Mobility has provided businesses of all types with new ways to engage existing and potential customers, offering faster customer service by obtaining and delivering information in real-time and on-the-move using mobile devices and apps.
As agencies and insurers transition work processes and capabilities to mobile devices, agents and brokers can perform most informational and transactional activities on the go. This not only improves the advisory experience, but helps agents reduce costs and time spent waiting on carrier responses or uploading and downloading forms. But although many carriers have adopted BYOD policies, they are still challenged with integrating personal mobile devices into the company's IT system while maintaining data security.
By working with an IT mobility expert, a carrier or agency can strategically set up the appropriate infrastructure to manage advisors' mobile devices, maintain data security and ease the workflow between paper and digital documents.
With consumerization and BYOD on the rise, many employees expect to use their personal devices for work purposes with ease. This can create issues when integrating new devices into the company's IT system due to the large range of devices and different operating systems. A mobility expert can help develop a plan to effectively manage the various mobile devices and reinforce your IT infrastructure to support an influx of new devices, all while ensuring that workplace policies are in place –key to any successful BYOD strategy.
Agencies of all sizes are looking for ways to streamline their work processes, such as decreasing the amount of time spent on claims correspondence, quote requests and policy presentations. Many have moved from paper-intensive transactions to the cloud to increase efficiency and improve the customer experience.
While mobile devices and cloud services allow advisors to work on-the-go while maintaining access to important documents, it is unlikely that paper documents will be completely replaced by digital. According to the International Data Corp. (IDC), 58% of tablet users still want to print from their tablets.
A mobility expert can help agencies and carriers streamline their record keeping practices by moving marketing materials, policy documents and customer information to a digital format while maintaining data security and navigation ease. They can also identify the appropriate cloud service providers, mobile technologies and apps for an agency's specific workflow needs. Lastly, it is important to promote the fluidity between paper and digital documents. By hiring a mobility expert, an agency can ensure that they have the cloud solution that is conducive for saving, scanning, sharing and printing paper documents directly to and from your mobile device, while managing authorized access.
The influx of mobile devices in the office leads to increased security threats as more smartphones, tablets, laptops and even consumer gadgets connect to the company networks and servers. The average organization cost per incident of corporate information theft is $5.4 million. Most corporate data breaches are caused by human error. Rather than ignoring or discouraging mobile devices in the office, agencies can embrace these advanced technologies by developing a security strategy and upgrading security protocols as needed.
The first step to implementing a mobility strategy is to survey your office's IT landscape. Have you noticed your employees using their smartphones and tablets during meetings? A major pain point of IT managers is tracking all of the mobile devices that have access to the company's network. A mobility expert can help conduct a mobility audit of all company-provided and personal devices, utilizing rigorous standards from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology, to secure access as well as to monitor and manage devices in the case of theft. Additionally, you can also reduce the likelihood of a "human error" data breach by educating employees or advisors on the new security strategy.
A comprehensive mobile security strategy should be inclusive of your entire IT environment. While computers and servers are usually the first technologies to be secured within the IT infrastructure, many businesses overlook paper documents and "behind-the-desk technology," such as printers, many of which have web-connected printing and data-sharing capabilities that can leave your network at risk of a data breach.
A mobility IT expert can help you adopt the right "behind-the-desk technologies," such as multifunction printers, that will secure private and confidential information. This will not only help ensure that the print environment is protected from external breaches, but also manage internal access. Additionally, implementing a secured mobile printing policy can create a safety net for paper and digital content.
There is a wide range of software solutions that can help secure your technology, from authentication, authorization and even accounting. For example, near-field communications (NFC) touch to authenticate and touch to print technologies allow users to transmit small amounts of data simply by touching their smartphone or tablet to a printer, making it easy to secure mobile printing.
Along with setting up the appropriate IT infrastructure, support, policies and security protocols, a mobility expert can handle questions and concerns from your staff and advise the best next steps. According to Gartner research, many organizations' IT service desks are overloaded due to the growing numbers and diversity of mobile devices in the workplace. So take some of the strain off of them, and direct mobility concerns and needs to the dedicated IT mobility expert.
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