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Mobility, Wearables Shaping a Role in UK Digital Business

Staff, Appian
August 12, 2015

August is a bittersweet month. Though I couldn't be more excited about the start of football, it's equally as sad to think that summer is drawing to an end. Where did the time go? And before we know it, we'll be getting ready for 2016!

With that in mind, it's never too early to think about what will make tech headlines in the coming year.

One thing isfor sure: The continued push for enterprise mobility and businesses' adoption of wearables will only increase. Bothhave been big themes thus far in 2015, with the onset of the Apple Watch and enterprise's return of Google Glass, so I would expect smart devices to continue to dominant headlines early in 2016...And not just here at home.

Businesses all across Europe are drivingthe mobile enterprise and becoming more accustom to BYOD policies. Recently, Appian's Vice President of UK and Ireland Channels, Vikki Hailey, discussed the mobile strategy for business in the UK and how wearables will intersect in the digital economy.

Enterprise mobility continues to drive consumer interest and appeal, especially as wearables begin to enjoy more widespread adoption. Upon initial thoughts, the Apple Watch may seem like another consumer gadget. However in business IT, the trend toward wearables is necessary to achieve a unified digital enterprise.'

"From an IT perspective, the key to corporate success is to understand the landscape of the unified enterprise in the digital environment," says Hailey. "While wearables are the hot topic now, they are only part of an overall digital strategy. Wearables, iPads, iPhones, Androids and other smart devices are all part of the digital experience for today's workers, and all these devices have to work seamlessly together."

Businesses across all industries are adopting a flexible BYOD policy that embraces wearable technology in the workforce. This is requiring leading UK and European businesses to think of mobile as aunified digital enterprise encompassingcollaboration, enterprise, applications, and cloud computing.

Hailey even sees certain wearable technology as something that may replace mundane emails.

The promise of wearables has always been to make information more accessible on-the-go," says Hailey. "Unfortunately, most enterprises also face the same issues when adding wearables to their enterprise mobility plan: security. The solution is simple: Begin with an application platform for business operations that can negate unknown security threats. Application platforms enable companies to create specific applications that can work natively on any device, wearable or otherwise."

Be sure to read Vikki's entire piece contributed to Information Age UK for her perspective on tech trends that are sure to be discussed and debated at length as we move closer to 2016.

-Mike Ingrisano, Media Relations Manager, Appian