User mobility, together with Internet of Things, Big Data and Cloud are increasingly strategic for companies’ success, but they also create new challenges: How to ensure maximum experience, performance and security in accessing information? In today’s article, we look for the answer.

User mobility as a competitive advantage

The ability to work anywhere with the same productivity, security and experience as in an office is a growing demand. ITCs need to be prepared for addressing a permanently connected world so that companies and their teams are able to take advantage of the competitive advantages provided by mobility. It is essential to ensure simple, effective and intelligent means of communication and interaction both with the internal user – the employee, and with the external user – the customer, supplier or partner. This is where Collaboration and User Experience solutions come in, which must be adaptable to any workplace, perfectly integrated with existing operational and business processes and in full harmony with the needs of the various stakeholders, in order to reach the desired levels of adoption, return on investment and benefits:

• Always available information – Secure access to the networks, systems, applications and data anywhere, anytime and through any equipment;
• More agile processes – With the appropriate management and communication tools, companies are able to streamline and optimize work processes, and foster collaboration and teamwork;
• Productivity and profitability – Mobility optimizes personal and professional time management, and makes employees more motivated and efficient;
• More satisfied customers – A closer and more agile service, with fewer steps and bureaucracy, is valued by customers and increases their loyalty and repurchase;
• Costs reduction – The most effective allocation of resources and the reduction of travel time and expenses allows for very significant gains.

Mobility challenges

A worker with a smartphone and an internet package is not a mobile worker. If he is unable to continuously access the information he needs, work collaboratively or perform all his tasks with digital resources, he will never be able to fully enjoy the benefits. All this implies not only a change in management but also in IT infrastructure. In this field, there are several challenges associated with user mobility:

• Security and access control are critical not only in the network but also in collaborative, remote and integrated equipment, applications and solutions. It is important to invest in NAC (Network Access Control) solutions that allow to know “who, where, how, when and what”;
• A workload access policy should be defined to ensure that the user maintains the level of access and experience regardless of where he is “logged in” and a security policy that follows the user regardless of the location and equipment he is connecting from (wired or wireless);
• For everything to work as expected in terms of performance and safety, there must be tight control, central management and complete visibility of applications, usage patterns, and circuit occupation. Only then is it possible to act preventively, optimize the work of those who manage the infrastructure and ensure its robustness, speed, protection, stability and scalability over time.

Analytics is key to success

Although the benefits associated with user mobility are unquestionable, they can only be enhanced in practice when accompanied by solutions that allow to collect, analyze and extract value from the data it generates, and thus make informed decisions according to the specificity of the infrastructure and the business. How many accesses to the network are there at any given time? What is its speed? How many users are online? What video conferencing solutions are being used and with how many employees? What is the space occupied by the company’s files? What applications are accessed via the web? How long does it take to download heavy documents? What does each user have installed on their equipment? Who tried to enter the systems illegally?

Never forget that data analytics is considered the new “oil”. Only by combining mobility and its analytics is possible to achieve more secure and high-performance infrastructures, end-to-end visibility and timely action in face of the situation at every moment.

Warpcom’s mobility and analytics offer is part of the Networking & Infrastructure and Collaboration & Customer Experience units, covering solutions from the main players in the market, as well as advanced diagnostic, consulting, implementation and support services.

Get in touch with us and count on us to design the mobility, infrastructure and data analytics solutions best suited to your reality.