Workers differ in their mobility needs, from sales force road warriors to board directors and IT support staff. When assessing enterprise mobility, consider:

• - The need for individual and team productivity
• Work/life balance objectives
• Business continuity requirements

The adverse weather in January in the UK was a good test: could your people work remotely at short notice? If movement to and from the premises was suddenly restricted, could your people still be able to have authorised access to the organisation’s resources?

• Consider which applications you need to make mobile and what their requirements are. The likes of ERP or CRM applications are designed for 100 Mbps Ethernet, so  latency, bandwidth issues and even the size of screen of the mobile device are relevant factors.
• Define the budget from the bottom up to deliver your strategy successfully; measure the TCO for remote access: what it costs per user/per laptop/per year from department to department. As their mobility platform has emerged and evolved over time, most organisations have no real idea what these figures are.
• Establish a clear policy and publish it to all employees. It will outline what technology is available to them and allow parts of the business to choose from a range of remote services, depending on the type of worker.

Within a reasonably sized enterprise there is likely to be on-site roamers and international roamers, regional roamers and remote power workers working long hours. Each will have their own set of criteria for bandwidth and response.

• Manage the IT security requirements and don’t get caught out by the IT department suddenly examining the mobile applications at the last minute.
• The mobility platform must not affect the user experience negatively, otherwise users will circumvent it or not be able to use the system successfully
• Identify the key risks early on and manage them to protect the investment. Decide what key pieces of infrastructure are necessary and within what timeframe.

Nick Forde, Senior Product Marketing Manager, at remote and mobile access specialist iPass, says: “Why spend a fortune today when you can evolve what you have, particularly in the current climate?” Some providers, he adds, sell only what they have invested in, such as a particular technology: “Look to implement a mobility solution that is technology agnostic and futureproof.”

• Mitigate deployment costs: set Key Performance Indicators early to measure your success clearly and so be able to demonstrate to the decision-makers its success based on specific, quantifiable parameters.
• Have a “joined up” approach to infrastructure and business applications – they are not in two separate worlds.
• Having a whole family of remote access providers can be difficult to manage and reduce your bargaining power. It increases the training and expertise load on any helpdesk, too. The alternative is having all your eggs in one basket, but having a single provider will reduce the TCO and provide predictable expenses.

Forde adds: “Wi-fi is the silver bullet for broadband roaming. Don’t wait for the EU to act to eliminate mobile broadband roaming costs – applications such as ERP will mean a large bill even with the emerging EU regulations. Predictable remote access in difficult times should be a manageable goal.”