Mobile Enterprise Name Institution Date Running Head: MOBILE ENTERPRISE

Running Head: MOBILE ENTERPRISE 1

Mobile Enterprise

Name

Institution

Date

MOBILE ENTERPRISE 2

Mobile Enterprise

Abstract

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Many companies are nowadays turning to more technologically

advanced operation systems in a bid to try and improve their

efficiency and to gain advantage over their competitors within

any given market. Mobilization is one such technique adopted by

businesses and it refers to the incorporation of the use of

mobile device technology such as cellular phones, tablets or PDAs

in the day to day running and operation of its core operation

functions. Mobilization has many benefits. For instance, it opens

foreign markets to prospective investors and facilitates the flow

of information and ideas within and outside of organizations. In

so doing, it promotes innovation and at the same time creates a

freer working environment that in turn promotes employee

satisfaction and subsequently, service delivery. For all its

benefits, mobile enterprises face the danger of losing

information due to the adoption of this operation strategy. This

paper seeks to comprehensively discuss mobile enterprises and

determine whether they provide a safe operating platform for

businesses that have adopted them.

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Introduction

Mobile enterprise refers to those corporations that have

adopted the use of wireless mobile devices in running their core

operation functions. Mobile enterprises are fast coming up in the

modern business market. This has been attributed to the vast

availability of technologically advanced mobile devices in

addition to the ever increasing demand of accessibility to

corporate resources by today’s workforce. Mobile enterprises

provide a platform through which employee and stakeholders alike

are able to access these corporate resources on mobile handsets

at any time and from any location. In some cases, companies have

become more liberal in permitting the access of resources through

personal handset devices rather than through company-owned mobile

handsets. This initiative dubbed the “bring your own device”

(BYOD) has been welcomed by other and criticized by a few. Its

proponents consider it to be beneficial since it cuts down on the

company’s costs in purchasing mobile devices for its employees.

Its opponents, however, argue that it constitutes a serious

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breach in information security. The dominant enterprise platforms

in the market today are Apple’s iOS and the android system.

There are three major forces driving the need for mobile

devices in business. Technological convergence, rising

affordability and the growing availability of connectivity

services have led to many businesses and organizations adopting

mobile devices to incorporate all their stakeholders in their

operational functions. Reports from the International

Telecommunication Union indicate that about 5.3 billion 3G-

enabled mobile users are spread over 143 nations worldwide

(Cognizant, 2014). Mobile enterprise systems enable organizations

increase their productivity and delivery to their customers by

providing their employees and partners with the means to work at

any time and in any area. However, with these benefits also come

serious drawbacks. For instance, digital systems are not

completely secure and in addition to this, mobile enterprising

may undermine the management structures set up in an

organization.

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The Benefits of Mobile Enterprises

As mentioned earlier, the huge demand for mobile devices in

businesses and organizations have been fueled by an information-

hungry workforce and the competitive nature of today’s business

markets. Large organizations worldwide are striving to develop a

flexible work environment for their employees by placing higher

priority in the flow of information and other workplace

resources. These organizations believe that the freedom in the

workplace improves the productivity and delivery of their

employees even though it may bear greater financial implications

(Broadsoft, 2011).

The competitive nature of today’s business markets has

necessitated the need for quick flow of ideas and information

amongst the various players in the respective markets. In trying

to outdo each other, many businesses have adopted the creed

“information is power.” Mobile enterprising facilitates the flow

of ideas and information over great distances under a short

period. As a result of this, many organizations have resorted to

enterprise mobility to ensure that they are kept abreast with

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emerging trends and they get the latest information in any market

that they operate.

Mobile enterprises form part of an important strategy when

it comes to venturing into unknown or foreign markets. For

companies that are venturing into unknown markets, it is

essential that they be privy to the trends and preferences

prevailing in these markets. In such cases, therefore, the access

to information becomes a significant step towards establishing

themselves in the market. The increasing accessibility to

bandwidth has opened up markets for all players in different

industries worldwide. This has arisen from the fact that

employees and partners can run virtually anywhere (CGI, 2013). It

has also meant that worker’s schedules have become more flexible

allowing them to become innovative and analytical when venturing

inside new markets.

Mobile enterprises have also enhanced the mobilization

process in organizations by improving how people relate around

each other in the workplace and the manner in which work groups

are organized. Through the adoption of mobile devices, teams can

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liaise and work together from separate geographical locations

allowing them to operate towards a common goal. Through status

reports and real-time location, teams can carry out their

mandates in unison without necessarily being in the same

geographic area. Modern communication technologies have

incorporated web, voice and video conveyance to promote social

collaboration so that teams can acquire and share resources

easily. This reflects positively on worker productivity as well

as employee satisfaction in the workplace.

Mobility benefits consumers by availing to them better

quality services. Through the use of mobile devices, customers

have access to real-time mobile query services. This ensures that

customers benefit from accurate inventory information on demand.

