In the current mobile landscape, there are a multitude of perspectives on how to implement an enterprise mobility strategy. Key considerations include not only the cost but also the usefulness of such an endeavor. Within an enterprise, there are multiple levels of stakeholder focus that you need to consider. As a mobility architect, I engage with business representatives who may already have a thorough understanding of enterprise mobility, but they are challenged by how effective the return on their investment is.

One option is to start with a model that focuses on the top level of the stakeholder hierarchy—the executives. The IBM MobileFirst model proposes a four-point approach for embarking on a mobile journey. In this blog post, I discuss how this model aligns with the different points of view of various executive stakeholders regarding your enterprise mobility strategy.

Transforming the business

Stakeholders: Corporate officers and business line executives

Transform refers to how the mobile strategy and capabilities are expected to create new value to realize business objectives. If you engage in a mobile strategy without a clear connection to your business goals, the executives will constantly have to justify their expenditure and deal with changes in user expectations against expected revenue. Starting without a clear plan can have a negative effect on your productivity throughout the mobile strategy transformation.

Engaging the user

Stakeholders: Enterprise marketing executives

For enterprises that are heavily dependent on business-to-consumer (B2C) revenues, the customer base is a demanding demographic, and engaging them can be difficult. This also applies to business-to-employee (B2E) users who expect to be provided with the right tools to perform their responsibilities. You need to consider both user bases by looking at the value of the experience for the consumer and at how effective it is for the employee. You should also think about user application profiles and data analytics at this level.

Building the application

Stakeholders: Application development executives

The applications on the devices are critical in providing functionality and ease of use for your users. You will need to consider the applications separately for internal versus external mobile users (including any process integrations) because each type of user will interact with the application in a different way. Finally, you must ensure that the development and support of these applications are sustained.

Optimizing the infrastructure

Stakeholders: CIO and IT executives

To get the best optimization, you should assess the existing enterprise infrastructure to ensure that it can support a mobile strategy. At a high level, you should determine the readiness of your infrastructure from the following basic domains—compute, storage and network—as well as the associated support, security and management of each domain.

I have started to use this model to set the agenda for my discussions with clients about their enterprise mobility strategy based on what their stakeholders care about. But I am interested in obtaining feedback on other factors and stakeholder motivations that should be considered in using this approach.

Any comments or feedback are appreciated. Connect with me on Twitter @TonyPYLiew.

Technorati Tags: Application, IBM MobileFirst, Infrastructure, Mobility model, Stakeholders

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