Mobility Trends for Small and Medium Businesses

SMBs that successfully survived the pandemic had to implement a digital technology business model in order to serve their customers and successfully connect with their employees, ensuring a reliable, secure network that would support the technology required. The 3 trends that emerged are: hybrid mobile workforce, mobile security, and the role of 5G in connectivity.

Hybrid mobile workforce

Before the pandemic it may have sounded rather utopian, but now this trend seems to be ingrained in business practice, at least abroad. In terms of employee satisfaction, SMBs that offer this option can attract more talents. This leads to greater innovation, which is the basis for business success.

In order to support the hybrid model, businesses need to explore technologies and solutions that improve entrepreneurship, collaboration and security. They need to focus on wireless connectivity options to ensure they have reliable connections and collaboration tools that allow employees to work together effectively, no matter where they are.

Mobile security

By 2020, more than 60% of small and medium businesses had suffered some form of cyber-attack, according to IDC. A hybrid work model can offer considerable flexibility, but at the same time it may “welcome” online attacks of all kinds. Understanding the risks and partnering with vendors that will contribute to the installation and operation of a secure mobile environment is a necessary first step.

SMBs must adopt a zero-trust policy to protect themselves against potential threats. At the same time, this means that they should adopt a prevention policy on how they can control the people, systems and services that use the networks. Employees should be educated on the risks involved, such as phishing and malware.

The role of 5G

According to a PwC study, 72% of business leaders plan new investments in virtual collaboration tools, and 70% plan to increase investments in IT infrastructure to ensure virtual connectivity. 5G came at the ideal time to meet the needs of a mobile workplace.
The list of possible 5G applications is endless, with many small and medium businesses looking to improve their tracking and asset management operations, fleet management, driver security or connected equipment, among other applications.

In the future, 5G will offer significant benefits to SMBs, for example by supporting critical apps that require minimal latency and reliability.