Today, we rarely disconnect from the digital world — there are currently more active mobile devices, including smartphones, feature phones, tablets, and hotspots, than there are people in the United States, according to the CTIA.1 At work, school, and home, online connectivity is ubiquitous and our mobile devices never seem to leave our hands. Away from the office? The office comes to you with emails and enterprise applications easily accessible on a phone or tablet. Need to share a critical document with your colleagues? Access your enterprise environment to post the document and send a notification from any device or location. Not sure who was president in 1834? A quick smartphone search instantly finds the answer. Delayed at the airport? Download a game to pass the time while receiving flight updates via text.
These are the conveniences consumers have come to expect, and businesses must evolve — and in many instances are evolving — to keep up with this new digital lifestyle. Digitized delivery of assets creating recurring revenue and subscription-based services are becoming the norm. From offering streaming music instead of CDs or distributing a TV show via Hulu instead of partnering with a cable network, to offering a cloud-based software service instead of shipping a boxed CD-ROM.