Now Mobile – The future of mobile working

That was then The power of mobile is often taken for granted by many people today, so it’s worth a brief look at how far mobile technology has come in the past few decades. Back in 1969, the Apollo 11 moon expedition utilised all the cutting edge technology of the day to set Neil Armstrong and his team firmly on the surface of the planet. Back to 2019, the iPhone in your pocket has 100,000 times more processing power than NASA had for those moon landings 50 years ago. Similarly, with 4GB of RAM, the iPhone has one million times more memory than Apollo 11 had. And the next time you hear people complaining about data storage, it’s worth remembering that 1 MB of storage in the mid 1950s cost about $9,000 at the time (or $85,000 in today’s prices), while that now costs a user $0.00002. This is now Clearly, the employees of 2019 have the mobile processing capability that would have been out of this world five decades ago. Today’s smartphones are chock full of consumer-friendly apps, miniaturised cameras, gyroscopes and accelerometers. The challenge for technology companies has been to shift those mobile applications and the mobile experience from a consumer to a business environment – aligned with the expectations of the modern workforce. Now mobile The recent New York release of Service Now’s new mobile platform, Now Mobile, has finally addressed the issue facing organisations – how to give employees a similar mobile experience at work that they now expect when they’re at home. Now Mobile gives users an intelligent app that helps people to do their jobs on the go, similar to any app that is downloaded on a mobile device. Uniquely, it works with Android and Apple devices – and is a clear indication of the growing trend for mobile technologies being used in the workplace. Now Mobile is Service Now’s answer to the demands of the younger workforce to “consumerise” mobile experiences for corporate use. Cross-department mobile workflows The Now Mobile platform sets a new benchmark for a mobile-friendly employee experience, moving beyond individual applications into cross-department mobile workflows. It’s the first enterprise mobile experience that harnesses the Now Platform to connect departments, while hiding the complex back-end processes. On the Now Mobile platform, Service Now has introduced mobile-optimised tools to make a wide range of tasks easier for remote users, from ordering PCs to making travel requests and approving purchase orders. The timing of the Now Platform has fortunately timed with consumers’ growing need to use mobile technologies. Now Mobile frees employees up from sheer weight of app overload, removing the friction that comes in the way of everyday tasks. It also acknowledges that we live in a mobile society where it’s now important to drive automated workloads from a mobile environment. The ultimate goal of Now Mobile is to create a consumer-like mobile experience for corporate users so they become more productive at work – inside and outside the office. Now Mobile comes with a built-in onboarding application that combines all the necessary tasks that cover multiple departments including IT, HR, facilities management, accounts and legal as part of the process for bringing on new employees. This also highlights how Service Now is creating a platform that can expand into new areas of operations – work areas that require a stronger mobile presence. Enterprise mobile – a brief guide A mobile app like Now Mobile doesn’t happen overnight and organisations that endeavour to give employees a great mobile experience should understand the following: • Look for the areas in the organisation where you can problem solve and then innovate. • Ask your employees what mobile experience they want. Now Mobile, for example, was developed out of focus groups held with the younger ServiceNow employees. • Get departments to experiment and break from the mould. Get people to understand how a mobile experience can change the way you work. • Analyse cost savings – older working methods versus mobile. • Automate the underlying processes so workplaces can fit in with the mobile experience. • Open an internal forum so everyone continues to learn from the mobile experience. The future is mobile For most employees the future of work is mobile. It will create a better work experience, boost productivity and attract new talent – while retaining current talent. There will be more complex tasks that need carrying out on a laptop, but mobile will inevitably take away many of the tasks your current laptop undertakes. Above all, Now Mobile gives your employees a big opportunity to change the way they work – for the better. It makes life easier for everyone and allows all staff to get things done with less friction. SCC are a Platinum sponsor at this year’s ServiceNow Now@Work Forum in London on 17th October at the Excel. The event is designed to highlight how ServiceNow is changing the way we work.

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