Everyone at work has their cellphone on their desk. This isn’t just to keep in touch with family during the workday; cellphones are vital pieces of business technology. Making sure employees’ cell phone use contributes to business success requires overcoming these challenges.

1. Developing a mobile strategy. It’s not enough to allow employees to use mobile devices at work, and it isn’t enough to announce a “bring your own device” policy. Using mobility effectively requires developing a strategy based on understanding what devices employees will use, what data and applications they need to access, and where the mobile access will take place. With this understanding, you can budget wisely, implement effective controls and security measures, and incorporate mobile computing into any digital transformation project.

2. Keeping mobile computing safe. There are numerous security risks associated with mobile computing, ranging from the physical loss of devices and the data stored on them to malware that steals passwords. Risks are compounded because the devices and the networks they use for connecting to corporate resources are not under the IT team’s control.

3. Ensuring a good user experience. In some workplaces, being able to work outside the office is simply a perk. For those employees, a poor online experience may simply result in motivating the employee to head into the office. For employees who have to work in the field, however, a poor mobile experience is a significant hindrance to being productive on the job. The business needs to ensure that the applications those employees use have a mobile-friendly interface and enjoy adequate performance over a WiFi connection.

4. Adapting to new technology. The mobile marketplace is extremely dynamic. New devices constantly come onto the market, and there are frequent updates to mobile operating systems. Corporate mobility policies need to make sure employees using these devices and versions are able to safely access the data and resources they need. This is partly a matter of security and partly a matter of compatibility of the new products with existing systems.

5. Controlling costs. Some companies rely strictly on employees using their personal devices. In other cases, a business may provide employees with devices or share the cost of their service plan. Those costs, combined with the costs of enabling secure access to systems, need to be budgeted, managed, and kept under control.

To tackle these challenges, start by understanding what your business hopes to achieve through the use of mobile technology. Then leverage tools like enterprise mobility management software (EMM) to place limitations on the devices that connect to corporate systems from the outside. This reduces the security risks of mobile computing. Finally, leverage mobile support services from providers like Prescient Solutions. We provide provisioning and support to give mobile device users a good experience, as well as assess your mobile security solution to ensure you’ve got comprehensive protection. Contact us to learn more about overcoming your safe mobile computing challenges.