Moving at the Speed of Mobile.
There are many answers to offer, some that you’ve heard ad nauseam (“it’s cheaper”, “we’re the experts”, or “mobility is not what you’re best at doing”) and others you may not have considered (“separating yourself from other companies”, “having a mobility subject matter expert at your beck and call”, and “affords you the ability to implement new technology quickly”).
IT outsourcing goes through phases like fashion. Some will swear by outsourcing, while others remain certain that insourcing is the only way to go, but the prevailing winds shift year by year. For most of IT services, of course, a learned, experienced professional knows that the answer to the outsourcing question tends to be “it depends.” The context of the current moment and the focus of the organization will change over time and will make one or the other more advisable.
Congratulations! You’ve made the impactful decision to incorporate self-service into your company’s support model. I previously touched on the pros and cons of self service in last month’s blog, now it’s time to walk through some top strategies to consider when rolling out your self-service program. I’ve group them into the below 4 categories.
When I first joined the enterprise mobility management industry, it was shocking to find what a significant expense organizations encounter on a monthly basis towards their carrier (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint etc.) spend. What was even more alarming was uncovering that very few organizations had identified budgets tied towards mobility. It had become a cost of doing business that was either absorbed by IT or distributed so precisely throughout every individual cost center within the company that it flew under the radar.
How many of you have old smartphones sitting in a drawer or cabinet at your desk? It would be safe to assume many of you do. The establishment of a robust mobile asset management and recovery solution would almost certainly be worthwhile for most organizations. However, such a solution would also be extremely challenging to implement.
Mobile Thought Leaders gathered for an MTL Online event to review the findings of the 2018 Strategy Research. The report itself has been out for a while and has been the focus of many discussions at MTL Live events and elsewhere. Some of those discussions were represented by a panel including Vox Mobile’s Harjot Sidhu joining from Vancouver, British Columbia, VMware VP Jeff Mitchell, in Atlanta and Jim Haviland joining the discussion from Hollywood.
Much of the risk and hassle of enterprise mobility that Mobile Thought Leaders (MTL) have talked about (complained about) over the past 7 years has involved the challenges of managing and securing the hardware throughout its lifecycle. We talk about security but the projects fail, run over budget, or create embarrassing situations when devices get stuck or fall through the cracks in the life-cycle.
Mobile Thought Leaders discussions on the role of out-sourcing, managed services, and more recently, the as-a-Service models of finding help for their initiatives has often been highly influenced by fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) rather than a rationalized approach to deciding whether things belong in-house or other models need to be considered.
Is there a business initiative that would add significant new value or savings to an organization right now that wouldn’t involve technology? We have asked this question at dozens of MTL events around the world with almost unanimous agreement that everything a business sets out to accomplish will require some new tech or new application of old tech.
While most MTL members are excited rising level of interest and adoption of Digital Transformation (DX) projects, some are very concerned about their jobs. What will they do when their current tasks are automated? What will their job be when their certifications are obsolete? By most predictions, there will be no shortage of things to do in a world going through digital transformation, especially for people with analytical minds.
When mobile devices go down, it is critical that your increasingly mobile fleet has support on standby. At Vox Mobile, we pride ourselves in the fact that 94% of our customers’ mobile end users have their issue resolved on first contact. With the overall Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score being 86% - the majority of our mobility users are “Promoters” of the service that they received.
Perhaps the biggest disruption in modern business throughout the world has been the digital transformation of the workplace. One of the most prevalent examples of this is the rise of mobile and tablet devices in business. Mobile devices are now becoming integrated into almost every aspect of business and personal life.
In July 2018, Gartner published their first ever Magic Quadrant for Unified Endpoint Management Tools. This was a notable development mostly as it marked yet another name and acronym for a set of tools that most IT departments have been using for a decade under different names. The term Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) was established to bring clarity to a significant technological evolution in a set of tools that has gone from being called Mobile Device Management (MDM) to Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) to the freshly minted Unified Endpoint Management (UEM). And while the earlier versions of these tools were largely focused on managing and securing smartphones and tablets, this new rendition brings traditional computing devices (laptops and desktops) into the same management environment.
