The Enterprise mobile management in modern day businesses
Managing different mobile devices and wireless networks has gained importance in recent times. For this people, processes and technology are employed to handle different aspects of mobile computing.
With the increased influence of mobile devices and wireless networks in our day-to-day life there has been a trend to manage the different existing mobile devices, wireless networks and various related services to enable wide use of mobile computing in businesses. The management is referred to as the enterprise mobility management or EMM and it comprises of a set of people, processes, and technology handling different aspects of mobile computing. This discipline is very new and has gained significance in the past few years with more and more workers are purchasing smart phones and tablet computers. Moreover, these workers seek support for these devices in the workplace leading to the use of more and more number of devices in the workplace.
The enterprise mobility management faces certain challenges in determining the right mobility strategy for any organization. The EMM is aimed at relating the available mobile IT to the actual purpose of work that is conducted. It is also aimed at determining the proximal relations between business process and mobile IT. With the help of this management, it is possible to decide how the mobile workers will be supported when they are using these devices in the workplace.
EMM has a number of dimensions that includes security, application management, and financial management. The security is an important aspect and care is taken to keep corporate data secured. In the case of a mobile theft, the data on the mobile devices becomes highly vulnerable. And when corporate data is accessed by a mobile device then organizations lose control over who can actually access the data. However, with the aid of EMM it is possible to prevent unauthorized access in the event of such theft. Data theft can thus be prevented by password protection, encryption, and other technologies that allow administrators to delete data from misplaced devices. Thus, this management system is responsible for managing as well as enforcing security policies.
There is yet another concept, which is known as the field force automation and is that technology used in capturing field sales as well as service information in real time. In order to do so more often-handheld devices are used and these handheld devices include PDAs, wireless devices, tablet PCs, mobile phones. The captured data is transferred to back-end systems through wireless connectivity that includes Wi-Fi, 3G, satellite, or GPRS. This capture of data has several advantages. Firstly, this reduces time delays. Secondly, it avoids manual double entry level data errors. Thirdly, it enhances field force productivity. The use of this technology allows one to plan schedules as well as reduce inventory. It also monitors and controls the field workers.
However, field force automation has one big challenge and it is in developing a simple user interface for the different hand held devices with connectivity at the location of data capture. This challenge can however be overcome by having a system that can retain the captured data in the cache of the device, which can later be synchronized with back end systems.
The FFA is updated on a regular basis and this is done as a part of the service life cycle management also known as service resource planning. It is important for businesses as it is the basic for sales, marketing, and customer support. The current popularity of this technology is because of the aging workforce in many parts of the world and the challenges that are faced in passing technical and customer expertise to new employees. This technology helps reduce headcount as it passes the knowledge to new recruits. Thus, it is an efficient technology is very much in use in the mobile automation industry.
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