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Got Mobile? If Not, You Can Bet Your Competitors are Eating Your Lunch!
Abstract
Enterprise Mobility adoption is inevitable The road to mobility is not easy, however those who venture wisely, lead the pack and reap great business rewards.
Introduction
Over the past few years, mobile devices have put the world into our pockets. The workforce has gone mobile and work is no longer a place. Your office is wherever you are. All this translates into greater productivity and efficiency and reduced costs for the enterprise. Mobility has become an enterprise requirement. This pervasiveness of mobile devices and technologies is putting the power into the hands of the user, molding a new business landscape where the User is King. To get a sense of just how sizeable this trend is, consider that the worldwide mobile worker population is set to increase to 1.3 billion by 2015, accounting for nearly 37.2% of the workforce, according to IDC. (1) A recent study shows that 75% of the global population uses mobile devices (2). As more workers go mobile, enterprises need to enable their field force with realtime data on the go, providing instant access to enterprise systems for a range of tasks from time-keeping, travel and expenses to customer-related sales and marketing information. In todays turbulent business environment, effective collaboration through the real-time sharing of information, ideas and expertise is critical to the enterprise. The mobile and connected worker can access information at all times and collaborate effectively to help the enterprise flourish. Furthermore, customers ,whether consumers or business vendors, are quickly discovering the ease and accessibility of shopping and sourcing through their mobile devices. They are downloading applications for any number of activities to streamline work, connect with friends, compare prices on their mobiles, smartphones and tablets. Over 30 billion apps have been downloaded since 2011 (2). The key question asked - Is there an app for that? Enterprises that want to survive in such a highly competitive marketplace need to find solutions that help them drive customer and employee satisfaction such as reducing wait time for check-out, eliminating the need for in-store queues, leveraging mobile wallet payments, and enabling on-the-go access to information. For instance, a study by Mashable shows that 63% of mobile shoppers compare prices with their smartphones while shopping in-store or on their desktops at home (3). Another study by Gartner shows that context-aware location-based services, visual search for differentiated user experience, mobile commerce, and mobile payments are some of the leading mobile trends in 2012 (4). In 2013 and beyond we are looking at the rise of enterprise applications mainstream, the popularity of BYOD, the entrance of Windows 8, mobility innovation within the industries like augmented reality for retailers, a machine-to-machine (M2M) connected world, and real-time insights on-the-go. Enterprises are now setting aside budget exclusively for Mobility First initiatives. A variety of devices with versatile capabilities will further accelerate the availability, quality and adoption of mobile solutions taking advantage of these trends, making mobility business as usual. As mobile applications become the new way of transacting business, enterprise mobility is poised to become the new norm.. This paper discusses the trends that are creating the need for mobility in B2B (Business to Business) and B2B2C (Business to Business to Consumer) environments, the challenges of implementing enterprise mobility, and guidelines for designing a roadmap.
The focus is gradually shifting from IT-based solutions to context-based ones as organizations transition from systems of records to systems of engagement. Organizations want to create content that is interactive, engaging and available on mobile devices through intuitive applications, thereby enabling the user from the front-end. This is relevant for consumers and, more importantly, for Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Employee (B2E) processes such as employee enablement and eld enablement. (6)
As enterprises grapple with the challenges of mobility, some are adopting mobility in speci c projects. While this piecemeal approach puts enterprises along the path to mobility, it does not enable them to take a holistic view of mobility and see the bene ts and advantages across their enterprise. This short term approach is limiting thereby causing enterprises to revisit and replant their strategy for future growth which often end in increasing costs.
Many are adopting innovative approaches in their businesses and technology strategy through mobility solutions. For example, a large telecommunications provider empowered its sales force to input data into a hand-held device at the point of sale, enabling greater e ciency and accuracy across the companys stock-to-cash system.
Some retailers have embraced innovative mobility-based solutions to their advantage such as: 1) MySupermarket, a start-up grocery store, is disintermediating the traditional experience by bringing in the best value for customers. Its mobility solution allows customers to divide their single shopping list across grocers to get the best deal and save up to 20% from the final bill. This allows the company to run an online grocery store without having a single brick and mortar shop. 2) The Tesco Virtual Store in a Seoul Metro subway station enables customers to scan the QR Codes of items they want to order and then place the order. This allows stores to extend their presence in areas not seen before.
Enterprises need applications, code, services and solutions that are re-usable with agile methodologies and robust and comprehensive testing environments to ensure that a comprehensive solution can scale as user adoption increases.
Enterprises must institute governance, and support and maintenance planning to be enforced after solution rollout. The importance of business rules and overall support, maintenance, and scheduling is critical to execution and solution optimization.
Innovative technology is constantly changing. Enterprises need agile partners that can handle shifts such as ad-hoc requests and procedural demands in the midst of rapidly changing technology and user environments.
Value-driven roadmap
As part of strategy and envisioning, enterprises need to create a roadmap from where they are and where they want to be in the short and long term.. This roadmap must clearly consider the overall vision and objectives and map out a clear path at each step of the way with success measures driven by business outcomes rather than metric-driven milestones. This enterprise roadmap would then subsequently be expanded to cover a global ecosystem strategy and roadmap connecting global partners, and extending out to vendor networks and supply chain vendors.
Conclusion
The road to mobility is inevitable, challenging, exciting and rewarding. With the rise of mobile devices by 2013 to exceed that of the number of people on Earth, it is imperative that enterprises put a strategy and plan in place to capitalize on this phenomenon. It takes innovative thinking, a flair for creativity, the best mapping of business objectives to technology enablers, and a maniacal focus on timely and flawless execution. The benefits of mobility are non-linear. Enterprises with the business savvy and perseverance to leap from point solutions into mobility for ecosystem transformation will reap great business benefits that enterprise mobility can bring to their customers, employees and partner networks. These enterprises will experience the multiplier effect that mobility brings increased efficiency, productivity and agility that drives continued success in revenue and customer satisfaction towards tomorrows enterprise. The right integration partner is one that can deliver the best of strategy, development, and execution with a flair for innovation and creativity through advanced user experience. One who also has a solid track record and history of customer successes in various industries and environments under all aspects of advisory, solution creation, test and delivery, governance, maintenance and support. Unlock the full potential of enterprise mobility with an innovative partner and trusted mobility advisor.
Whether your enterprise is beginning, or already embarking on its mobility journey, look for an experienced integration partner that possesses a strategic combination of skills and expertise to navigate the mobility landscape. While some vendors are experienced at tactical execution and application development, there are others that excel in strategy and thought leadership.
References
1. Mobile Worker Population to Reach 1.3 Billion by 2015, According to IDC, 5 Jan 2012, http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23251912#.UMazLaD_mCc
2. 75% of World has access to mobile phones, Mashable, July 2012 http://mashable.com/2012/07/17/mobile-phones-worldwide/
3. Mobile Devices empower todays shoppers in-store and online, Nielsen, Dec 2012 http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/mobile-devices-empower-todays-shoppers-in-store-and-online/
5. Nordstrom Sees Sales Boost From Mobile POS Devices, Forbes, June 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2012/04/06/nordstrom-sees-15-3-increase-in-retail-sales-following-introduction-ofmobile-pos-devices/
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