Hello from beautiful Amsterdam. Today, I spent the day at the iCE Amsertdam event to talk about how organizations need to think about deploying their enterprise mobility strategy – and in this case, within Europe, as opposed to the traditional North American view on life.
Here’s an interesting anecdote for you – perhaps even an enterprise mobility irony. I live in a top 10 MSA in the USA….meaning I live in one of the top 10 cities where you would expect great coverage. I drop on average 6-10 calls a day…..literally. My mobility life is a pain in the neck. Thank you, my carrier of choice.
Here in Holland, my coverage is impeccable. Five bars almost everywhere. You would hence think that the companies here in Europe and Holland have a leg up in terms of their enterprise mobility.
Uhm….not so much.
I’m here to tell you that European companies are struggling with the VERY same issues that American companies are dealing with. Whether it be apps, or device liability or mobility policies….Dutch and European companies are struggling with the same issues that companies in the US are dealing with.
Here’s one example. I asked the 100 people in the audience a simple question. If you purchase a device and your company pays 100% of the cost of the device….is it a corporate device?
Not ONE person raised their hand. Not one.
Ok….so what about your application strategy? Is it linked in between B2B and B2C?
Uhm…..No.
The fact of the matter is that the issues we deal with “traditionally” in North America are issues that are real in Europe…and I will hence assume across the globe. Whether it be IL vs/ CL or platform support or application strategy or security management….organizations all across the world are struggling with these issues. It’s only compounded in Europe with the impact of international roaming on wireless expense management.
So what are we to do? I of course made a shameless plug to join the EMF, but the truth is that we have SO many questions with SO many answers lacking….the answer “well, it depends” doesn’t do YOU a whole lot of good….except for the fact that that is all we have today.
But hold on and hold tight. We WILL get through this and come to a resolution. We’re not there yet, but I am confident we will soon have a brighter view on how to tangibly manage mobility in the workplace, regardless of where we live.
Managing Enterprise Mobility in Europe
Here’s an interesting anecdote for you – perhaps even an enterprise mobility irony. I live in a top 10 MSA in the USA….meaning I live in one of the top 10 cities where you would expect great coverage. I drop on average 6-10 calls a day…..literally. My mobility life is a pain in the neck. Thank you, my carrier of choice.
Here in Holland, my coverage is impeccable. Five bars almost everywhere. You would hence think that the companies here in Europe and Holland have a leg up in terms of their enterprise mobility.
Uhm….not so much.
I’m here to tell you that European companies are struggling with the VERY same issues that American companies are dealing with. Whether it be apps, or device liability or mobility policies….Dutch and European companies are struggling with the same issues that companies in the US are dealing with.
Here’s one example. I asked the 100 people in the audience a simple question. If you purchase a device and your company pays 100% of the cost of the device….is it a corporate device?
Not ONE person raised their hand. Not one.
Ok….so what about your application strategy? Is it linked in between B2B and B2C?
Uhm…..No.
The fact of the matter is that the issues we deal with “traditionally” in North America are issues that are real in Europe…and I will hence assume across the globe. Whether it be IL vs/ CL or platform support or application strategy or security management….organizations all across the world are struggling with these issues. It’s only compounded in Europe with the impact of international roaming on wireless expense management.
So what are we to do? I of course made a shameless plug to join the EMF, but the truth is that we have SO many questions with SO many answers lacking….the answer “well, it depends” doesn’t do YOU a whole lot of good….except for the fact that that is all we have today.
But hold on and hold tight. We WILL get through this and come to a resolution. We’re not there yet, but I am confident we will soon have a brighter view on how to tangibly manage mobility in the workplace, regardless of where we live.