Top Trends 2022 – Enterprise Mobility

For some people, mobility has always been a part of the job. Take the most handsome corporate downsizing expert, Ryan Bingham (read: George Clooney from the movie Up in the Air), for example; flying was a daily affair for him.

Every day, he was in a new state and city, firing a new set of employees on behalf of other corporates - only to be told by a young entrant in the team that he can do this virtually as well. The meaning of Enterprise Mobility as we know it today is definitely not the same as Ryan's. Instead, it's more about the ability of businesses to offer remote working options, allowing the use of personal devices, mobile device management for business purposes and leveraging hybrid cloud technology for data access.

Therefore, trends in this arena are more skewed towards making remote working more efficient, manageable and secure. While last year we predicted Beacon Technology, IoT (Internet of Things), AR/ VR, 5G and personal devices as the leading trends, the face of Enterprise Mobility is all set to change this year. Here's what we can expect as the top 5 Enterprise Mobility Trends of 2022.
Dive right in!

Trend 1: Bring Your Own Device Will Continue To Be The New Cool Trend

The "BYOD" or Bring Your Own Device culture has been a growing trend since last year. It allows enterprises to streamline operations, especially in a hybrid work setup where employees work from the office or home, depending on the circumstances and their convenience.

Since people are more comfortable and accustomed to their own laptops and devices, it also boosts productivity and efficiency. Over 60% of the businesses expect their employees to be available remotely, irrespective of whether they have a corporate-issued device or not. So, invariably, BYOD becomes incremental for the organization – 69% of the IT decision-makers in the U.S. agree with that. Not to mention the time, energy and costs saved on supplying staff with smartphones, tablets and laptops at their company's expense. #MoneySavedIsMoneyEarned

TechDogs' Opinion: There's no denying that BYOD is fundamental to Enterprise Mobility – but there's also the heightened security risk that comes with it. When employees use their own devices, the company's data becomes more vulnerable to attacks and risks. That's why you had your company provide you workstations back in the office – that was secure as it can get. We expect companies to opt for the possible mid-way here is Employer-Provided Devices (EPD), also known as COPE (Company Owned, Personally Enabled) devices. Companies will provide mobile devices that enable remote work without compromising security – like if you combine Ryan's experience and Natalie's (Anna Kendrik) new-age strategies. (Go watch Up in the Air after finishing this article, seriously!)

Trend 2: Everyone Will Engage With AI-based Chatbots

Let's face it - the chatbot genie is not going back into the bottle anytime soon and it has already entered the enterprise world.

In the digital world, coming across pop-ups when you land on a website is an everyday affair - not to mention the little friendly bot on the side available for you to resolve your queries. Most businesses have leveraged Artificial Intelligence (AI) based chatbots for their sales and customer support teams. However, empowering teams internally across the board with chatbots to resolve issues and save a lot of time will be a key priority in 2022. You'd find chatbots in IT support, data analysis and service delivery. #BotIsEverywhere

Not just that, Natural Language Processing (NLP) used by these chatbots would help them respond better to both external and internal parties round the clock, aiding distributed teams working in different time zones to become more efficient and productive.

Of course, you don't have to take our word for it. According to a recent report by CNBC, chatbots will help businesses to save more than 8 billion USD in 2022. Saving time and money - well, that's a deal most of the businesses would want to get in on!

TechDogs' Opinion: With AI capabilities, the use of chatbots will not be limited to being the 24X7 response and support. We at #Techdogs believe that AI will enhance the capabilities of chatbots to provide you with a lot of analytics data on services and service delivery efficiency patterns – and some more. With their machine learning capabilities, they'd not only be able to track employee activity but also observe trends and recommend fixes for issues hindering your Enterprise Mobility. They can analyze every interaction (including the ones with your employees) and help you with employee data, their motivation levels and even a behavioral map of each employee, so that you can identify where you're falling short.

Trend 3: 5G Will Make Processes Faster Than Ever

"Hello, can you hear me?"
"I think my network is not stable."
"Your video seems to be stuck."

In the new normal, we've all come across these statements at some point, right? Clearly, the biggest challenge to Enterprise Mobility management has been connectivity. Being able to stay connected and communicate with a remote workforce is what businesses worked towards in 2021.

That is why the new wave of the wireless revolution, 5G, will continue to rule the business and technology landscape. After all, we all need the right network to "work" in these times – and by work, we also mean occasionally binging on Netflix and YouTube! In fact, Natalie's entire plan for their employment-termination assistance agency relied on video conferencing, so we know she just can't do without 5G!

