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Mobile Office: Not Just a Phone!

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

Mobile devices have become ubiquitous in the workplace. Those in front office

jobs-management, sales, IT and marketing -consider these critical to their

work. While those in operations, R&D, engineering and production might not

find them quite as important. Companies currently employing mobile devices are

already exploring new and innovative ways to implement technology to boost their

bottom lines. Adenwala of Pidilite elucidates that in the next two years their

SFA/CRM applications will be most critical to their business. There has been an

increase in the number of people relying on mobile devices to access vital

calendars, contact information, field applications and corporate intranet or

databases while on the job.

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A recent study on wireless deployment by research firm IDC, which covered

over 2,000 companies in the region, found that 21.4 percent have enabled Wi-Fi

(Wireless Fidelity) access for their employees, up from 7.4 percent last year.

Ten percent of respondents indicated the availability of mobile e-mail, while

4 percent had enabled wireless access of enterprise applications such as CRM

(customer relationship management). Mobile applications designed for vertical

industries and instant messaging stood at 3 percent each.

Over

80 percent said they did not plan to implement mobile enterprise and vertical

applications, as well as mobile instant messaging within the next two years.

About 76 percent also had no plans for mobile e-mail.

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Though from this survey it seems that companies are not yet setting aside

money for a mobility strategy, a separate survey showed that most are convinced

of the benefits of having a mobile workforce. The survey, comprising of

multinational companies and large local organizations across the Asia-Pacific

region, found that 61 percent of respondents agreed that telecommuting would

improve employee productivity.

With new feature rich applications and memory capability, mobile devices are

integrating new services and applications. Today, even using SMS you can build

applications like railway ticket booking, game play, mobile banking and other

applications. There has been increased use of services and applications for

interactive media, especially by TV channels-Sony TV, Zee TV and many more

make extensive use of SMS-based services to ensure viewership, and to augment

participation and interaction.

Ishwar Jha of Zee TV says, "We have host of services and applications on

our platform 7575. Which starts from simple SMS based response service to

complex ones where you need to answer a series of questions to qualify or win a

prize. We also have applications by which you can book movie tickets, buy housie

tickets or transact over SMS."

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At present there is more focus on SMS-based mobility applications and

services, which are slowly gearing up for more complex, feature-rich

applications that will provide GUI and PC application like interface to

customer. The other exciting feature that's going to play a big role in the

growth of mobile platform is the opening of the 3G spectrum. This will allow

high bandwidth interaction and data transfer, hence, enabling mobile video

streaming, entertainment and two way video conferencing using mobile devices.

The company size has very little, if any, bearing on mobile technology

adoption. While small businesses are typically more nimble, trying to gain

maximum productivity and profitability from their smaller workforces, they might

lack the know-how to implement mobile technology solutions. On the other hand,

large businesses have the competence but may lack the drive as they must also

contend with issues of cost, network security and management.

Applications on the Mobile



Mobile devices are beginning to be considered indispensable for e-mails,

calendars, contacts management, among other functions. While laptops are still

the preferred device for remote access to corporate applications, mobile phones

are highly effective as well. Perhaps the most ardent adopters of mobility

throughout the business community are its top executives. For example Blackberry

from Airtel, in India, was widely adopted by the senior management of leading

corporates in the country. Within eight months of launch Airtel was serving

corporates like Ernst & Young, GE Capital, HSBC Bank, Wipro Technologies,

Standard Chartered Bank, Infosys, Siemens, Gillette India, Star TV, Morgan

Stanley, McKinsey & Company, Master Card, Hewitt, Johnson & Johnson and

several other large corporations and SMEs. As e-mail and instant messaging (IM)

have become entrenched as primary business tools, decision makers are seeing a

growing demand for remote access to these functions among all user groups.

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Most businesses will turn to a network provider, systems integrator,

distributor or reseller to enable a comprehensive, integrated and secure remote

e-mail access solution.

Pidilite has been an early enabler of SFA on PDAs for its sales team. Zoeb

Adenwala, IT Head, opines that access to corporate data anytime, anywhere gives

significant power in the hands of the Mobile force to make timely decisions and

execute deals. Various applications such as data entry, enquiry, user

authentication, approvals, alerts, etc can be made available on mobile devices

for the employees on the move. Indian enterprises are moving towards accessing

SFA, CRM, mail, workflow, and even ERP, while on the move, through mobile

devices.

Adenwala adds that in 2 year's time Pidilite will have a matured form of

SFA/CRM for its mobile force.

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Though each service comes with a Pandora's box of problems, here the issue

is more associated with cost of the device and maintenance in the field. As the

prices of devices that can support enterprise applications are still high

enterprises find it difficult to demonstrate immediate RoI.

Support



With growing complexity of mobile devices and expanding access to remote

business applications, companies will increasingly rely on support services for

solutions to their mobile concerns. Businesses of all sizes will depend heavily

on mobile operators and device manufacturers to deploy enhanced mobile

solutions, as well as service and tech support for mobile devices. Most

businesses will require outside help for tech support for their mobile devices

and data support.

In India all leading service providers-Hutch, Idea, Airtel, Reliance

Infocomm and others-are offering some kind of Push mail service to the

enterprise as their business solution offerings. The trend is increasingly

towards 2-way access traffic of corporate intranet. Jay Bakshi of Nokia iterates

that mobile e-mail is the next big business application taking off in the

wireless space. Organizations today are experiencing the need to enhance and

evolve their IT infrastructure for mobility.

