The Changing Face of Business Mobility—and Why You Need to Get in the Game

Let’s face it: Today’s workers are accustomed to doing just about everything on the go. In their personal daily lives, they already use cloud and mobile applications on their smart devices. And whether employers know it or not, they’re interacting with business data and applications wherever they are, whenever they want—all in the name of efficiency.

For savvy employers, this trend represents a ripe opportunity to further enable employee mobility in new and productive ways. Particularly with the marriage of cloud communications and next-generation digital devices, organizations of all sizes are approaching mobility with a new mindset—not only to empower their workers but to extend the reach of their brand with customers.

The Convergence of Cloud and Mobile Communications

There's no question that today's workforce wants more choices and flexibility when it comes to business mobility, and businesses must provide those to function optimally and compete successfully. Forward-thinking businesses are now meeting these expectations with best practices and technologies that empower employees, drive real productivity and create more accountability within a dispersed mobile environment.

Key ways to enable better business mobility include:

• Elevated Teleworking Programs. Cloud-based unified communications systems are increasingly keeping remote employees happy, connected and productive from any device or location. They can now access the office communications system from wherever they’re working. Whether they’re using a mobile app on their smartphone or tablet, or a desktop app on their laptop, the experience is as robust and seamless as it is in the office.
• BYOD and Mobile Workforce Management. Especially with the visibility and reporting within many cloud communications systems, it’s now more likely for businesses to adopt bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs. Whether mobile employees engage via mobile apps, text messaging or video and collaboration tools, businesses can track this activity and create better productivity and accountability within the organization.
• Cloud Integrations. With seamless integration of cloud communications systems with CRM, ERP and SCM platforms—with easy access by mobile teams—companies are further enabling business continuity, scale and optimization of organizational workflow.

New Customer-Centric Mobile Opportunities

Advances in mobile technologies are giving businesses new opportunities to transform the customer experience by creating more innovative products and services, streamlining operations, expanding customer reach through new channels and, ultimately, staying profitable and competitive in today's hyper-connected and cloudy world.

To put the mobile opportunity in perspective, Smart Insights predicts that there will be 4.77 billion global smartphone users this year and that 80 to 90 percent of mobile minutes will be spent on apps. In other words, organizations that aren't updating their approach to mobility could miss out on a tremendous opportunity to keep customers engaged and happy. Some new ways businesses are communicating with customers include: virtual voice assistants, social media, texting, chatbots and contextual communications based on artificial intelligence, location and user profiles. Expect to see more innovation in the future.

In the end, what business mobility actually means is constantly changing and it can be difficult to keep up with the fast-paced world of cloud-based communications. As network connections continue to get faster and wider, mobile devices become more powerful and pervasive and users raise expectations about their experience, it's imperative that businesses stay on top of the latest changes in mobile technologies and user demands to survive—and thrive—today.

Learn how Vonage helps businesses of all sizes achieve mobile success through cloud communications.