Businesses continue to jump on the mobile marketing bandwagon in an effort to stay atop the consumer mindset. Smartphones and tablets each have a collage of features and specifications that can add to the benefit of a mobile product, however, before a business can see some success in going mobile, it needs to know how best to reach their target audience, in this case, their employees.
Industries from healthcare to retail are starting to incorporate―and in some cases completely replace―their current traditional operational methods with mobile technology. Most recently, the home improvement retail giant, Lowe’s purchased 42,000 iPhones to be used in-store by employees, replacing the scanner guns used by the company for more than 20 years. The devices are meant to better facilitate the purchasing process and provide an overall streamlined experience for employee and consumer.
The iPhone became a household name almost overnight and Android is well on its way to possibly taking over the spot of most popular mobile OS. At the same time, mobile tablets like the iPad and Blackberry Xoom are earning their chops and their market share at a steady rate, especially with enterprises, so the implementation of those devices will only increase.
General Electric released their iPad application in Centricity Advance Mobile. The app is designed for primary care physicians in small practices and acts as an extension to GE’s web-based version of Centricity which allows for management of patient information, prescription refills, viewing lab results, patient demographics and responding to patient emails. The app is already being well received by users.
These are both great examples of how a particular industry can utilize mobile technology to be more efficient in the field and there are a lot more. Just as a business would research their target demographic for device usage, frequency and preference, the same diligence must be put into the development of mobile solutions for employees of major enterprises. It is important to keep support, security and functionality as top priority when it comes to developing a mobile solution for use within a business, and whatever the goals of that business, the mobile application should mirror and accomplish them as quickly and easily as possible.