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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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