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"Companies should consider investing in wireless solutions only when well-defined business challenges have been identified and prioritized"
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"In order to avoid fragmented transformation, enterprises should have a common vision, leadership support and a strategic path to implementing enterprise mobility solution"
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Gregory Wade, director, Asia Pacific, Research In Motion
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Avnesh Jain, manager IT, Hero Honda |
According to Rustagi, the greatest impact today is felt when backend system functionality such as order entry, inventory management and customer data are securely accessed directly by sales people and other field workers. In the very near future, these kinds of 'get your work done wherever you are' capabilities will be extended to all enterprise employees with legitimate mobile needs. Afterwards, robust mobile self-help capabilities will be extended directly to customers and business partners. Again, the underlying theme will be 'tool of choice at the moment of choice' whereby people will use their desktops, laptops and handhelds interchangeably as their work situation changes.
In general terms, for a wireless solution to be most useful within a corporate environment, it must enable data access that users really need. This is much easier said than done, and requires a solution that offers stable connectivity for users, regardless of location.
Getting Started
For companies beginning the wireless journey, pervasive applications like SMS and email are good starting points. These applications are often the easiest to identify and implement and the benefits to productivity are also easy to measure.
According to Jain, currently the usage of SMS as a medium for enterprise mobile applications has been adopted for data gathering, tracking, remote monitoring, and business communication to customers and business partners. However, limitations remain in terms of space constraint, which is 150 characters in normal GSM phones, delay in deliveries and lack of storage capacity.
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"The greatest impact today is felt when backend system functionality such as order entry, inventory management and customer data are securely accessed directly by sales people and other field workers"
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"The CIO should experiment across the spectrum of technologies to seek a fit within the enterprise. What works in one industry may not succeed in another in the same format"
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Subodh Rustagi, country head, India and South East Asia, SCO
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Arun Gupta, director, P-GIS, BRM–SCANZ, Philips Electronics India
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However, Wade points out that when considering wireless access to corporate data beyond email, it is best to identify the problems and opportunities that exist, the expected returns, and the associated costs.
There's More!
While SMS and mobile email continues to be the mainstay application, there is a plethora of business applications emerging beyond the two. Among those in the process of stabilizing include Field Force Automation, Sales Force Automation, mobile application for customer service and support, Mobile Warehouse Management, order management, etc. According to Uthappa, mobile claims management, mobile insurance POS is gaining importance in the Insurance Companies. All consumer oriented enterpise(banks/ FMCG/ insurance etc) are now looking at providing enchanced services to the end customers through the mobile. Mobile banking, mobile trading and mobile commerce will be among the important applications in the future.
According to Arun Gupta, director, P-GIS, BRM–SCANZ, Philips Electronics India, the CIO should experiment across the spectrum of technologies to seek a fit within the enterprise. What works in one industry may not succeed in another in the same format. Thus, it is important to review the need and build a business case before attempting large scale deployment. They should not try to modify existing applications to fit the mobile space, rather they should build afresh and integrate with legacy applications until the application portfolio can be revamped.
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