I have a checklist I run through every morning before I leave my house. Keys. Wallet. Laptop. Lunch.
You know what doesn’t make the “Don’t Forget Me List?” My phone. Why? The answer is simple: my phone is almost surgically attached to my side. I would never forget my phone. My phone holds the keys to my life.
I am not alone. Almost everyone I know has a similar relationship with their phone. More than 160 million Americans own a smartphone, and IDC predicts in its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report that worldwide smartphone shipments will reach 1.2 billion units by 2014, representing a 23 percent jump from the 1 billion shipped last year. By 2018, global smartphone sales are expected to reach 1.8 billion units.
Additionally, the prices for smartphones are plummeting, making it easier for many to afford one The average selling price of smartphones will hit $314 this year, a drop from $335 last year. By 2018, they’re expected to cost about $267.
To say smartphones have changed the way we live and work would be an understatement. But while smartphone use has exploded in our day-to-day lives, government adoption has been a bit trickier.
One of the main barriers to fully embracing the mobile explosion has been security issues.
To overcome security and management difficultines, agencies must invest significant time understanding how data moves within and outside the perimeter. To help you get started, consider the following questions:
- Who needs access to mobile solutions?
- Where do they need access?
- What kind of data do they need access to and why?
- What are the high-value datasets? Is there a risk to providing access?
- What’s our plan if there is a breach? How do we wipe data and have data redundancy?
- As we inventory our devices, have we also prioritized our datasets and devices?
To remain secure, you must be sure that you have covered the basics.
But agencies are making big strides, a recent GovLoop survey revealed that an overwhelming majority of respondents actively use a mobile device to perform work-related activities. Specifically, 88% of survey respondents use a smart phone to access email or other internal agency networks.
What’s even better is that 60% of mobile users who use their device for work-related activities cite productivity on the go or away from work as their highest priority.
How do you use mobile at your agency? Have you seen a mobile explosion?
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