Depending on your professional sector, managing a mobile fleet won’t have the same objectives nor the same effects on your business and your employees. Whether you are in the construction, luxury goods, retail, banking or energy industries, your needs will be diverse, and your EMM (Enterprise Mobile Management) strategy will need to be tailored accordingly.
You probably already know this, if you are already aware of the issues of mobile fleet management within a company: the solutions you choose are inherently linked to the sector in which you operate. For example, a construction company will obviously not have the same needs as a marketing agency or a clothing brand. While there are still many differences between companies within the same industry (since these companies often represent dozens or even hundreds of different trades), there are lots of similarities that can help us to broadly define the needs of a particular industry. Here are a few lines of thought drawn from use cases and insights from companies that Appaloosa has collaborated with.
Construction industry
At first glance, the construction industry has everything to gain from using efficient EMM solutions. These are often mobile jobs, where employees are constantly on the move, yet they require a whole host of technological tools that they can now have available to them anytime, anywhere, on any type of device (ATAWAD). However, it is also a sector apart: the professions are very heterogeneous and include a multitude of employees and freelancers with very different needs, partner companies and subsidiaries that work together on common projects. The goal of a good mobile management solution is to facilitate collaboration, regardless of the company, status, and activity of the user.
Moreover, we can see that employees in construction companies are sometimes not very familiar with the technological tools they will have to use in their work. It is therefore imperative that they have at their disposal easy solutions so that the adoption is effective. Although it is already fully completed in many sectors, the question of the “digital transformation” of jobs will nevertheless arise here, and it will be necessary to ensure that it is indeed underway.
Banking industry
In contrast to the construction industry, the employees of big corporate banks are much more technologically aware. However, this does not mean that a mobile solution deployment will necessarily go smoothly: there are many challenges specific to this sector that need to be taken into account.
One of the main challenges that Appaloosa has taken up is the importance of optimizing the beta testing process – to avoid it becoming too time-consuming for the employees involved. Banks, and more broadly fintech companies and start-ups, also have many mobility issues – the tools must be able to adapt to the needs of employees who have to move within the company on a national or international level. This, of course, while keeping an eye on security – given the importance of the data processed, it goes without saying that it must be ultra-secure.
Luxury Industry
In the world of luxury, the main challenge undoubtedly lies in creating a unique, pleasant and frictionless experience. The major luxury houses are striving to bring together talents from all over the world, sometimes with very creative profiles who are reluctant to adapt their uses to tools that do not suit them. It is, therefore, necessary to “think” about these tools upstream, bearing in mind the crucial importance of employee adoption, and the fact that this is primarily based on good user experience. We, therefore, need simple but perfectly designed tools, which can be updated quickly and do not occupy the employee’s time (and mind) for hours.
Energy industry
The energy sector is essential: a few large companies employ thousands of people, and have to coordinate the energy supply of millions more. These companies, which are taking over each other, are linked by countless networks of subsidiaries, each working with their own digital tools. How do you ensure that you choose a solution that is collaborative, that fits your employees and allows them to work in the best possible conditions? It is also important to digitalize as much as possible the internal operating processes, which have long been very time-consuming, and which can be optimized and save teams precious time.
Finally, the energy sector has many mobile resources that use their own devices to work – in the case of BYOD, it will be necessary to be able to implement solutions that are not too intrusive so that employees adopt them without (too) reluctance.
Retail industry
Of all sectors, retail is perhaps one of the most exciting! Indeed, it contains a wide variety of trades, all of which have the same goal: to offer the customer a unique experience, whether in the shops (physically) or via Internet shops (digitally). And that’s where the choice of EMM solutions will be crucial: it will be necessary to enable the teams concerned to enhance the customer experience while keeping in mind that at the end of this experience, sales must be made.
Despite what one might think, many employees working for large retail accounts are not necessarily very technophile – so we need to encourage training and opt for simple and effective solutions. Moreover, they may not have access to the latest tools at work (for example, computers in the stores), and will, therefore, use their personal smartphone to access a lot of information on a professional basis (here again, BYOD is a point to be taken into account in the choice of the EMM solution).
In conclusion…
Process optimization, experience improvement, time-saving… The benefits are numerous, once you have found the right EMM solution(s) for your business. So all you have to do is look at existing MAM or MDM solutions and develop your enterprise app store, and your different applications accordingly!