Enterprise mobile strategy: 9 steps to success

Many enterprises are still implementing mobile in a piecemeal manner and therefore are not able to fully realize the gains and better ROI from their initiatives. A holistic mobile strategy can deliver maximum value to businesses, help them drive profitability and transform them into a proactive digital enterprise.

Developing a long-term business mobile strategy involves playing devil’s advocate, involving others in an argumentative discussion process, testing the quality of reasoning and then deriving insights that will seed your mobile strategy and implementation. Here’s how to go about it –

1) Define your goals:

What are your mobile expectations? How the outcomes correlate with your overall business vision? What form of mobile presence will help you realize your goals? What are your customer expectations and how going mobile can cater to it? Look within and outside your business to identify mobile opportunities. Just don’t look at what they are doing. Find why they are doing it.

2) Prepare a mobility road-map:

 Once you have defined your business goals, the next step is to prepare a roadmap by finding appropriate mobile solutions that will take you to your destination. Do you need a mobile website or a mobile app? Is smartphone best suited to your business or a Tablet? For each mobile solution, build a case summary that lists important benefits, functions and target audience etc. Prioritize the mobile solutions based on your goals and your mobility roadmap is ready!

3) Analyze your exiting process:

Any mobile solution implemented within your organization will impact the existing workflow. It is therefore pertinent to go in for a comprehensive analysis of your current process before mobility execution. This will help you identify mobile implementation opportunities in the process, measure the impact of mobilizing it, gauge the user experience, justify the costs involved and calculate ROI.

4) Draw a technology blueprint:

Get into the specifics to draw a technology blueprint which entails decisions on mobile platforms, OS, devices- BYOD or company owned, app development and security policy etc. After this stage, you will have a clear idea on the mobile architecture to be integrated with your business.

5) Set a budget:

Many enterprises commit the error of clubbing mobile budget with the overall IT budget. This leads to confusion in ownership, authority and budgetary prioritizing. Create a separate budget and draw a clear picture of detailing out your investment strategy for investments- today, for the next 6 months and if possible for the next couple of years? Break-down the overall budget department and process-wise for better clarity.

6) Lay an implementation roadmap:

The implementation roadmap should spell out work process with specific tasks and the time horizon for each specific task. Identify risks and dependencies of the mobile project and base your projects on it.

7) Create a center of excellence:

A COE involving people from diverse domains and expertise will aid you in promoting collaboration across varied groups, institutionalize best practices, monitor and evaluate mobile projects, define policies and procedures to bring consistency into your mobile adoption initiatives etc.

8) Test deployment:

Implement your mobile plan in a single process and activity. Determine success and failure areas, document and analyze the deployment experience. Hone your strategy based on the test deployment experience and then go-ahead for an organizational rollout.

9) Assess and review:

Prepare an evaluation calendar and set metrics for your mobile strategy. Gather inputs and feedback from various sources on the mobile experience. Look for mobile adoption rates and engagement metrics to determine usage. Identify discrepancies and disturbances and take corrective action.

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, says “Mobile is so important; put your best people on mobile. If you don’t have a mobile strategy, you are no longer relevant.” Yes, it’s that important.