Not Upwardly Mobile, Yet

Take a case where you could be traveling to Singapore and happen

to loose your credit card on the way. Once there you approach the credit card

office, and chances are that you'll get a duplicate card issued in less than

twenty-four hours.

Take another case, this time the location being India. You as a

customer and end up aggregating Rs 300 as royalty bonus from, say, ABC Retail,

and you go to one of their outlets to utilize the royalty bonus. Then you go to

their other shop and buy something using the same royalty bonus. It doesn't

stop at that. You can in fact make it to shop number three as well and buy more,

on the same day. This happens simply because our mobile enterprise applications

users are yet to mature and upgrade their systems to desired levels. They

however seem to be putting some efforts in that direction though.

Demand Driven? Not Really!



Demand from enterprise organizations is on the rise, and it varies from one
company to another. Automobile companies, for instance, want their procurement

head, traveling abroad at the moment, to monitor inventory. Pharmaceutical

companies, on the other hand, may want to know real-time sales update and

doctors' demands for new products. Insurance companies want to settle their

customers' accident claims on the spot; Retail companies want to know the

inventory, sales, response to their offers on an hourly-basis; airlines want to

provide quality experience to flyers; and so on.

The India case seems to be quite common, and happens to

organizations periodically. This obviously leads to significant losses. And,

this is primarily due to the existence of loopholes in their ICT infrastructure.

Singapore-based companies are comparatively better off as they have quality

systems in place.

Despite inaccuracies observed in the system, as well as mounting

losses in some cases, enterprises in India are yet to upgrade their mobile

enterprise applications (MEA). India currently lacks in terms of system

aggregators-as a well-established business community that they represent in

countries like the US. Domestic service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Idea

Cellular, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone Essar etc. are

gearing up to meet enterprises demand. Application providers are also doing

their bit, but the MEA market is still miniscule.

Promising, but Small



MEA is yet to pick up in the country. Current applications are limited to
simple push and pull applications, which cannot be used that extensively because

of technical limitations. "The need is for interactive mobile applications

that can be used over GPRS," according to Virender Pal, CTO, SpiceJet. Such

apps can certainly boost the MEA usage and penetration, he feels. Some potential

use could be online selling, check-in and other services. "The day we are

able to port and use those applications available for Internet users, for the

mobile users as well, it will be something," he added.

According to Amit Mehta, director-Marketing, Avaya GlobalConnect,

there are challenges in the Indian environment. Home working is not a popular

option today because of culture issues, a person at home can login via VPN and

use the communication features of the office PBX. This is not allowed as per

regulation. Penetration of broadband for accessing office voice and data

applications is also limited. Mobility for home workers is enabled by an

underlying IP infrastructure at the office. Not all offices today are on the

latest IP based infrastructure. Currently the number of mobile devices which

support office PBX client on the phones (this enables the user to access the

same feature /functionality as on the deskphone on the mobile as well i.e

conferencing, voice mail access etc) are limited. This means to derive true

benefits of mobility, the organization needs to standardize their mobile phone

models.

	"We have a little more than 1,300 gold certified partners just focused on mobility"
	-Olivier Ribet , director, mobile solutions sales & marketing, Asia Pacific & Greater China Region, Microsoft
	"The need is for interactive mobile applications that can be used over GPRS"
	-Virender Pal, CTO, SpiceJet
	"Most organizations have an idea of what their problem areas are, and what kind of solutions they require"
	-Balaji Jagannathan , MD, India & Sub-continent, Sybase

Enterprise mobile applications can improve performance as well

as keep costs effectively under control. But what are these apps? According to

Virender Pal, Internet applications would be great, if they could be ported on

the mobile and supported by the service providers. The applications could be

interactive and real-time such as online booking, enterprise ERP apps, among

others.

"We are currently working on porting some of our enterprise

applications, which will definitely help the organization to do the things in a

better way, the data access will be by our employees, partners and

customers," he added.

Enterprise Demands



CIOs demand smart devices that are ideal for customization, with the ability to
add-on apps, and also edit and share popular business applications, such as

documents, spreadsheets and presentation files. In addition, they want the smart

devices to have the some of the following characteristics:

• Enable 3rd parties to develop rich applications for the
  
  device

• Support for multiple email solutions

• A wide selection of 3rd party applications available like
  
  calendar, WorldMate, Active Notes etc

• Large, high quality display and graphical user interface

• Significant internal memory and expandable memory
  
  capabilities to enable users to store data and applications on the device

• Rich connectivity capabilities — both local (USB,
  
  Bluetooth, WLAN, IrDA) and wide area connectivity (GSM, WCDMA, CDMA)

• Video conferencing options

• GPS and other navigational features

The CIO demands pertain to a solution that is supposed to give

them the necessary platform to help do away with complexities and execution

problems faced on the field. And all this with minimal investments in terms of

technology, training and maintenance. Since most of them are aware of some

reference solution or the other being applied somewhere else, they are eager to

know if a similar investment will meet RoI requirement in the Indian system as

well.

