3 things your business should consider for a successful mobile strategy

Mobile, big data, cloud, and cognitive computing help form the foundation for improving business metrics, margin improvement, marketing campaign effectiveness, and time to close.

These technologies are also key when executing new and creative strategies.

The challenge for IT leaders is to craft a mobile strategy that takes advantage of the other technologies. Even if you are focused on mobile, you should evaluate how other technology can support and reinforce your efforts.

For example, a cloud computing strategy can support a mobile strategy with app development and testing services and SaaS offerings. Meanwhile, a big data strategy reinforces mobile efforts by providing new data and insights into mobile applications.

A cohesive IT strategy includes mobile with a focus on three important areas:

1. Contextual security solutions

Every technology project should define how security solutions can impact the company.

While there are specific mobile aspects to security — such as software that helps secure devices and distribute mobile applications — companies should be building an integrated contextual security model that offers security at the device, network, cloud, and application levels. A contextual security policy defines data access based on contextual identity attributes, such as:

• Multi-factor authentication
• Location
• Time of day
• Content type

2. Application development strategy

Many companies are going through an overarching legacy application transformation.

As you look to modernize apps, it’s a good time to build your mobile-enablement plan. Applications should be redesigned to gather new inputs such as location, sensor data, and image capture.

3. Big data and analytics strategy to support contextual services

The impact of a mobile app varies based on the types of data it can access.

Your mobile team should work with the data and analytics team to understand how changes the company is making in various database, storage, and analytics tools can be used to map the right outputs back to new mobile applications.

Today, many organizations treat mobile as an overlay network that simply extends apps to a new set of devices.

With a coordinated technology roadmap that integrates cloud, analytics, and mobility, IT can create applications and services that transform the business. AT&T can help with end-to-end mobility solutions designed to enable agile business operations.