5 Lessons We've Learned About 'Homegrown' Mobile

By Peter Dalpe, Director of Managed Services, Stratix Corporation

Over the past several years organizations have had to find creative ways to cut costs. Some ideas have worked well; others have not. One strategy often seen in the “not” category has been the “homegrown” mobile solution where companies attempt to plan and then support their own mobile infrastructure of devices, apps and mobile workers. After 29 years of working with enterprises and their mobile deployments, we’ve seen many deployments quickly exceed their allocated budgets and fall far behind schedule. The reasons for this are many, but a few key lessons hold true for most:

#1: Enterprise Mobility is not out-of-the-box
At first glance, mobile today appears simple. Tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices can be purchased now in retail, and by the time the consumer is in his or her car, they are making calls, accessing email and even updating Facebook about their cool new technology purchase. This “retail” or consumer experience has caused many decision makers within companies to expect that everything related to mobile in the enterprise can be similarly unboxed and users turned up on the fly with great success.

The reality, however, is that mobile is not that simple.