"Most organizations have an idea of what their problem

areas are, and what kind of solutions they require, but they aren't aware of

the implementation possibilities, procedures and timelines," says Balaji

Jagannathan, managing director, India & Sub-Continent, Sybase Inc.

Vikram R SriHari, CIO, Guardian Lifecare, feels that enterprises

are looking for three things from mobile applications: high quality, reliability

and availability. At present, Indian enterprises have lots of basic

applications, which are not up to the mark. Over a period of time, a large

number of enterprises are expected to move up the value-chain to high-end

applications.

"The demand should start from the enterprise policy of

offering the best solutions to customers. It's easy to blame our service

providers and application companies. But the real action should come from within

the enterprises for this kind of innovation. The next level of mobile

applications should involve systems that can offer real-time knowledge to

managers, along with solutions, as and when an internal policy is broken by

someone in the enterprise," he added.

Avaya India did a survey on what mobility means to employees and

the IT directors in the country. According to the findings, simplicity for

employees means single number, voice mail and directory, enterprise data access

(email, intranet), consistent user capabilities, taking control of

communications and choice of devices.

Seventy-one percent of employees in India carry two or more

devices on most days, while 18% employees pick up an important message late,

more than once a day. Various reasons for mobility include: 47% satisfying

customers and never missing deals; 27% not being tethered to your desk; and 63%

employees agree that telecommuting improves sense of work/life balance.

	"In the US, there are some six aggregators or so, whereas India is yet to see one"
	-Shekhar Kirani , VP, Verisign Services India
	"Enterprises are looking for three things from mobile applications: high quality, reliability, and availability"
	-Vikram R SriHari, CIO, Guardian Lifecare
	"There is huge opportunity that exists for the enterprise mobile applications segment in India"
	-Chakrapani GK, country general manager, Nokia Enterprise Solutions

Simplicity for IT directors mean single applications and network

infrastructure, reporting and accounting, consistent management and control

policies, control of mobile devices, and choice of solutions supporting mobile

workers.

According to the survey, IT directors feel 54% of employees cost

are facilities based, while 60% of mobile phone calls are made from within a

building. 48% of Indian employees feel companies are wary that telecommuting may

mean loss of control. And, too many technologies such as Bluetooth, 802.11

a/b/g, WiMax, CDMA, WCDMA, TD-CDMA, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA are in place.

Fifty-seven percent of employers fall short of meeting employees'

mobility needs, while 38% of employees aware of others using unapproved devices

and software, the Avaya India survey said.

Supply Gaps and Costs



The current applications are limited to mainly push and pull services
through predefined four-digit numbers. It is a good start, but the time has come

to take mobile usage to next level.

Enterprise mobile applications are in demand in developed

countries and hence India too should see lots of action. But the main issue that

the Indian marketplace is likely to face will be the lack of system integrators

in the country who can guide enterprise organizations on the integration of

mobile and workflow. "In the US, there are some six aggregators or so,

whereas India is yet to see one," Shekhar Kirani, VP, Verisign Services

India, said.

Among the major challenges in India are the myths concerning

enterprise mobility, and thus there is a potential need to educate the market.

Other reasons being the device and communication costs of sophisticated mobile

devices for enterprise apps. Prices still are the major barrier for India to

enter into mobility. Many have tried using consumer phones for business

applications but most have failed to provide a workable solution on such end

devices.

There are a lot of the companies that want to mobilize their

existing applications, and there are others that want new mobile applications

developed from scratch. In the case of the former, Sybase products like

OneBridge, M-business Anywhere and Unwired Accelerator, which are patented

technologies, enable discretionary mobilization, which means that the

application that you see on your devices is a pro-mobile version of the

application at the back end. The advantage being that the training involved for

the end user is minimal.

In the latter case, we have seen a lot of application developers

go the mobile way in recent times. With enterprise mobility catching up, more

application developers are realizing the potential of the market and this will

result in a definite growth in quantity and quality of applications to choose

from. "Our products like PocketBuilder and Workspace provide flexible

solutions for application developers," says Jagannathan of Sybase.

