms. Expect the Native Vs Web app debate to become more partisan in tone.
“I see an accelerated entry of Android into the marketplace, especially among companies who are integrating “hard” and “soft” workforces and deploying BYOD solutions” Said Michael Forbes, Vice President of Marketing at axxun
7. The Cloud means BYOD right ?
Well maybe… Enterprises must come to terms with the fact that according to Forrester in excess of 66% of employees bring two devices to work. For Bring Your Own Device to work the need to separate private and business data will become…interesting.
Even if BYOD is not the approach of choice more enterprises are adopting some sort of cloud computing which means the prospect of an app being hosted outside the traditional in house network and paid for on a per use basis vs a perpetual model may well start to become the norm in 2013.
The Wildcards
Our seven key enterprise mobility IT trends for 2013 are factors we can already see at work. Both of our wildcards have generated a lot of press lately but are perhaps just over the horizon in terms of impact this year for enterprise mobility.
4G LTE
For sure more agile feature rich apps to increase data capture of images videos and telemetry would be a great addition in many circumstances. How relevant this is to the typical enterprise mobility deployment will depend in part on the availability of a network and devices to exploit a super fast connection. Expect buyers to want to future-proof devices by specifying 4G LTE this year even if they don’t actually use it.
Ubuntu
Although the OS has been around a while the Ubuntu phone is a as Simon Phipps explains an intriguing addition to the mobility landscape. It supports HTML5 so provides an alternative platform for existing web apps rather than creating another “native” approach.
We can help you wade through the options with your Enterprise Mobility project.
