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Mobile business: Beating the hype

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CIOL Bureau
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Mobile business, with its promise of wireless Internet and a

24x7x365 accessibility promised a tantalizing prospect for companies seeking a

new channel for building customer loyalty, improving corporate data management

and fostering growth.

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A market study by Cahners-In-Stat

Group
estimates the number of wireless phone users in the world today

at 500 million and that number is expected to double by 2002. These numbers do

reveal a rosy picture of the mobile business and it’s no wonder that

enterprises are scrambling to implement an m-business strategy.

Cut to the past. This scenario is so much alike to what

happened in the early days of e-biz hype when companies thrived to build

e-commerce sites promised a fast-track implementation of solutions to market

only to revamp it as the technology evolved and the demand increased. With

history repeating in the mobile segment also, consequent to this many are paying

a high price to "go mobile" and still coming up short.

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Faltered approach

Well, one of the first challenges that any business face is

integration or rather the lack of it. According to many studies on the mobile

trends, many m-commerce strategies faltered at the beginning itself with many

companies typically viewing wireless applications as mere extensions of their

existing browser-based applications, and layered the new wireless requirements

on top of their Web systems. Using a simple transcoding, or

"screen-scraping," technique that translates the existing HTML to

device markups such as Wireless Markup Language (WML) or Handheld Device Markup

Language (HDML) and making the necessary changes, enterprises adapted to the

"smaller" version of wireless devices.

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Though this seems an easy way out and a cost effective

solution, according to the study many experts have opined that the need of the

hour is enterprises have to understand wireless as a new channel in which

integration with the e-business infrastructure is critical for the mobile user.

This apart, enterprises in their bid to remain competitive,

keep altering their Web sites often to deliver new functionality, address new

market and maintain their competitive edge. Companies need to understand that if

a mobile solution is layered on a Web site, more efforts are required to update

the markup language when the Web site changes.

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Some of the other challenges include:

Performance and scalability

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The process cycle of translation engines and HTML screen

scrapers are lengthy. As a result, when user counts rise, performance takes a

beating. To deliver the optimal performance and flexibility needed to drive

m-business, companies need to source their mobile data directly from back-end

databases.

Multiple protocols and devices

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No single standard protocol exists for WAP phones, personal

digital assistants (PDAs) and pagers, and device display gizmos vary to a large

extent. Since a simple integration to an HTML back end cannot leverage certain

features like notification and device, and location information directly,

m-business providers are forced to develop customized translators for each type

of device.

But this proves to be an expensive and unproductive task that

will only become more difficult over time and as new devices are introduced to

market. Instead, companies should consider an m-business platform that can be

optimized to support multiple device types at once.

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The user experience

Without a PC screen's multimedia and color capabilities –

not to mention its sheer size – to engage users, it's important to focus on

designing simple, intuitive interfaces that make the user's experience smooth,

quick and efficient.

Alerts / instant notification

Any e-business going mobile should explore the ability to

deliver push notification of transaction opportunities – for example,

informing customers of rising stock prices, auction deadlines or flight delays.

Further, applications that take into account the user's preferences to push

highly personalized data can significantly increase the effectiveness and

continued use of mobile devices.

All these requirements and challenges can be addressed by

pursuing an m-business strategy that is based on the direct, standards-based

integration of wireless channels to back-end systems. This approach enables

organizations to fully leverage mobile technology as a distinct, new channel for

reaching customers, partners and employees rather than as an extension of an

existing Web strategy.

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