As forecasted by GlobeNewswire, "5G connections will exceed 500 million by 2022 and reach 1.3 billion connections by the end of 2023." As this comes to fruition, it will bring much better connectivity and incredibly high speed, helping businesses derive immense benefits such as improved communication and enhanced customer experience. Technologies such as IoT, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality will also be positively impacted with 5G but more on that some other day. Needless to say, 5G would become the real OG in 2022.

TechDogs' Opinion: The 5G revolution is inevitable – but are you ready for it? Or are you too going to resist change like Ryan and not allow Natalie to fire people on video conferencing? (Frankly, we too aren't very fond of that idea!) However, unlike that idea, 5G will witness widescale adoption and is expected to offer 10 times faster speed and reduce latency issues massively. We think the challenge that would present itself is that businesses, too, would have to upgrade to be prepared for the 5G revolution. They will have to switch to devices and applications that are 5G compatible and upgrade their systems to work with 5G speeds. So, start working towards it already! #KeepingUpWithTheTimes

Trend 4: Wearable Technology Will Become Conventional

 
At first, we had desktops - but surely, we couldn't carry them around, so we got laptops. However, soon enough, they too were a load to carry around and so our mobile phones became smarter and smaller to make way for mobile apps and tools. Now, you could work on the go.

What's the next likely step? Devices that you don't have to carry at all - because you'd be busy wearing them. Moving forward, wearable technology would be the new way to do business. We already have those smartwatches that you can check your emails and take your work calls directly.

Next up, wearables will make their way into the Enterprise Mobility solutions market. Leading mobile app development companies are actively working to make wearables with apps that integrate into the business ecosystem and are likely to hit the market in 2022. Clearly, wearable technology would become more common than you can imagine and data agrees with us. An IDTechEx report stated that the wearable market may surpass $150 billion annually by 2026. That's 300 times George Clooney's net worth - just saying!

TechDogs' Opinion: First, there's the obvious use case of wearable technology – keeping employees connected on the go but is that all? That's just scratching the surface. We're expecting hands-free devices that would leverage voice commands and employ built-in cameras to change the way people work in different industries. For instance, imagine medical staff logging in patient info and history by simply scanning the QR codes and Near Field Communication (NFC) tags. We already have people using Google Glass to record themselves in action and use them for employee training and compliance management. Having said that, there's also the privacy concern that businesses would have to address or have you forgotten the publish backlash against the unrestricted use of Google Glass? #PrivacyDebateContinue

Trend 5: Hybrid Cloud Will Take The Center Stage

Let's put this into perspective. You're probably aware of those big data storage units that had to be managed on-premises by enterprises to keep their business information safe and secure, right? Of course, then came the age of the cloud and businesses took all their corporate data to be accessed and managed on the go by Cloud Computing. That's when you had the concept of two types of cloud – public and private. The latter was managed by an external service provider and the former was just like those in-house storage units, now available on the cloud.

The catch – public cloud is riskier data and security-wise and private requires more money, time and resources. So, the solution? All hail the hybrid cloud.

A hybrid cloud can manage two or more environments simultaneously, thereby providing workload portability. So, it means you can have a public cloud with a private cloud within it or vice versa. That way, a remote workforce can manage data more conveniently without having to deal with a heavy load on the cloud and you save a lot of money.

As a matter of fact, according to Accenture, 87 percent of enterprises have already adopted hybrid cloud strategies. With an estimated growth rate of 17 percent, the hybrid cloud industry is pegged to inflate from a valuation of $44.6 billion in 2018 to almost $100 billion by 2023. #HybridIsFun

TechDogs' Opinion: We feel that the adoption of hybrid cloud will directly impact the IT model for businesses. As businesses focus on Enterprise Mobility, we'd find almost every part of the organization, including IT infrastructure, getting distributed – much like their teams. So, what happens to IT? IT will demand platforms that will give them control over these distributed hybrid environments. You can expect to see centralization on top of distribution, which will integrate these multi-cloud and hybrid environments and the innumerable products and solutions within them into a single interface to manage and control the overall infrastructure.

To Sum Up

You now know the trends that will shape the face of Enterprise Mobility in 2022 but should you tap into all of them? Well, if you think they can help you, sure. However, do analyze and figure out to what extent and how well such trends can be integrated with their business models and how they will impact your business performance. After all, not everything can be taken care of on video conferencing, Natalie! From 5G and hybrid cloud integration to allowing wearables and personal devices in the office – you've got to find the ones that will drive the best results; you need not go for all of them.