Similarly, order placements and payment procedures can be

remotely done from the customer’s place of choice. Customers are

also able to receive real-time alerts and notifications of any

developments and this adds value for their payment. Mobile

devices also improve the customer-care and support services

offered to customers (Sawyer, 2012). They improve the response

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time to customer’s requests by on-field support teams by availing

manuals and diagnostic tools. In addition to this, junior

technical employees are able to benefit from the technical

expertise of more experienced staff to deliver quicker and

smarter responses to their clients. All these factors combined

lead to customer satisfaction.

In the case where complex products that require constant

monitoring and maintenance are stationed at the client’s premise,

the quality of response with regards to how fast and how

effective can be greatly enhanced through mobility. Organizations

that are optimizing the capabilities of wireless support devices

are gradually establishing themselves over their rivals in their

respective markets (Kompella, 2013).

In recent times, technological advancements have shaped the

manner in which businesses manage both their internal and supply

chain relations, especially with regards to the flow of

information. The existence of performance monitoring support

structures has improved the manner in which tasks are designated

and performed by creating awareness on the contexts of work

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tasks. Through mobile data capture features, real-time streams

are provided and delivered between various end devices to ensure

that information flows. This in turn ensures that asset and data

management is easily tracked so that issues can be foreseen and

dealt with in real-time.

Mobility has also altered business operations at the

management level since it enables an organization’s management to

assign, reassign and optimize duties centrally to increase self-

sufficiency and ensure that work is completed in due time. Mobile

reporting systems help managers in decision making by availing to

them situational information in real-time. This allows managers

to make more informed decisions in a timely manner. The

incorporation of mobile gadgets in the workplace has also

enhanced on-the-job training and the manner in which companies

offer support to asset utilization and internal operations. These

translate to improved supply chain management and a well-

coordinated inventory structure (Scornavacca, 2008). As the

organization adopts the use of mobile device systems, the need


for a physical workspace is gradually reduced. This can allow the

business cut down on storage costs through space sharing.

From an organization’s perspective, the control of mobile

devices is relatively easier due to emerging control developments

that allow the management stay on top of things. Convergence

features enable the collection and storage of data centrally such

that, in the case of any data loss, backups of this data are

already stored in a secure location and can be accessed by any

employee. From asset tracking, any incident of theft can be

observed and the necessary measures taken to ensure that the

stolen devices are rendered inoperable.

The Challenges of Mobile Enterprises

Mobile technology is ever changing. As a result of this

several best practice techniques have been put forward by several

established organizations. These numerous roadmaps have in turn

created a challenge where certain strategies overlap or

contradict leaving smaller firms at a disadvantage as to which

practice would best suit their business. The complex nature of

some devices also means that organizations have to continually


train their staff to ensure that they are at breast with emerging

technologies. This means that the businesses have to incur

additional training costs to achieve this. In addition to this,

businesses have to ensure that their experienced employees are

satisfied so that the organization can retain their expertise and

knowledge away from prying competitors (Brans, 2008).

Mobile device systems also provide a major security concern.

Where both worker’s personal data is stored together with

corporate data, there exists serious a serious breach in privacy

that may lead to one party losing their data. Most chief

executive officers and managers consider security to be the

greatest challenge affecting the rise of mobile enterprises

(International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, 2012). In

some cases, especially where markets are competitive, businesses

tend to hold on to their “trade secrets” to ensure that

competitors are not privy to any information that would give them

an edge over their organization. In such instances, the used of

mobility systems can be quite risky since workers can easily be

enticed to give away the company’s secrets. Due to these security


risks, businesses have been forced to further seek the help of

highly skilled professionals who can offer to them any resources

and technologies that would help the company to avoid the risk of

such losses.

Mobility has also been known to undermine the authority of

existing management systems in particular businesses. Since

worker’s working hours and location are more flexible under

mobile enterprises, workers tend to wander from the directives of

their work supervisors (Turban, 2011).

In addition to this, mobilization requires the undertaking

of further additional costs not only for management and training

purpose, but other costs incurred in operationalizing mobile

systems. These costs include investment costs, licensing fees,

taxes and insurance among others. However, many of the advantages

of mobile enterprise systems are immeasurable and they often lead

to significant resource saving measures within companies that

practice them (Hoang, 2008).


Recommendations for Mobile Enterprises

Without a doubt, information security poses the greatest

challenge to mobile enterprises. Due to this, many measures have

been developed to try and improve information security and other

shortcomings of mobile enterprises. One such measure involves the

adoption of Mobile Device Management (MDM). This refers to an

approach whereby software protocols installed in mobile devices

can be monitored and controlled from an in-house system or

through cloud-based methods. The advantage with MDM is that it is

useful for almost any devices that require verification. In

addition to this, it enables organizational management structures

manage corporate resources without remotely being in a particular

area. From MDM, companies can monitor the activities of it

workers by carefully looking at the information and resources

they seek through the mobile systems. They can, therefore,

prohibit or control the dissemination of information in a manner

that suits its operations. MDM systems can be costly to set up

and run. However, software applications such as cloud-based

systems are quicker and cheaper to set up and use.


