One more step towards a mobile-first workplace

Today, almost our entire life is online and accessed through our mobiles. We handle our banking, transactions, book a ride, contact our friends and family, shop online and more through our mobile devices.

Globally, we spend 48% of our time online on our mobile devices and this number is expected to grow. Monthly mobile data traffic in Asia-Pacific is almost as high as the rest of the world combined. Almost 4.12 billion gigabytes[1] of mobile data is consumed monthly in APAC alone, compared to 4.88 billion in total for all other regions. No matter how we play it, we are part of a booming mobile-first generation. 

In the workplace however, as it relates to user based technology, all too often it’s like stepping back in time. Employees are buried in approval requests, spending hours on the phone to get help for an IT issue, or wasting time looking for the answers to corporate policies from HR and Finance..

So why isn’t there a mobile-friendly experience for employees to navigate through our work day, as easily as swiping through a Deliveroo order.  While huge strides have been made to make desktop systems more consumer friendly, the same has not been true for realising the full potential of mobile at work. According to our ‘State of Employee Experience’ research, “More than half of employees (54%) expect their hiring companies to offer mobile optimised tools at work.”

Which is why ServiceNow has sought to address the question ‘Why hasn’t mobile made the same positive impact in the way we work, as it has to the way we live?’

We make work, work better for people

Now Mobile sets a new global standard for redefining mobile-friendly employee experiences, moving beyond traditional apps that work in silos by integrating cross-functional workflows that better match how people get work done.

This first-of-its-kind enterprise mobile software solution connects departments such as IT, HR, Customer Services, facilities and legal, across a single, comprehensive platform that is easy to use. Companies can now offer their staff seamless workflow experiences that mimics the standard they are accustomed to in their daily lives.

Mobile has never played such an important role in our lives. By 2020, new generations like GenZ are expected to make up 36% of the global workforce. These new entrants are digital natives who expect strategic use of software and technology in the workplace, as they are the first generation to grow up entirely in an internet-centric society. Many have never seen a cassette tape or experienced making a call in a phone booth.

It is important we upgrade the employee experiences to cater for this new wave of consumer behavior. The success of our companies depends on it.  Employees who don’t have access to mobile tools feel significantly less able to access information they need and complete tasks better.

Mobile-friendly work is the future

The best and most successful companies of this generation are the ones who adapt to the changing landscape and its demands. And, the future is indeed Mobile. Australia’s leading provider for education and training courses, TAFE NSW was one of the first organisations in the world to adopt ServiceNow’s native mobile enterprise technology in Asia Pacific earlier this year. The technology enables users to simplify common workflows for employees, such as looking up information, updating incidents, and even working offline.

David Backley, Chief Information Officer, TAFE NSW commented: “Empowering TAFE NSW employees to scale the workforce of the future means that we need to integrate simple, mobile processes into our operations. By partnering with ServiceNow, we are diminishing complex work processes and implementing immediately accessible mobile work capabilities. We can deliver the best ICT services to support high quality training online and across more than 130 TAFE NSW locations. Thanks to the ServiceNow Platform, our IT and field service capabilities can now be easily accessed on mobile with one easy to use self-service portal.”

Delivering mobile-first workflows is changing how and where we get work done and ultimately, unlocking productivity for employees. Users can route requests and fix issues on the go, and all with the swipe of a thumb.

Hello, New York

I am proud of our global engineering, product, and design teams, many of them based here in APJ, who worked tirelessly to redefine our Now Platform. This week, we launched our New York release that pushes the boundaries of mobile-led innovations for enterprises with many firsts.

The upgrade comes with over 600 new innovations and the introduction of two new mobile apps, Now Mobile and Mobile Onboarding. These apps have been introduced to help our customers tackle some of the most common and tedious work processes, making them easy to address and approve from anywhere.

• We’ve made it as easy as a finger swipe for Employees who need to request a password reset or report issues, such as a keyboard that suffered a coffee spill fate
• New hires who need to sign documents, pick out a laptop and complete tasks that span multiple departments before their first day, we’ve got them covered
• ServiceNow has an app for Agents who need to get their work done on the go, whether out in the field or in the office

Now you can route requests, look up information, fix issues on the go, easily onboard and even work offline, all with a swipe on your phone. Rather than simply making a desktop experience fit into mobile screen dimensions, we believe in offering a multi-layered, fully functional mobile platform designed to make using mobile in your work life as easy as using mobile in your personal life. This is essential in Asia’s burgeoning technology-savvy workforce.

What this means for Asia

We are particularly excited about rolling this out in our fastest growing market, Asia Pacific, where we have seen a keen interest and strong appetite amongst our enterprise customers.

In Asia and around the world, digital transformation is no longer just a buzzword, it’s a reality and a gateway to the future of organizational workflows. At ServiceNow, we put customer experiences at the centre of everything we do. Creating technology that we would use in our everyday lives.

It is important to remember that we are the same people at work as we are at home. We expect the same intuitive, consumer-friendly apps to help us work, just as they help us travel, shop and stay in touch. Until now, few enterprise apps have been able to deliver great employee experiences. Innovations like New York streamline everyday work processes and help make the world of work, work better for people.

[1] According to a report by Hootsuite and We Are Social - https://www.campaignlive.com/article/apac-dwarfs-rest-mobile-usage/1422103