Let's face it - the process of selecting the right technology to address next generation solutions like enterprise mobility, BYOD or big data, is exciting for sure but also implies undertaking a massive research project. Researching the optimum solution needs to be strategic to one's organizational requirements as well as very tactical in order to ensure faster adoption right from the beginning. It is required, by design, that the technology stack of choice not only solves current pain point but can also be scalable.

It is not uncommon in this research project for the core team members to sweat the small stuff and find themselves as victims of what we call "the whiteboard effect". This essentially means that the team spends vast amount of time, going in spirals and over-analyzing the problem, before drawing that first line on a clean board. To make it interesting, there are boatloads of vendors, and counting, in the market today. There is also an immense amount of marketing data and statistics of the few that ventured down this path and how their sales and savings skyrocketed.

After having established the numerous distractions that exist today in hindering the optimum technology selection process, here is a suggested framework that can guide you to achieve the desired goal of enterprise mobility and beyond.

We will begin this exercise by deconstructing the problem and then build a solution framework in a broader sense that could be applied in multiple situations.

The first step to attain the right solution is to identify and document a well-defined problem statement. The definition of a problem statement in an emerging technology should, in our opinion, always include in a succinct paragraph-Business problem and Ideal success criteria.