What you should look for in a mobile solution?

Mobile solutions add significant value to enterprises by increasing productivity, bringing agility and impact revenue as well as cost of operations. Mobilization is a key aspect of digital transformation for an organization.

There is a plethora of mobile solutions and technology available in the market. This creates several challenges in choosing the right solution and technology for the organizations. Following are key points which could be evaluated while choosing a mobile solution.

• Offline Capabilities: Data connectivity may not be available uninterrupted in several scenarios. The signal may not be available at some work areas like a plant or a mine or in some buildings. However, some processes need availability of the application continuously. Offline availability of the application and data becomes a big necessity in such scenarios.
• Operational Support: Every enterprise solution needs continuous changes. So is the case with mobile applications. A parameterized solution which can be easily modified comes quite handy and can be easily adapted to changing requirements. Mobile solutions should be easy to monitor, easy to deploy. A pilot rollout possibility for a section of users for firsthand feedback could be an added advantage. The solutions should support standard MDM tools.
• DIY: Solutions which provide easy tools for an organization to take control of the solution changes will enable their IT team to make changes themselves.
• Device and OS Support: Several organizations let users bring their own devices. A mobile solution typically should support different devices, multiple OS as well as different form factors.
• Integration: Most of the mobile solutions will work with one or more enterprise solution. It will be much easier during implementation if standard connectors are available or there are easier ways to connect to standard enterprise applications. The users should be transparent if the solution is connecting to one or multiple applications.
• Ease of Usage: The applications should provide interfaces which are easy to use and navigate. An intuitive user interface should reduce need of training.
• Security: The application should not only implement security measure for mobile data. It should also ensure that it does not add vulnerability for attacks in the customer IT landscape.
• Device Features: The application should take use of mobile features and support bar-code, RFIT or GIS as may be needed in specific processes. It should also support different attachments like pictures, documents, videos and audios.
• Scalable: Some of the organization may like to start small and may have a need for much higher volumes. They need to for a scalable solution.
• Global: In case there is a need for multi language support, the solution supports easy way of deploying solution in multi language.
• Deployment Model: Solutions should support your organization strategy on deployment model whether it is on-premise or cloud deployment.

In a nutshell, there are certain features which a mobile solution must support and some other features will depend on your organization goal and roadmap.