Last month was Mobility Month here at O2. We took a deep dive into the world of flexible working and how organisations are making it work. You may have seen a flurry of tweets labelled #O2MobilityMonth or been invited to one of our webinars on the topic. In case you missed it, here’s a quick round up.

Mobility matters

And the numbers agree. 72% of businesses report increases in productivity as a direct result of flexible working1.73% of global IT executives say that mobility will impact their business more than the web did2.

In the first of our Managed Mobility (MM) webinars, ‘Right person. Right device., we looked at how to make sure you give the right smartphone, laptop or tablet to the individuals who really need them and who will benefit from using a particular device.

And once you’ve worked that out, you need to make sure you can stay in control of them. It’s what we call Managed Mobility.

MM ≠ MDM

Managed Mobility does not equal Mobile Device Management (MDM). It’s about much more than just controlling devices. Managed Mobility is about managing your entire mobile infrastructure so that you can take advantage of the massive growth in mobile devices. We think there are four major areas to consider when it comes to having a good Managed Mobility strategy:

  1. Device strategy
  2. Device management
  3. Managed connectivity
  4. Application mobility

You can hear about these areas in the webinar, or read more in this blog post, CIOs, let’s master mobility, written by our very own CIO, Brendan O’Rourke.

Apps are the future

By 2014, most mobile workers will be using their own smart devices as their primary communications devices3. Creating custom apps for these devices will enable organisations to better equip their people and improve productivity. The right apps can provide access to real-time data at the point of action, automate laborious/repetitive tasks and help your business go paper-free.

But the more apps you create, the more you need to manage. Mobile application platforms provide a simple way to manage a number of different apps. Platforms were the focus of our second webinar, ‘Managed Mobility – A focus on apps in your wider IT strategy’, which you can watch on-demand here. We invited the next-generation mobile application provider, FeedHenry, to discuss mobile application platforms, and why and when an organisation should implement one. We also took a look at some real-life scenarios, including a facilities management company, a retail store and a security firm.

We were all a-Twitter

During Mobility Month we also ran five weekly Twitter competitions for a good cause. All readers had to do was tweet a blog post or send their own tweet to @O2BusinessUK with #O2MobilityMonth, to be automatically entered into a draw. The prize was a donation of £500 to the charity of the winner’s choice.

Follow us @O2BusinessUK, for all the latest on mobile working and Managed Mobility. You can also find out more by visiting our website, or by giving us a call on 01235 433507.

Footnotes

1 Regus Research

2Accenture CIO survey 2013

3 Tackling ‘Consumerization of IT’

Journalists can contact the Virgin Media O2 press office on:
press@virginmediao2.co.uk 01753 565656
Virgin Media
press enquiries
press@virginmedia.co.uk
O2
press enquiries
pressoffice@o2.com