Industry Takes Note



CIOs feel that Indian enterprises are yet to experience the benefits of high-end
mobile applications. It is essentially the lack of awareness of the benefits of

enterprise mobile applications and the entire business mobility proposition in

general, that is responsible for adoption rates being slow at present. Price is

the other significant reason. Smart devices carry relatively higher price tags

in the Indian marketplace.

Nokia however has addressed this aspect by making the smart

devices available under the sub-12k range. These include the Nokia E50 and the

E62. Such products at those pricing levels are likely to catalyze the enterprise

usage and adoption of these devices, especially for the middle and junior level

workforce. Some of the high-end device features like video conferencing would

work much better with 3G networks though. 3G thus would lead to an increased

adoption for enterprise mobility.

Olivier Ribet, a director at Microsoft said, "We have a

little more than 1,300 gold certified partners just focused on mobility, who are

developing applications for Windows mobile platform worldwide. They are also

constantly making an effort to move all desktop applications to the windows

mobile platform. Windows mobile is definitely being seeing as a platform to

provide end-to-end solutions and not just an e-mailing."

"Some years ago, Blackberry was the only player to provide

e-mail on the move. We came and said we know how to do e-mail better, hence we

put outlook express on the mobile and moved the information to exchange server.

Then we felt mobility was not just about e-mail," he added. According to

Ribet, 60% of the windows mobile-enabled devices are being used for sales force

and field force automation, along with a lot of CRM and ERP applications as

well. "Enterprises want their sales guys to check inventories, and customer

information, in real time, which can easily be done on a Windows Mobile

platform," he says.

Nokia Enterprise Solutions division offers security solutions,

apart from business-optimized devices, making it an end-to-end mobility player

in the market. Their offerings include firewalls, VPN solutions, intrusion

prevention systems, and Unified Threat Management.

Security is an integral part of business mobility solutions

today. Security constitutes a key a component of Nokia's comprehensive

business mobility portfolio and software like its Intellisync Mobile Suite and

others that enable mobile applications such as email and enterprise voice.

For ensuring end-user satisfaction, Nokia had launched the

exclusive "Eguru" program pertaining to enterprise devices. This

program involves extensive training of Eguru's on the devices and applications

so that they can in turn provide an enhanced customer experience.

Avaya is the first to implement and deploy enterprise FMC

systems. For instance, extension to cellular capability allows an incoming call

on the office PBX to ring simultaneously on the office extension and the mobile

phone. When in office call can be picked up from office phone and when outside

it can be picked from the mobile. The company, which has strategic alliances

with Motorola, Nokia, and RIM for business needs, has also the broadest

portfolio of products supporting mobile workers choices in devices and work

modes.

Show Me the Money!



MEA is one of the hottest segments in India, or so it is dubbed to be.
Companies are increasingly adopting enterprise applications for their core

business activities. As per a research titled "Business Mobility and the

Agile Organization: The quest for competitiveness", sponsored by Nokia with

EIU in May 2007, with a view over the next two years; 41% respondents said their

companies were likely to make greater use of remote network access; 34% said it

will be customer relationship management; 21% said collaborative applications

such as mobile groupware; and 17% said sales force automation.

Increasingly, activities in the field are regarded as central to

the success of the business. No longer is mobility associated simply with

capturing information in the field and bringing it back to the office for

processing. "This underlines the huge opportunity that exists for the

enterprise mobile applications segment in India, and globally as well. Nokia

with its comprehensive line of over six enterprise devices has aggressive plans

to capitalize on this opportunity," according to Chakrapani GK, country

general manager, Nokia Enterprise Solutions.

The mobile employee is demanding more solutions to address a

broader set of needs, and consequently spurring strong growth for the worldwide

mobile enterprise application market. According to a recent IDC study, the

mobile enterprise applications market reached $1.2 bn in 2005. As per IDC

forecasts this market will grow to $3.5 bn in 2010, representing a compounded

annual growth rate of 23%.

Service providers have to improve their data capabilities, and

the handset manufacturers have to work upon the cost of the data enabled

handsets. But more importantly the developer community has to come out of its

prevalent inhibitions, and develop the cross platform applications. On top of

all this, enterprise users have to come out of their present culture and adopt

new applications that can change the way they work, something that they appear

to have started working upon.

Baburajan K and

Sandeep Budki



baburajank@cybermedia.co.in