Some MDM systems make use of containerization capabilities

that depend on data encryption to keep corporate and personal

data separate. This becomes especially useful under the “Bring

your own device“ (BYOD) programmes. Some businesses choose to

adopt both MDM and containerization practices. Studies have,

however, shown that this greatly increases the complexity of the

system and, therefore, it fails to be as efficient as they would

have been individually (International Business Machines, 2012).

One of the greatest challenges of securing mobile

enterprises lies within the design of the mobile devices

themselves. Their size is aimed at enhancing portability but at

the same time increases the ease in which they can be lost or

misplaced. In case of theft, functions that wipe or delete

information within the device after many failed password attempts

will ensure that the risk of losing information in such a

scenario is minimized. In addition to this, end users or

management can carry out a “local wipe” in which data is remotely

deleted in the event that the device is either stolen or

misplaced. Devices can also be set up to automatically lock


themselves after a set period of inactivity and only resume its

informational duties after the correct password is typed in it

(International Business Machines, 2012).

Data encryption, as mentioned earlier, can provide

additional security level. Many organizations prefer the use of

hardware-based encryptions as opposed to software-based

encryption since the former is hard wired into the device and as

such, may enhance the devices’ security performance. Under such

systems, very little information is stored within the device. Any

data sought is requested for and received over the device for

display purposes only. This necessitates the existence of network

access to ensure that users are able to receive the transmitted

data.

As a minimum requirement, organizations can adopt the use of

a two-step based user authentication system to allow workers log

into the company’s information recourse centre. Each employee or

partner is provided with a unique username and password key so

that the business can be able to determine who accessed corporate

data and the time in which they did. The passwords consist of a


unique alphabetic or numeric code that is keyed in every time

data is sought. More advanced authentication techniques such as

the use of digital certificates and smart cards can also be used.

A log of entry into information databases is kept reflecting the

seeker and the time the information was accessed (International

Business Machines, 2012).

Many mobile users are aware of the threat of malware in

mobile devices. All mobile devices can be infected by malware and

this may lead to huge data loss. As such, protective measures are

usually adopted. It has become necessary to protect mobile

devices by using anti-malware applications that offer real-time

scans. In addition to this, many businesses that use mobile

device in their daily running have in place policies to safeguard

mobile security. These policies are enforced to assist in the

mitigation of liabilities and security risks. These policies are

usually developed by the company’s attorneys sometimes in

conjunction with the IT department (International Business

Machines, 2012).


The key points around which these policies revolve includes

the mobile devices that the business will be adopting and the

parties that will be privy to the specific data and applications.

Additional features include privacy policy stipulating the dos

and don’ts with regards to the monitored information and

information protection measures to be developed. Also appearing

will be the steps to be taken in the case that the end user

violated the set up policies among others.

Conclusion

As with many business strategies, mobile enterprises have

serious drawbacks, particularly with regards to information

security. This, as discussed, can bear serious consequences on

the organization’s operations. However, with technological

advancements, newer and more secure systems have been

continuously emerging, each better and more efficient than its

predecessor. With the various information security measures and

procedures in existence, it is safe to conclude that mobile

enterprises provide a safe and efficient operational method

through which many businesses can benefit. Factors such as


globalization and climate change have necessitated the need for

efficiency in today’s business markets and as such, many

companies are turning to mobile enterprising as an efficient

strategy through which they can develop.


References

Brans, P. D., & Basole, R. C. (2008). A comparative anatomy of mobile

enterprise applications: Towards a framework of software reuse. Information

Knowledge Systems Management, 7(1/2), 145-158.

Broadsoft Inc. (2011) Mobile Enterprise of the Future pp. 2-7 (Retrieved

Online) http://www.broadsoft.com/pdf/mobile-enterprise-of-

the-future.pdf

CGI Group (2013) Securing the Mobile Enterprise pp. 1-5 (Retrieved

Online) http://www.cgi.com/sites/default/files/white-

papers/Securing-the-mobile-enterprise.pdf

Cognizant (2014) http://www.cognizant.com/perspectives/forces-

driving-enterprise-mobility (Viewed 16 April 2014)

Hoang, A. T., Nickerson, R. C., Beckman, P., & Eng, J. (2008).

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International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, (2012)

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http://www.cognizant.com/perspectives/forces-driving-enterprise-mobility

http://www.cognizant.com/perspectives/forces-driving-enterprise-mobility


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Kompella, K. (2013). Enterprise mobile marketing: Making the right moves in a

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