As 2013 begins, there are certain economic realities that business owners of all types are facing. Whether it’s healthcare or construction, businesses are being forced to adapt to rapid changes and the demands of a technology driven world. The real game changer has been the proliferation of mobile devices, both smart phones and tablets. This has put business owners in an interesting position. On the one hand, they can now expect more efficiency out of their employees. By enabling employees to bring and use their own personal mobiles devices, employers can expect their team to be able to perform job critical functions from any location. This is a considerable advantage. On the other hand, an overhaul of a business’ existing infrastructure in order to support this new mobile environment is usually required. Consistency must be established to accommodate a variety of mobile devices.

Technology changes rapidly. The thought of employees being able to bring their own mobile devices to work wasn’t even feasible five years ago. However, in order to ensure a smooth and secure mobile environment, businesses have to decide to make the infrastructure investments required to deal with the operational challenges of today and tomorrow. There are numerous ways that companies are using new technologies in order to streamline their operations and remain competitive. The following are just a few of the ways accelerated mobile solutions are being used in a wide variety of businesses.

Portal Services

Many businesses are adopting the use of portal services. These are sites that employees can log in to from a computer or mobile device in order to more efficiently accomplish administrative or human resource tasks like clocking in or out for the day, checking paystubs, applying for time off, etc. Portals are often used by businesses with large payrolls. It would be inefficient for a large healthcare organization or major supermarket to have managers manually do all these things. By giving employees the ability to take care of these basic daily tasks themselves, it frees up resources.

Customer Facing Applications

Certainly, the expectation for customer facing apps only continues to grow. Many consumers are getting accustomed to the idea that they’ll be able to interact with a business in some way through their phones. Whether it’s ordering groceries, making a restaurant reservation, or setting up deliveries, more businesses are obliging when it comes to customers’ desire to have a mobile component in their shopping experiences.

Ordering and Communication

When employees have access to accelerated mobile solutions, they can more easily perform tasks such as product ordering, month-end inventorying, and communicating. By taking out the need to use a main office computer or requiring employees to congregate in a central location, more opportunities for efficiency and multi-tasking are opened up.

As businesses become more reliant on technology to increase efficiency, the need to update infrastructure to support a diverse mobile environment will begin to move from option to necessity.

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