Business process management functionality is a natural match for mobility plans as the technology is built around optimizing processes based on how people in an organization are getting the job done. As such, BPM tools emphasize giving organizations the ability to build the most efficient process architectures based on the specific needs of their users and applications. As such, the technology is well placed to help companies deal with the rising tide of mobile device use in the enterprise.
How pervasive are mobile devices in the workplace?
Enterprise mobility challenges have been garnering headlines for a long time, but how much of that is marketing hype and how much is legitimate change? That's a question that a lot of people are still trying to answer, as the balance between corporate-liable mobile device use, work performed with personal smartphones and tablets and other mobile devices, such as wearables, is incredibly difficult to measure. As each device type impacts processes differently, it can be tricky to effectively assess how big mobility is.
Mobile devices are fueling a need for process advances.
Appian recently completed an international survey with the help of the Process Excellence Network, and the result was some key insight into the breadth of mobile device use in the enterprise. Mobility issues came in after big data as the second most prominent concern impacting businesses. When it comes to dealing with mobility, approximately 70 percent of those polled said that at least a quarter of their business has already embraced mobile device functionality.
This move to mobility alongside broad trends like cloud computing and big data are changing how people work, and the result is a significant need for proprietary apps and services that can help companies align technological capabilities and business processes. BPM systems can provide a centralized enterprise application platform that makes it easier to build process functions into various apps and services.
Process concerns associated with mobility
There are many technical challenges that come with going mobile, but the key process difficulty is straightforward - you need to empower users to work on their smartphone or tablet just like they would at their desk. While it's fairly simple, actually executing on this promise is incredibly complex. You need to refine the graphical user interface to make it friendly on small and large screens, controls need to be equally effective for touch inputs or a keyboard-mouse setup and you need to have alerts and social functions that enable collaboration on processes regardless of a user's location. BPM solutions that support mobile device functionality can align all of these factors to create an optimal customer experience.
