The Right Side of History: Run, Don’t Walk, to Embrace a Mobile Enterprise
I wrote a piece, which ran this morning on Fortune, about why all business leaders need to start thinking -- today -- about how mobile will drastically change their businesses. Change happens fast, and in just a few years the enterprise will look vastly different from how it looks today. I'll also discuss this topic during next week's Fortune Brainstorm conference as part of the "Defending the Device" panel.
We hear so much about the 'mobile enterprise' that it's difficult to really know what it all means, or why it matters. A future where employees work from the device of their choosing intimidates many business leaders, causing them to fret about complexity and the security and compliance implications of an increasingly mobile world.
It was all so much easier before.
But lamenting the challenges of mobile is shortsighted and ignores both its inevitability and its massive potential to bring real value to companies. If you're a leader of a company, you should start paying attention to the following trends to get your company's mobile pieces in place for the future.
There's An App for That...Now
It wasn't long ago that mobile devices were completely novel. I remember my first mobile phone: It looked like a brick, and beyond allowing me to make phone calls at $1.99 per minute, had about the same level of usefulness. We've certainly come a long way. Now, you can cash checks by just snapping a picture, book a town car with the press of a button and pay for your morning coffee by swiping your phone. Oh, you can make phone calls, text and check your email, too.
Think about it: Just 10 years ago, we had fax machines, PBX boxes (remember those?) and those clunky cell phones. Today, buoyed by the cloud, we're drowning in email, tablets and smartphones at every turn. Change happens fast, and in ten years, the technology we use at work and at home will look very different from how it looks today.
Head over to Fortune to read the rest of the article.