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Security Remains a Challenge



CIOs and IT directors worldwide have cited security as one of the greatest
inhibitors to the deployment of mobile and wireless devices. As better security

measures, both from the service provider and the enterprise network are absent,

enterprises are hesitant and cautious before introducing smart phones and other

mobile devices into their corporate networks. It is imperative that enterprises

are able to have an end-to-end management of all devices from a single location,

to harness productivity gains.

While most companies are planning to increase remote e-mail access for all

their employees, security remains a top concern. Currently there is a lapse in

preventive security provisions and procedures, in these companies, indicating

they have no mobile access security in place. Beyond concerns over remote e-mail

access, companies are not expecting to outsource security of their mobile

networks.

Enterprises are extending network access to a wide variety of users in fixed

and wireless environments in order to meet business objectives, increase

productivity and deliver flexibility-and they must do so without compromising

security.

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Reaping the Benefits



Today, businesses are integrating mobile technologies in varying forms and

complexities with their IT infrastructures. Regardless of geography, company

size, or whether companies are compensating employees for mobile devices and

related services, the workforce is increasingly reaping the benefits of mobile

technologies. Decision makers perceived better customer service, reduction in

time employees spend at their desks and the ability to capitalize on new

business deals, as key benefits of having a mobile workforce.

The result is a workforce that continues to drive mobile technology adoption

on its own terms in order to profit from increased productivity and

connectivity. New advances in mobile technology and application accessibility

promise to deliver even greater competitive advantages for all segments of the

business community in the months and years to come.

Minu Sirsalewala

How Handy is Your Handset

The mobile email market is vast and untapped. Industry experts report there

are 650 million corporate email inboxes in use today, while current corporate

mobile email subscribers number less than 10 million. In a recent survey among

IDC's Mobile Advisory Council members whose organizations had mobilized at

least one business function, wireless email was virtually universal, having been

deployed by 82 percent of these organizations.

"Worldwide enterprise wireless email adoption has only begun to scratch

the surface, just as a fraction of the hundreds of millions of corporate email

seats that have mobile access in the world is approaching 'two-billion

wireless subscribers'," said Stephen Drake, program director IDC's

Mobile Software Services. "Successful providers delivering corporate mobile

email solutions must address the need for mass market adoption."

What's on Offer



Nokia has recently announced the Nokia Business Center, a software solution
enabling collaborative business applications for the mobile world, starting with

push email integrating with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, followed shortly by

support for Lotus Notes and Domino, and an expanded range of Nokia certified

devices.

For an email experience on all handheld mobile devices, both Nokia and non-Nokia,

phones and PDAs, Nokia has Nokia One Business Server, a behind-the-firewall

product.

Nokia Business Center will be available in the Americas and EMEA in the

fourth quarter of 2005. Pilots will begin in other markets during the fourth

quarter.

Airtel is amongst the 1st SP in India to have launched an Instant Email

Mobile-Blackberry. This service enabled customers to access a range of

applications including instant email mobile, mobile phone, corporate data,

Internet, SMS and a bouquet of personal information management (PIM) features.

Blackberry Enterprise Server software securely integrates with Microsoft

Exchange or IBM Lotus Domino and works with existing enterprise email systems.

Customers can access their calendar, address book and task list while on the go.

In addition, wireless calendar synchronisation also keeps them up-to-date.

BlackBerry enables always-on/push-based access to additional corporate data and

enterprise information beyond email using the handheld, browser and software

development tools.

Airtel has varied products and services for both



Enterprise as well as small and medium segment. These services include

BlackBerry, AirTel Data Card, Vehicle Tracking System, Corporate Directory,

Enterprise Jingle, SIM based office application for sales/field force.

Hutch has Hutchmail and other enterprise mobile applications.

Reliance Infocomm offers extensive enterprise mobile applications through its

R Worlds interface. This not only gives the platform to offer complex

applications but also ensures a secured environment to access critical corporate

data.

There are both push and pull services that they cater to for the different

enterprises.

Lead players in the automotive segment, like Maruti, have a complete

advertising campaign made available on the mobile, and also complete integrated

information of their last level dealer and service centers.

As more and more applications are made mobile enterprises can reduce their

overhead costs. They are looking at mobilizing as many transaction processes as

possible as that will have a direct positive impact on the time to market.

Reliance is doing extensive work on enterprise mobile applications. For example

it is working on pilots where the entire database can be made available to the

authorized employees for easy and timely access of contact details.

The International Scenario

  • China leads the way in deploying and using mobile

    technology. Chinese employees leverage their mobile phones for email and

    Internet access, and not just voicemail and SMS, as is the general usage

    pattern in the US and Germany.

  • Sixty three percent of Chinese companies that currently

    have a mobility strategy, plan to increase the number of their employees

    accessing email from their mobile phones.

  • Most Chinese employees purchase their mobile devices

    directly from retailers (60 percent), US (48 percent) and Germany (71

    percent). Ironically, for a country that is leading the way in enterprise

    mobility, nearly all employees in China purchase their own mobile phones

    (84percent).

  • Chinese companies have the most lax corporate policies

    regarding the types of mobile devices accessing the corporate network.

  • Only about 20 percent of Chinese companies have a policy

    in place monitoring mobile device access to the corporate network, while

    roughly half of German and US companies monitor access.

  • China is poised to take the lead in replacing landline

    connections with mobile phones for work use within the next two to three

    years (68% of decision makers would consider replacing). In the foreseeable

    future, only a small percentage of German (20percent) and US (22percent)

    companies plan to replace landline connections with mobile phones.

  • Excerpts from the State of Workforce Mobility report

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