26TH Feb – Day 1 Blog
With attendance estimated to top 100,000 attendees for the third year in a row, MWC 2018 is an event of massive scope that brings together – from all corners of the globe – all major players in the mobility.
So what kind of impact will that have on enterprise mobility? The event kicks off today and run through March 1st, boasting eight separate themes, some of which will certainly show more specificity to the enterprise mobility world.
Those themes include:
· The 4th Industrial Revolution
· Future Services Provider
· The Network
· The Digital Consumer
· Tech In Society
· Content & Media
· Applied AI
· Innovation
The applied artificial intelligence track and 4th Industrial Revolution are the clear frontrunners when it comes to enterprise mobility benefits. Artificial Intelligence is not only being adopted in multiple industries, but creating innovation for a variety of companies and use cases.
In addition to enterprise-focused content at the event, keynote speakers from some of the world’s largest brands, will be addressing today’s challenges and the state of digital transformation. Some of those include Shang Bing, Chairman of China Mobile; Jeff Zucker, President of CNN Worldwide; Christopher Young, CEO of McAfee; Jim Whitehurst, President & CEO of Red Hat; and Glenn Lurie, CEO of Synchronoss, among two dozen others.
It’s clear that mobility plays an important role in the digital enterprise, as both usage and IT maturity takes rise in enterprise mobility. This all gives rise to the question of how innovative technology and trends are impacting enterprises and employees who are clamouring to adopt new technology and use it to improve business and productivity. The Mobile Workforce Strategies (MWS) team has selected its highlights so far from the show’s major themes and implications in the area of enterprise mobility.
Day 1 highlights:
Samsung puts a business spin on the Galaxy S9, joins Galaxy Note 8 with enterprise edition - Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus with an improved camera, dual aperture lens and integration points with its Internet of things services at MWC 2018. The Samsung Galaxy S9 Enterprise Edition promises more customization and management options for central IT departments. Samsung Galaxy S9 Enterprise Edition is unlocked and set up with Knox tools to configure the device. According to Strategy Analytics’ latest Global Business Smartphone Quarterly Tracking Q4 2017 report, Android continued to lead business smartphone shipment growth, and its smartphone shipments registered a growth of 5.9% YoY and 2.1% QoQ, as shipments of Samsung’s flagship products, such as the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ and Galaxy Note 8, continued to proliferate in the enterprise mobility space. We believe Samsung will continue its efforts to differentiate its smartphones by strengthening the ecosystem based on Bixby and building on Samsung’s 5G technology.
Figure 1 - Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+
Source: Samsung
We expect mobile security, and particularly increasing use of AI for cybersecurity, to move up in the agenda of IT departments this year, and the industry to seize upon capture this market opportunity. MWC should give a good indication of this trend. Here is how Cisco and TIM joined forces to increase the IT security of Italian companies – Cisco announced that starting in March, TIM, the leading provider of mobile and fixed telecommunication services in Italy, in partnership with Cisco will offer “TIM Safe WEB”, a highly secure platform service, integrated in the TIM network, able to safeguard small business users from malware, such as ramsomware, phishing, and other malicious cybersecurity activities. The threat of cyberattacks is a growing concern for many enterprises, and can only be resolved through collaboration among all industry players. This collaboration is formed to ensure business customers are protected from malware, ransomware and other forms of cyberattacks.
According to Strategy Analytics’ State of the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) Market - 2016 Market Leaders and 2022 Forecast report - mobile attacks and vulnerabilities are increasing in terms of both number and prevalence. Enterprises are looking for solutions that can enhance their mobile security effectiveness as well as their overall cybersecurity resilience. The next step to strengthen enterprises security is to add a mobile security solution on top of a deployed EMM solution, by delivering protection against the three main mobile threat vectors — the device, the app, and the network. Furthermore, applying machine learning can help enhance network security defenses and, over time, “learn” how to automatically detect unusual patterns in encrypted web traffic, cloud, and IoT environments.
Vodafone targets enterprise market with RCS - Vodafone has become the first operator to launch next-generation RCS A2P business messaging and is showcasing RCS at MWC 2018. RCS (Rich Communication Services) is the next generation of text messaging. RCS allows consumers too quickly and easily share videos, gifs and organise group chats without needing to set up new services or download additional software, like WhatsApp. The same features that make messaging more fun for consumers also offers an exciting opportunity for companies to deepen their engagement with their customers with branded messages e.g. UK broadcaster ITV is trialling RCS with Vodafone’s RCS subscriber base to enhance the text voting and competition entry experience for viewers of its popular TV programs. One of the main benefits of RCS business messaging is that people who’ve already opted-in to SMS messages from a business don’t have to do anything at all. People will see richer, more interactive messages from businesses they care about right from their SMS inbox. This means that brands can provide a host of new features that make it easy to interact and get things done. In the coming months we’ll bring RCS business messaging to more companies globally.
Figure 2 – Vodafone RCS Business Messaging
Source: Vodafone
Please stay tuned for Day 2 Enterprise Mobility blog.