BANGALORE, INDIA:  We are living in an age of communication revolution. And the revolutions in mobility have made far-reaching effects on not only individuals, but even the enterprises at large.

In an interview to CIOL, Narasinga Rao, general manager, mobility and collaboration themes, Wipro Technologies, discusses the current trends among Indian enterprises, challenges they face in adopting mobility and Wipro's approach in helping implement mobility projects. Here are excerpts, read on...

Q: How do you see Indian enterprises evolving to adopt mobility solutions?

Narasinga Rao: Indian enterprises have started to move from having just rolled out email for its employees, to more integrated applications that help bring business benefits. Enterprises are convinced about the benefits of having a remote worker to access Business Applications (such as customer relations management (CRM) etc.)

Enterprises are becoming aware of the advantages of location-based technologies and video adoption but are perhaps waiting for the 3G roll out in order to have the right device capabilities and bandwidths to support heavy applications.

In terms of business applications, enterprises work with the integrators, such as Wipro, who can help them out to identify the right business applications and use the scenario which can be provided with mobile access.

Q: To what extent will the 3G roll out benefit the enterprises in adopting mobility?

NR: Mobility offers direct benefits and it has moved into a more stable ground now with many compelling use cases and case studies. With business models that offer more of an Opex than a Capex alternative, enterprises need not look any further. With 3G roll out round the corner, and the availability of a plethora of devices especially based on Android, 2010 is looking like a crucial year to assess and leverage on enterprise enthusiasm.

Q: Given that the IT industry has just started recovering from the economic slowdown, how do you see enterprises investing in 2010 ?

NR: There will be an upswing in adoption of mobility in 2010. With the recession cloud starting to move over, there will be more investments in new technologies.

Enterprises are, of course, concerned about the cost of deployment and are willing to go for a hosted option with a service provider/carrier with a “pay-as-you-go” model. The ITES sector has started to come out of recession and is a hot consumer of mobility technologies. The point to be observed, however, is whether the enterprises will deploy mobility middleware solutions that support multiple device platforms or will they standardize on one particular platform, like, say, the Blackberry.

Q: Fragmentation in device space is one big challenge facing enterprises. What is Wipro doing to address this issue?

NR: Fragmentation in device space is a challenge for enterprises and it may so happen in future that the enterprises may need to support more platforms instead of standardizing on one particular device platform. Wipro helps provide solutions that abstract the device-related complexities (for both consumer type and rugged ones) from the overall task of integration with business process in order to achieve an agile working environment.

Apart from dedicated deployment services, Wipro’s mobility offerings include managed services, both in premises and hosted models in the carrier space. As a key differentiator, Wipro has strong hand-held device development and testing teams whose expertise is leveraged upon by the vertical-specific enterprise mobility divisions.

Q: What edge can Wipro provide compared to the competitors?

NR: The Enterprise Mobility Division at Wipro aims to leverage on its reach to the customer base in the verticals. This division is organized keeping in mind a vertical specific focus so that there is enough attention to different vertical needs.

The reach to the customer base is global and we have seen that enterprises are now more forthcoming to invest into mobile enablement of their enterprises. Typically enterprises start with email on hand-held as a first step and then move on to integrate the mobile device to be part of the work flow ecosystem. Field force mobile enablement is a favorite.

Enterprises benefit from Wipro’s experience and expertise to implement complex integration involving middleware products and a plethora of end terminals. Wipro also helps enterprises choose the right mobile platform based on the work flows, domain and the nature of work force.

                                                                                                                                                       Mobile World