Allow us to put on our Morpheus sunglasses. Now . . .
What if we told you that mobile apps are already being used throughout your organization, whether you know it or not?What if we told you that mobile apps are already being used throughout your organization, whether you know it or not?
That’s right. Mobility, and the capability it empowers thanks to enterprise mobile apps, has already permeated your everyday business operations. Don’t believe us? Check with your employees. See how they’re using personal devices and various apps to access data, manage projects, connect teams and stay on task.
Leadership for many organizations, we’re learning, is already late to the game. While decision-makers are deliberating on whether or not they should author, endorse or otherwise encourage a mobile policy, their people have already gone ahead and started patching it together.
This is both commendable and cause for concern. Commendable because for us it’s awesome to see mobility gain such traction; concerning because it might be happening beneath the managerial radar, and as such raises any number of data security, app version, and management issues.
We have to admit, we’ve been somewhat taken aback by this underground app explosion, but our informal research and anecdotal evidence suggests nothing less. We’ve been busy pushing everyone to start building or buying apps that work for their enterprise (managing the app lifecycle and distributing them accordingly via App47 solutions, of course) but moving in to 2013, it’s not about that anymore. We’re finding organizations with dozens, even hundreds of apps in action thanks to motivated employees who have just gone ahead and made it happen. Maybe they want to be more effective in the field. Maybe they crave improved efficiency and remote functionality. It’s probably all of the above, but regardless, they’re making it happen.
We’re not going to ask anyone about whether they’re going to embrace enterprise mobility again when it’s clear everyone’s already giving it a giant bear hug. No, now the question becomes when is IT going to start managing all those apps? They’re interacting with huge corporate data sets, completely unmanaged, all but invisible to IT departments. No organization is going to tolerate the creation of security risk inherent in an unmanaged asset; but no organization is going to step back from the obvious productivity benefits mobile apps provide.
Our resolution for the year ahead? You won’t hear us bothering you about building anymore. The indicators have changed, so the questions have to adjust accordingly. For 2013, we’re going to ask about when you plan to start managing the apps already at work within your organization.
Welcome, as Morpheus would say, to the real world.
