During the last couple of years consumer devices have surpassed enterprise devices in many ways. Most of the features initially produced for the enterprise are actually leveraged in cell phones that everyone has. Performs this mean it is a no-brainer with regards to selecting a tool to have an enterprise mobility project? Not even close to it, more choice brings more debate and much more confusion. While BYOD may suit many organizations and mobile solutions it’s worth searching carefully at the own situation to find out which products are appropriate.

Clearly among the fields of consumer and enterprise cellular devices there’s lots of variety and also the technologies are altering quickly. Exactly what does stay pretty much constant is the fact that companies would like to get good value. I’ll cover a few of the tips that will help you constitute your personal mind by what suits your initiative. I’d suggest making the decision with different good understanding of the present and future needs. A great way to do that is to apply a discovery, questionnaire, and/or workshop process. Attempt to determine what you could within the following areas:

Who’re the mobile users?

When formulating a method for device selection I normally begin with the consumer roles. For instance:

Executives

Sales Agents

Customers

Subcontractors

Service Staff

IT personnel

Consumers

What’s going to each user group use the unit?

You will probably find single:1 match between use cases and users but normally there’s some mix over, so you need to know very well what will be performed using the devices. Here’s a few examples:

Click on work flows

Create content or enter plenty of text

Scan goods having a barcode or RFID

Capture a customer’s signature

View large documents

Take photographs of problems

Make an online search for information

Use mapping or Geo location services

When and where can they make use of the device?

Obviously the atmosphere can vary inside a user group. This can be time whenever you determine sub-groups with slightly different needs. Taking into consideration the following use profiles will let you determine battery existence, or IP rating needs.

Around the town

In rural areas

Subterranean

In the vehicle or forklift

In wet areas, within the desert, in high temperatures

With chemicals or explosives

Periodic telephone calls

All day long data entry

Do you know the requirements of the program?

You might have covered these items when looking for the utilization cases, nonetheless its best to mix check and think about any technical needs that you may have for that devices:

Particular operating-system or version

Browser that supports HTML5

Antivirus

Offline Database

Storage capacity

CPU type

Connectivity (Bluetooth, serial, usb)

Printing

OK that’s lots of questions but after you have a handle on these areas you are able to map user groups, use cases, and form factors to assist identify which device styles fit your business. Frequently I actually do that inside a spread-sheet format and when necessary you are able to apply weighting values to particular characteristics. So using this work you will be able to determine the bottom needs list for every device. Something similar to the next:

Do you know the device needs?

Display Size

Input Method

Peripherals

Battery Existence

4G/LTE/Wireless

Ruggedized or otherwise

Let us remember the non-functional, procurement, and policy type needs you might have inside your organisation. For instance:

Non Functional Needs

Vendors contracts

Supportability from the devices

Repairability / replaceability

Staging and building the unit SOE

Security also it policies

Now that you’ve got an entire picture from the needs you are able to element in specific brands, models, and manufacturers. For this point consideration is frequently provided to whether someone device or perhaps an enterprise system is most suitable. Remember you could create a policy or approval procedure that enables different devices to become selected for various criteria. Here are a few quick ideas:

Do you know the benefits and drawbacks of enterprise and consumer devices?

Enterprise device model existence is a lot more than consumer devices

Enterprise devices have stable well tested components and operating-system

Enterprise devices generally have better support

Consumer devices initial purchase cost cost less than enterprise devices

Consumer devices are usually better looked after than ruggedised enterprise devices

Consumer devices possess the most advanced technology (e.g. camera, CPU, OS features)