Developing an effective corporate mobile policy
Posted by Wendy van Meer
Smartphones are very common in today’s enterprise; Strategy analytics claims that over 90% of organizations now have employees using smartphones within their organizations. Depending on the size of the organization, this can cover tens of thousands of individuals. Gartner even claims that by 2013 the mobile phone will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide.
Increased productivity, improved efficiency and response times are some of the important benefits of wireless solutions. But to ensure cost control and security a formal mobility policy is crucial for any organization.
To ensure that policies will be effective, consider the following tips:
Policies should never be written in isolation, the people who are asked to use or enforce them may have differing opinions. A sole policy writer may also neglect things that are important to others. This is not to be taken lightly: enterprises need to get the right people involved, and should include as many people and groups as is practical.
Consider a usage policy per user group, enterprises should focus first on the target audience for mobile solutions, and second on what are the most appropriate and beneficial applications to a particular user group. The following three questions for mobility are important:
- Who should have a device?
- What applications should be mobilized?
- What device platforms should be mobilized?
Insight into employee user costs, make sure you have insight into telecom costs across the organization and have the possibility to track policy compliance. Insight into telecom costs is not only important for management but also for individuals to be aware of their personal costs as it significantly raises cost awareness.
Management buy-in, management should enforce and buy into policies or the implementation of them may be adversely affected. Managers should be careful not to use their own handheld devices in ways that contravene policies, and they should demonstrate that adhering to policies is an issue they take seriously.
After you have defined a wireless policy, the implementation can start and in this phase it is crucial that employees know the policy and understand it. Training on the policy should also be part of the new hires’ orientation and periodic newsletters, workshops, or seminars can help explain the policy.
After employees are informed and can expect to comply to the corporate policies the organization should have the tooling in place to track policy compliance. Telecom Expense Management services are useful as they do not only help to gain insight into telecom costs it also helps to automate policy compliance through the implementation of business rules.
Mobile technology is rapidly changing therefore it is especially important to review and update the telecom policy every 12 months.
For more information also check out our webinar slides on developing an effective mobile policy
