The Problem Domain associated with Workforce Mobility

Problem Domain:

Enterprises that leverage the Third Platform–(the combination of cloud, mobile, social and big data) will have a distinct competitive advantage. Business has changed in modern times and corporations are looking into new ways to conduct business. The easiest way that can explain the problems that corporations are facing is that staff are expecting and demanding access to information similarly to how they access information in their private life. With the release of tablets and smart phones as well as social media consumers have been exposed to a new way of accessing information and preforming functions in a simple “cloud” like way. The challenge that IT from various corporations now face is how they provide these services to their user base in a secure and optimized fashion. Business if forcing IT to change this way so that their workforce can work from anywhere, anytime and be better than the competition they face.  

Here is a brief list of challenges that IT departments that are engaged on a workforce mobility project may encounter:

•         Users of corporate IT systems may have a range of devices that they want to use to access the corporate applications that they need to perform their jobs.
•        Corporate data/IP is now stored on multiple devices, what happens if the device is lost or stolen?
•       Applications that work on laptops/PC’s (traditional) may not run or be supported on mobile devices (new platform).
•        How does IT support and preform break fix solutions to devices that are not connected directly to the corporate network?

These are just a few of the problems that arise from a mobile workforce. The benefits that can be realized from giving users flexibility and innovation seems to be a strong driving force for the adoption however organizations need to understand the risks and costs associated with it.