Mobile communication is an increasingly important part of every business. In the United States, over 71% of the population owns a smartphone. Instead of fighting the overwhelming presence of smartphones, businesses should lean into the trend by embracing mobile communication. It’s important to your company’s operations for several reasons.
Why Mobile Communication Matters
The most obvious feature of mobile communication is that communication is improved overall. Instead of being out of the loop, operations employees and the mobile workforce can stay in constant communication thanks to wireless networks and mobile platforms.
Analog forms of business communication like bulletin boards and snail mail can finally become relics of the past. And improved communication is crucial. One study from the Holmes Report suggests that companies lose approximately $26,000 per employee per year due to productivity losses resulting from communications barriers. This is a great reason why mobile communication matters.
Improved Efficiency
Mobile solutions can improve efficiency in a myriad of ways, but it is especially helpful to mobile workers who spend their time on the floor or a job site. Mobile solutions increase operations efficiency by cutting down the need for face-to-face meetings and also create increased opportunities for management to communicate with staff.
Improved Organization
Mobile communication can be used to improve the organization by offering file sharing on the go, document collaboration, and many different apps and software that allow employees to access company info anytime. There are also many additional options, like platforms to track customers and sales or organize tasks and who they are assigned to.
Improved Employee Engagement
The right mobile communication solution can increase employee engagement. From the Holmes Report article, “Best Buy found that higher employee engagement scores led to better store performance.
The company found that for every percentage point it boosted employee engagement, individual stores saw a $100,000 increase in operating income annually.” That’s $100,000 per store! Clearly, the ROI of a good mobile communication system is high.
Improved Productivity
There are several ways mobile communication can increase productivity, including many of the reasons listed above. An additional benefit of mobile communication is improved productivity with a mobile workforce that doesn’t work in a cubicle.
With mobile solutions, managers can capture the wisdom of their operations staff and apply it to an entire division or department. The employees in the action are most intimate with the challenges their company faces. An enterprise messaging app allows management to capture this valuable intelligence.
While there are clearly many benefits to mobile communication, it’s important to keep in mind that there is always a security risk when using it. That’s why it is so crucial to choose legitimate and qualified platforms and systems. The right mobile solutions will only help your business by allowing your company to take advantage of all the benefits while minimizing security risks.
Source Credit: Beekeeper
To address the rapid advancements to the area of mobile computing, PHI has brought out e-book and print book Fundamentals of Mobile Computing by Pattanaik and Rajib Mall, It gives an introduction to the World of Mobile Phones.
E-book Features
- Searchable Text
- Zoom in/Zoom out
- Clickable links
- Bookmarking
- Highlighting
- Note-taking
An e-book is available through www.phindia.com, Amazon Kindle, Google Play Books, and Barnes and Noble.