Tactical vs. Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Tsunamis of Change

In the recent survey I conducted titled “State of Enterprise Mobility 2013” I asked the question, “Does your company view mobile solutions as tactical (LOB or process specific) or strategic (critical to the success of the company)?”  Over 220 participants answered the question with 71.3% answering strategic, and 28.2% answering tactical.  However, when I filtered for just the answers from end-users (removing analysts, consultants, software and mobility vendors), then 48% answered tactical, and 52% answered strategic.  There are still a lot of enterprises that view enterprise mobility as merely a tactical solution.

What is the difference between strategic and tactical enterprise mobility?  I think it relates to the scale and transformational nature of your implementations.  For example, if your CPG (consumer packaged goods) company had 27 food processing inspectors that needed mobile apps to conduct in-house inspections, then I would consider that a tactical implementation of a mobile solution.  However, if your company implemented an enterprise-wide mobile app to facilitate better enterprise collaboration, then that might be strategic. Strategic mobile applications fundamentally change the way a company operates.

I see a lot of strategic mobility especially used in B2C (business-to-consumer) apps.  Many of these apps can completely change the way customers feel about your company, research products and services, buy things and recommend them to friends.

Social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) and other IT mega-trends are causing massive changes today.  Here is what Gartner said this week at their symposium, “IT is no longer just about the IT function. Instead, IT has become the catalyst for the next phase of innovation in personal and competitive business ecosystems.”  Did you catch that?  IT is becoming even more important, and is key to making their businesses competitive!

I get concerned when I meet with IT strategy teams in 2013 that tell me, “We are conducting POCs with a couple of simple mobile apps.”  WHAT?  What are they trying to prove with a POC?  That is like saying, “I know a Tsunami is coming, but I am going to practice my breast stroke and back stroke to see which I like better.”  You have got to be strategic enough to MATTER!

Here is another comment from the Gartner Symposium this week, “The savvy CIO will get his or her CEO to recognize the change being brought about by disruptive shifts, and that they are coming at an accelerated pace and that they will have a global level of impact.”  These changes and economic shifts are seismic!

It is time we recognized these massive changes for what they are, and get serious about implementing a strategy shift that enables us to respond to changes at a much faster pace than ever before.

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