Mobile deployments: The third wave begins

By Carl Zetie

How can mobile and wireless applications make a difference to our business?

Even as mobile and wireless application rollouts gather pace, many companies
are still struggling with the fundamental question of how – or even whether
– mobile applications can add value to their business. In some cases, a
technology leader such as the CIO has been tasked by the CEO to investigate
"wireless," while in other cases the CEO, CFO or other executives are
hearing about wireless from the IT side (or even directly from vendors) and are
wondering about its relevance.

It should come as no surprise that neither side should expect to be able to
identify projects that are both feasible and worthwhile without the help of the
other. One reason that so many organizations are having difficulty identifying
potential applications for this technology is that the "role models"
publicized in the trade press or by vendors are often highly specialized and
vertical first-wave applications, which are not readily duplicated in many other
organizations. Companies that have successfully exploited mobile technologies
are increasingly likely to be rolling out second-wave applications, and the
third wave is even now emerging among certain thought leaders. Understanding
these three waves is crucial to identifying appropriate opportunities in your
own organization.

In the first wave, companies basically asked the questions: Who in the
organization must be mobile to perform their work? How can we improve that job
function by providing better access to information systems? Immediate examples
included delivery drivers, field service engineers and certain sales force
professionals (where the sales cycle placed high value on immediacy of order
processing). These applications represented the "low-hanging fruit" of
mobile deployment. The payback – usually in terms of better use of resources,
both human and capital – was often immediate and readily measurable.

However, outside of certain specific verticals it is far from clear how to
extend this approach to the majority of mainstream businesses. It is no
coincidence many vendors that began by addressing these first-wave applications
are themselves finding it hard to identify where the buyers have gone, at a time
when Giga’s polls indicate robust growth in mobile and wireless deployments.

The resolution to this apparent paradox is in the fact that adoption has
increasingly entered the second wave, where companies ask the question: Who in
the organization must have access to critical information systems to perform
their work? How can we improve that job function by providing better mobility?
Companies that asked this question often found certain job functions could be
transformed by untethering the employee from the desktop. Examples include:

• Providing airline check-in agents with handheld devices, so the agent can
  come to the customer rather than the customer coming to the desk. Agents can
  thus more easily check in travelers stuck at the back of a long line and in
  danger of missing a flight, save a traveler burdened with bags and children
  from standing in line or dynamically set up an extra check-in station at a
  busy gate.
• Freeing an executive responsible for treasury functions in a company from
  waiting at their desk for an alert that a transfer or payment has been
  completed (because the executive must immediately initiate other transfers
  as soon as the notification arrives). If both the alerting and initiation of
  the next transfer are possible through a mobile device, the executive can
  carry out other useful work rather than being chained to the desk.
• Providing managers with mobile access to analytical information (as
  demonstrated by Informatica at Giga’s Emerging Technology Scene
  conference, for example) so that the information is available to them in
  another employee’s office, in a meeting, at a supplier’s office or while
  traveling. Immediate access to such information can allow instant decisions
  to be made and tasks to be completed, rather than having to defer decisions
  to a later time when the manager is back at their desk.

These second-wave applications cross the spectrum from those that are highly
specific to a particular job function to those that are horizontally applicable
across job functions and industries. The key difference is that first-wave
applications address workers whose role is essentially mobile by providing
greater information access, whereas second-wave applications address workers
whose role is essentially information driven by providing greater mobility.

The third wave comprises a class of application that exists today, albeit
only rarely. These applications address the question: How can business processes
be fundamentally redefined through the use of mobile technologies? The impact of
such deployments typically ripples far beyond simply providing a more mobile
user interface to a business function.

For example, one company has reduced its order cycle from two weeks (from order
received to delivery) down to two days. This change was initiated by allowing
sales people to place orders from the field and communicating availability and
likely delivery dates immediately to the customer. This, in turn, dramatically
impacted the way it managed inventory, which in turn affected its supplier
relationships. Not surprisingly, these applications require the greatest
imagination to identify, have the most widespread business impact and
correspondingly have potentially the highest payback.

The questions posed above can help companies identify the opportunities for
mobile and wireless applications across their organizations. Don’t assume the
potential application of mobile devices is limited to mobile employees – often
there will be greater payback in mobilizing knowledge workers than in connecting
mobile workers. In the coming year, be prepared to move beyond those two waves
to use mobile technologies to catalyze the redefinition of business processes.