In the past, one of the biggest obstacles of deploying new, corporate-owned devices was getting them enrolled in Mobile Device Management (MDM) software. There was a balancing act between putting the work effort on IT resources and the end-user, who would most likely have to call into support for assistance. When Apple™ launched the Device Enrollment Program (DEP) in 2014, they made the first step in automating the enrollment process and making these concerns a thing of the past.
Mobile Device Management (MDM) is not a new technology or a new topic for IT leaders to ponder, but it continues to be a pertinent topic. We have noted that some organizations are still working to add MDM to their environments or more commonly, consider switching to a different MDM that better suits their needs. Either way, choosing an MDM in 2019 is a far more complex issue than it was just a few years ago. The tools do so much more. The way organizations are using them has become much more integrated with other parts of IT, Security and Operations. The good news is, you don’t have to go into this endeavor without the insights from vast experiences making these kinds of decisions and making them with confidence.
“Are you planning to fail at mobility?” This may sound like a silly question. Who would plan to fail? Particularly at mobility initiatives because there are few businesses that will succeed going forward without taking full advantage of mobile technology advances. Yet, most organizations have major flaws in their mobile plans.
In a recent conversation with our Vice President of Operations, we were discussing how we could deploy Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) to drive productivity and mobility-led innovation within the organization. At the same time, we needed to accomplish this in a secure manner allowing for end user privacy and organizational security. The conversation became spirited when discussing the balance of end user experience/privacy expectation and the ease of accessing corporate data.
I have bad news for you. Everything you thought you knew about owning a fleet of mobile devices is probably wrong. The history of enterprise mobile device purchasing has put you into a bad place. Like a frog in boiling water, if I were to drop you into your current approach, you’d jump out – but you’ve been cooking for a long time.
Traditionally, the lifecycle of a mobile device asset begins with a mobile device deployment project. These projects typically focus on the management of inventory, configuration, kitting, and distribution of mobile devices from IT into the rest of the business - in a very straightforward manner. Devices are procured from a carrier or distributor, IT will then configure, kit, and distribute those devices to end users in the field. Mobile device deployment projects typically end when the last devices are put into service.
For many years, the hardest part of launching a new mobile technology program or function was the first part; configuring and distributing devices, and then getting users started with the new devices and software. The complexity and risk of mobile projects have put many of them on perpetual pause. Many others have had their hopeful start turn into budget-draining disasters because of forgotten or under-scoped parts of the project have become crises or cycles of rework. We continue to collect these sad stories, as well as many positive ones, and have provided below our most recent set of cautionary notes that we suggest you consider before you get too far with your project.
Vox Mobile, an enterprise mobility service provider, today announced it has joined the Android Enterprise Recommended program as a managed service provider.
TravelTab partnered with Vox Mobile, a VMware Managed Services Provider in the VMware Cloud Provider™ Program, for managed mobility services, including VMware’s Workspace ONE®. Together they migrated 24,000 devices in 30 days, expanding cloud services for TravelTab’s growing operations in 35 cities and new business, including 28 custom apps, boosting revenue and traveler satisfaction.
Mobile technology no longer means just mobile phones, but rather any type of mobile device that supports an organization’s employees, customers, members or patients. As the speed of mobile technology advances are clocking in at the speed of sound, companies are finding it more and more difficult to plan for and control the runaway costs of mobility.
I’m sure for most individuals, the phrase “burner phone” would trigger thoughts of drug dealers, the mafia, or at least an episode of your favorite crime drama. So why would Vox Mobile, a global leader in Managed Mobility Services for corporations and government agencies, raise such a subject? Simply put, there are circumstances in which the “good guys” should use a variant of the burner phone. Specifically, when executives or individuals with sensitive information travel to international locations that would be deemed high risk for corporate espionage. In such a case, it may be prudent to physically change devices before and/or after the travel.
