7 Steps To Building A Winning Mobile Center Of Excellence (MCOE)

As enterprises embrace mobile engulfing their entire ecosystem, it is creating a complex, non-standardized environment consisting of varied devices, several enabling technologies and numerous security issues. The result: poor control, under achievement and less than expected ROI. A mobile center of excellence (mCoE) can be a stable solution to bring order, establish policies and governance and help enterprises in leveraging mobile as a strategy.

1. Set strategy and goals

The first step in creating a mCoE is to set strategy and goals of your CoE. You can begin with answering following questions-

• What will be the core function of your excellence centre? Will it play the role of a coordinator between various mobile projects or will it play the lead in driving your mobile strategy and programs?
• What will be its span of control? Will your mCoE support the entire enterprise mobility architecture- internal and external apps, mobile platforms and other enabling technologies?
• How will your CoE interact with your existing IT infrastructure- legacy system and software, IT workflows and processes etc?

2. Pick your team

The MCoE will sit between the technical and business part of your organization. The size of the team varies between a couple of executives at the kick start stage to as big as 100 executives under the leadership of a senior executive depending upon the size and requirements of a business. You would need people who are technical experts as well as people who understand the business and customer well. Bring together people with different skill sets and subject matter expertise to foster broader synergy.

3. Get Top management buy-in

A MCoE cannot be successful without the management endorsement and participation. In fact, it is better if it is led by someone from top management with lot of executionary and budgetary powers. Put MCoE as part of your organizational structure to help it gain visibility and authority across departments. Empower it with decision-making and execution responsibilities.

4. Spread the word

More so for a bigger organization with numerous business units spread across geographies. The mCoE, in future, would need to collaborate with other business units to guide and fulfill their mobile programs. So, spread the word on the establishment of a mCoE, create awareness among your workforce on its mission, scope and nature.

5. Make it easy to approach

Centre of excellences fail when they are perceived to become an impediment rather than facilitating projects. While a certain degree of regulation is necessary to bring governance and policy into your mobile programs but keep rules and regulations to bare minimum. Business units will avoid your center if they find it to be erecting barriers rather than guiding them into taking decisions.

6. Look for low hanging fruits

A few small but early success stories will not only put you mCoE in motion but will also help you convince other business units on the need to maintain collaboration and consistency. You can start as small as building an app or bringing standardization and consistency to existing apps.

7. Define success and measure it

It is important to measure the success of your center of excellence by defining performance metrics and measurement methodologies. Also vital is to set a calendar for evaluating various projects implemented by the center, document the hits and fails and use it as a guide for future.

A mCoE comes across as a best approach to adopt mobilefirst attitude and ride on the next wave of mobility. Moreover, today with enterprise mobility not just limited to smartphones and Tablets, and encompassing M2M, sensors, wearables, NFC and Internet of Things, a mCoE can help you minimize fragmentation, provide better control over your infrastructure and help you derive more from your mobile investments. A mCoE can not only bring order in your present complex mobile environment but can also help you be better prepared for future.