Having a mobile play is expected today, but doing it right and making it pay for enterprise constituencies is another matter. ServiceNow has identified five IT executives, across a variety of industries, to share tips and advice for CIOs and other IT executives on developing and executing a winning mobile strategy. From scaling effectively to keeping end users in mind, representatives from the University of San Francisco, Service Stream, CareWorks, FMCand LennoxInternational weigh in on the right way to go mobile.
Click through for five tips on executing a winning mobile strategy, as identified by ServiceNow.
Keep end users in mind – University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco is a private university serving over 10,000 students and staff IT needs. Recognizing how their technicians use their cloud platform — spending most of their time in labs or classrooms — USF implemented a cloud platform that is easily accessible through mobile devices. Armed with iPads, USF’s technicians are able to access the applications they need from anywhere on campus to deliver services.
“Our IT personnel are scattered across the campus, and with as many projects as they have, connecting them to the IT platform makes all the difference. Real-time connectivity through iPads creates an environment where employees can work quickly from anywhere.” — Jim Uomini, service level manager
Scale effectively – Service Stream
Service Stream manages and supports a field force of more than 3,500. Leaders in the energy and water, mobile and fixed-line telecommunications business, Service Stream technicians have a significant dependency on optimized technology. With a geographically dispersed workforce, it’s key that Service Stream’s IT business platform is scalable and robust.
“The nature of our business demanded a platform that could seamlessly scale with our growing workforce and client requirements. The development of a business-centric platform has allowed our business to approach clients with increased confidence, significantly uplifting mobile in-field capabilities and reducing backend administrative work. The basis for our platform was to service our clients and customers more effectively, and empower our business leaders to manage their work and team dynamically; we are well on the way.” – Craig Wishart, CIO
Remove Silos – CareWorks
CareWorks Family of Companies is a holding company focused on managed medical care for the workers’ compensation industry and supporting health care technologies. With six different businesses, there is a diverse set of mobility needs to address while maintaining assets at the enterprise level. To support the various mobility use cases, CareWorks developed a strategic BYOD policy along with a complete upgrade of mobility solutions for several business units. Leveraging a fully integrated MDM solution on the ServiceNow platform along with asset management for a single system of record, CareWorks is able to manage personal and corporate mobile devices, increasing associate productivity through self-service provisioning and connectivity to email and apps on their preferred device.
“BYOD and mobility solutions are many times viewed by IT as a headache or risk to the organization, rather than an innovation opportunity. By managing all our associates’ devices from a single IT platform, we’ve eliminated the need for disparate systems and have complete visibility into the management and security of all mobile assets.” Bart Murphy, CIO/CTO
Look for the hold up, and clear it – FMC
FMC is a global chemical company with over 6,000 employees throughout the world. The stationary nature of computers often represents the greatest bottleneck, as employees are away from their desk when action is required. FMC has seen implementing mobility as the key to limiting the hold up.
“We operate in a fast-paced environment where changes and updates need to be made as quickly as possible. Using mobile devices takes down barriers and speeds up FMC’s processes.” Ian McFarlane, application integration specialist
Eliminate device hurdles using HTML5 – Lennox
Lennox International manufactures climate control products for heating, air conditioning and refrigeration. Its IT staff of 175 supports 5,000 internal users in offices, factories, warehouses and storefronts around the world, plus about 35,000 Web users.
Lennox allows employees to access email from their own devices, and needed to allow for all employees — regardless of device — to access business apps through a user interface that’s optimized for mobile, but adaptable to any device. To address this, they have turned to an HTML5 client, keeping business apps deployed on the platform available to employees — regardless of device or location.
“We have a number of employees that rely on mobility to complete tasks quickly, as their responsibilities take them away from their desks. Being able to deliver the apps they need, regardless of their device is a big key to efficiently managing workloads and tasks.” Carolyn Hollingsworth, senior manager of service operations at Lennox International