Last month, we dug into the seven most common reasons why end users create help desk tickets. This month the focus shifts to the benefits and potential downsides of self-service.
As mobile technology continues to advance at rapid speeds, more and more businesses are beginning to leverage mobility solutions within their operating models. One of the fastest growing trends Vox Mobile sees in mobility deployments is the rapid evolution of traditional point-of-sale (POS) systems. The traditional POS model, which typically include large, generally immobile POS terminals, is being disrupted by mobile light-weight consumer grade hardware at a breakneck pace.
If there's one constant in the mobility industry, it's that things are constantly changing. It's an on-going challenge for organizations to remain agile and adapt to the needs of their customers and employees. It’s crazy to think that less than a decade ago many organizations were issuing BlackBerrys to give employees access to their email, contacts, and calendar while on the go. Today, iOS dominates the industry and the devices are mission critical for job functions. In fact, it is becoming common place for certain roles to be 100% reliant on their device to do their jobs.
According to an employee choice survey conducted by Jamf, 77% of employees are more likely to stay at an organization that allows them to choose their preferred mobile device, and, when given the choice, 75% of employees are choosing Apple.1 While it shouldn’t be surprising that employees want to choose what device they are working on, organizations should not take these figures lightly, especially with the number one reason for employees wanting to choose being increased productivity on a device that they are familiar with. So, there is a clear business need for allowing employees to choose iPhones and iPads, but with mobile technology advancing at a rapid rate and increasing device costs, how can organizations keep up?
Stats. Metrics. Numbers. Data. I may have lost a few people with those words already, but you’ll find that there are very few numbers the rest of the way, I promise. These are all items that customers request on a daily basis as validation that their service needs are being met. But do statistics and metrics really tell the full story?
I’m frequently asked this question by potential clients – “How hard can help desk be?” And the question is based on a common assumption that mobile help desk is just activating iPhones, setting up email and installing EMM/DMD on a device.
If there’s one thing we can count on in our fast-paced world, it’s change. The velocity of this change has been increasing in our technology-driven world and is showing no signs of slowing down. Change, in and of itself, is generally a positive force. Technology is constantly changing to help make us more informed, healthier, and lead better lives overall. It is evolving through AI and machine learning to become more helpful, more predictive of our needs, and make us more productive people. As a business, we want people to be more productive – productivity creates efficiencies which lead to profitability. These are all good things, but the high velocity of change in technology can create chaos for business – chaos in learning how to utilize and manage it.
Vox, like many other companies, has been talking with clients and partners about as-a-Service offerings for a very long time and, specifically, the Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) for years. We have known for a while that many of the opportunities for clients to take full advantage of opportunities for breakthrough innovation, digital business, and digital transformation required a new way of procuring, owning, and managing the hardware and services. We could see how managing device and software lifecycles, the poor user experience and unknown risks, created friction for the development of these projects and for adoption by workers. We recognized that many projects and programs never got through budgeting cycles because of the unpredictability of costs. While the benefits of mobile innovations are all around us and the potential seemed obvious, many organizations got caught in something we have come to call the M-Gap.
Vox continues to proudly support Mobile Thought Leaders(MTL), a global organization of peers sharing insights and experiences in mobility. MTL members gathered for an MTL Online event to review the findings of the 2018 MTL Strategy Research.
Technology leaders have long struggled with the often-competing pressures to support innovation, maintain operations, and drive down costs. This competition has created a constant search for the right way to utilize outsourcing in its many forms. The Mobile Thought Leaders held an online panel to discuss best practices and insights on what we have learned from years of balancing the competing forces – with varying results.
It is a recurring theme amongst our customers: Lines of Business want things that IT can’t provide, go off and do things without telling IT, make commitments for systems and software that is incompatible with everything else, etc.
In preparation for a recent MTL Online meeting, research was pulled on what is being said about digital transformation in the press. Publishers are usually pretty close to the current Zeitgeist because they have to be. Attention is hard to grab so you need to be focused on the things that are most likely to grab attention.