Can an Enterprise Function Without Mobile Applications?

Mobile devices and mobile applications are the trend in the world of technology. Every enterprise, irrespective of its size, now deploys mobile apps.  Are mobile applications really indispensable or are they deployed blindly following the trend?

 

According to a survey conducted by AT&T, one third of small business houses across the world have voted in favor of working without mobile applications as impossible within the organization. Roughly eleven percent of these enterprises termed working with mobile apps as “cool”.

 

The AT&T survey enumerates that mobile applications are integral to not only big but also small business units. Today, employees of even small enterprises require wireless technology for working while on the go and the business units need proper social networking pages for the promotion of their products & services. The use of Facebook as an effective social media promotional platform has shot up from 27 percent to 41 percent within a span of three years from 2009 to 2012. Four out of ten small business units surveyed by AT&T said that working without mobile applications would perhaps be the biggest challenge posed to them in the recent past.

 

Now that we are convinced about the fact that functioning without a mobile app is impossible for an enterprise, irrespective of size or type of products/services sold, which are the topmost applications in the wish list of these enterprises? If reports are to be believed, GPS & mapping tops the chart with whopping 49 percent enterprises using this application. Social media marketing mobile apps and document management apps stand a close second with 26 percent usage. The other popular mobile applications fulfilling enterprise functionality are location based service apps, travel apps, time management apps, mobile credit card payment apps, and expense tracking apps.

 

So why have enterprises suddenly stood up to notice, acknowledge the importance of, and deploy mobile applications in their daily work? More than 60 percent organizations taking part in the poll by AT&T are of the opinion that use of mobile apps helps save time. Enhanced productivity and cost cutting were cited as the other reasons for extensive mobile app usage among enterprises in all sectors of the economy.

 

The AT&T survey was taken choosing 2,246 small business units with an employee count between 2 to 50. Realizing the indispensability of mobile applications, even part time employees of an enterprise are today being provided with mobile apps to complete work more efficiently, raise their quality of work delivery, and mobilize business prospects for the enterprise.

 

The above discussion clearly underlines the importance of the deployment of enterprise mobile apps. It would not be wrong to declare that successful functioning of an enterprise is not only reliant on but would collapse in the absence of mobile applications.