3 Ways Mobile Changed Business

 Featured article by Jessica Oaks, freelance journalist

Business hasn’t been as usual since mobile entered the scene. Mobilizing technology with network-connected devices like smartphones, tablets, and ultra-thin laptops has pushed innovation in general and specifically mobile integration at work. Here are three major ways mobile technology has changed business.

1. Overall Efficiency in Operations & Communications

Mobile impact has improved overall efficiency in business operations and communications on multiple fronts. Perhaps the most obvious change is the constant access it provides for communications and continuous work production to take place. People are now able to answer emails from their smartphones during morning commutes, at the bar or in bed, connect and work via tablet while in-flight, or video call from another state or even country at that.

In terms of information and sharing, the vast implementation of mobile has also pioneered the innovation in synced technology and cloud computing. Email, contacts and calendars are synced to mobile devices to reflect the most up-to-date info—allowing well-informed actions to follow. IT has experienced a revolutionary transition from expensive, in-house servers to outsourced cloud-computing service providers that manage from afar. This has led to efficiency in day-to-day activity. For instance, documents can be accessed and saved in real time to a cloud and opened with mobile devices, removing the bottleneck of relying on the traditional, localized server. Cloud-computing work applications like Google Docs make it easy to edit and share documents for better collaboration. The tech world has adapted to the mobile way of life and built innovation around anytime-anywhere gadgets, resulting in optimized business communications and workflow.

2. Gamification in the Work Place

Mobile game applications are starting to become an integral tool for employees and employers to train and track progress, ultimately creating an optimal work environment and increasing morale within a company. For example, Salesforce, a global cloud-computing company best known for its CRM products, offers a multitude of gaming apps to motivate employees to make sales. Components like challenges, leadership boards, badges, levels and achievement, all aspects of gaming, have been incorporated into interactive mobile applications.

Leveraging the already popularized use of smart devices at work, these games are able to keep personnel interested in the work they do thanks to the advanced mobile processing units that enable them. Graphics processing units are the powerhouses that run the complex commands mobile games hold and produce highly visual experiences that create interaction and engagement. Users don’t even feel like what they are doing is for work when it’s in the form of a game—making work fun has been a key role mobile has played in the corporate setting.

3. Impact on Marketing Strategy

Marketing for businesses and brands has forever changed because of mobile. Consumers have shifted their lives to live on the screens of their mobile devices; thus, their behaviors and decisions are based on what they see on these devices. Many businesses have revamped their marketing strategies to include a heavy focus on digital and mobile.

Because many consumers are now playing games on their mobile devices, using multiple applications at a time, viewing YouTube videos, or streaming shows on their smartphone or tablets, advertising dollars have poured into targeted banner and video ads within mobile apps, promoted social posts, as well as collecting consumer data. Insightful data of what sites people are visiting and what they are buying can be used to marketers’ advantage and lead to integrated cross-channel and cross-platform advertising that appears on a potential customer tablet, desktop and phone. Email marketing has also grown in popularity due to the exponential growth in email communication usage mobile has instigated. Last, shopping via mobile device is becoming easier than ever with the introduction of buy buttons and “shoppable” social posts.

The assimilation of mobile in business has led to great improvements for organizations in all industries. It has not only created efficient operations, happier, more productive offices, and effectively targeted marketing, but it eventually is affecting ROI and positively impacting the bottom line.

Jessica Oaks is a freelance journalist who loves to cover technology news and the ways that technology makes life easier. She also blogs at FreshlyTechy.com. Check her out on Twitter @TechyJessy.