The
Mobile Enterprise Services and Solutions
DEFINING ENTERPRISE MOBILE SERVICES
The key
distinction of industry mobile Services is that they facilitate one
or more processes associated with a particular industry or vertical
market. Under this definition, "pure" mobile communications
applications. such as wireless email or the products I have led to
development various Pushmail, Push data apps and clearly deliver
benefits such as improved productivity and increased customer
satisfaction. However our focus should eventually be on how core
elements of specific processes, within specific industries, are
fundamentally altered by mobile enablement. Given the nuances and
similarities of business models across industries, subtlety is
important in making this distinction. Take the example of "field
services." Although it is a critical process for a range of
businesses from utilities and onsite printing service providers to
insurance companies and IT support providers, each one has its own
set of unique process elements that leverage mobility in different
ways. Some have a transactional and order-entry component (e.g.,
ordering parts remotely to fix a broken printer), some require
advanced content viewing (e.g., pipeline charts, technical diagrams
for utility workers), and some require remote data entry (e.g.,
insurance assessments for adjusters). Our solutions must be built
such that they allow each vertical market to gain unique business
benefits from mobility.
VERTICAL MARKETS
At a high
level, the growth of mobility-enabled applications is driven by the
same factors driving IT and business process change initiatives by
companies, namely the need to:
● Be more responsive to their customers
and to changes in their operating environments (related to their
competitors, suppliers, partners, and customers)
● Optimize the efficiency of their staff
resources (from headquarters to branches to the field)
● Shorten the cycle time of key processes
throughout their value chains
Each of
these factors, in turn, is driven by the increasing intensity of
competition in nearly every industry and the importance of
integrating processes and information to meet this competition.
Another factor driving the adoption of industry-specific Mobile
Enterprise Services is the evolution of the technology itself, which
has laid the necessary groundwork for mobile enterprise applications
to take off.
SURVEYING THE MOBILITY LANDSCAPE
With this
foundation in place, Enterprise Mobile Services have become more
prevalent across a number of vertical markets. The drivers and
patterns of mobile application adoption vary across industries, but
a common framework has begun to take shape that explains these
activities. Put simply, organizations have started to apply mobile
technology to those processes where the integration of real-time
information can drastically improve process quality. Although the
definition of process quality varies by industry, some general
characteristics include the following:
● Better decisions. To many field
employees, the value of information is situational. having the right
materials in front of a sales prospect, knowing what parts will be
needed to fix a remote problem, figuring out which products to cross
sell based on what the customer is using.
● Faster decisions. Not having information
in the field can impede responsiveness to customer needs. Insurance
adjusters can’t adjudicate claims in the field, brokers can’t
provide "instant" price quotes based on credit scores, and financial
planners can’t view a customer’s portfolio in real time.
● Shortened cycles. Bridging the gap
between the field and the office can shorten core process cycles.
Remote
reporting of retail inventory can shorten replenishment, the ability
to customize contracts in the field can shorten the sales cycle, and
the ability to track logistics in real time enables manufacturers to
shift their production plans more quickly. Although mobile email
made some inroads into these areas, (this also includes the Pushmail
architure that we are currently building) the mobile enablement of
enterprise applications represents a quantum shift in capabilities.
CRM packages have arguably been the front line of this trend.
One big
reason is the strong overlap between the needs of customer-facing
employees and the key strengths of mobile devices, including
customer-specific alerts and the ability to access and update
customer records. Thus far, the main emphasis of application
mobility has been getting information "out" into the hands of field
personnel. Increasingly, however, this emphasis is shifting toward
more "inwardly directed" (i.e., less customer-centric) applications
such as ERP and SCM, in which the rapid incorporation of information
from the field enables the optimization of such processes as
production planning, inventory management, and logistics. In both
cases, the extension of enterprise applications via mobile devices
has tightened processes, increased responsiveness, and improved
decision making. Examples of mobile applications in specific
industries are outlined below.
Government
Within
the government sector, mobile applications are being used to support
public safety, law enforcement, and municipal compliance activities.
To improve its responsiveness to disasters, a state emergency
response agency employs Mobile Enterprise Services and devices to
update damage assessment databases remotely, thus enabling key
decision makers to assess the situation on the ground and optimize
cleanup and recovery efforts Faced with a construction boom, a
Canadian municipality sought to improve the productivity of building
inspectors by providing them with wireless access to the inspection
system and a mobile printing solution to help them work more
effectively at job sites and provide quicker updates to the building
database.
Financial Services
In the
financial services sector, responsiveness to both existing customer
needs and new opportunities is a critical competitive requirement.
To this end, retail financial service providers are employing Mobile
Enterprise Services and devices to give representatives in the field
access to real-time data on their clients’ portfolios during
customer meetings. This access gives representatives the tools to
respond to queries instantly and helps customers see opportunities
faster. Financial services providers are also using Mobile
Enterprise Services and devices to interact with their institutional
customers, such as employee benefit brokers and group
administrators, for both sales and performance reporting.
Manufacturing
For
manufacturers, one of the keys to improved efficiency is the tight
integration of SCM and ERP, such that changes to the status of
inbound material shipments (via SCM) can be closely linked to
production and delivery commitments they make to customers (via ERP).
This integration improves manufacturers’ overall responsiveness by
enabling them to rapidly adjust their production planning based on
changes in their inbound supply chain. From a mobility standpoint,
the major opportunity is to use Mobile Enterprise Services and
devices to speed the capture of this inbound supply chain data,
thereby shortening the feedback loop between the supply chain and
production planning. Similarly, Mobile Enterprise Services and
devices represent a powerful tracking tool for on-hand inventories
of supplies. By giving production planners a more granular and
timely window into existing supply inventories on the factory floor,
they gain more flexibility to optimize production schedules and
lower inventory costs. Within the manufacturing process itself, the
emerging opportunity is to use Mobile devices to monitor
production-line activity and perform real-time quality control
reporting.
Healthcare
Healthcare providers have used Mobile devices to improve both
quality control and efficiency in clinical care environments. One
area of focus has been in streamlining the prescription management
process, which often experiences delays because of illegible
handwriting and undetected drug interaction issues. Time-consuming
telephone calls are often required to resolve these problems.
Recently, a large HMO began using Mobile devices for "eprescribing";
that is, doctors can issue prescriptions wirelessly as well as
access electronic physician drug reference and patient-specific drug
information. Early benefits of this initiative included a combined
savings of two hours per day by the prescribing physician and the
practice’s office staff as well as a 76% drop in phone calls between
pharmacies and practices to resolve problems. Another healthcare
organization is using Mobile devices to improve the efficiency of
its nursing staff, which had previously been required to fill out
patient monitoring forms by hand. By using Mobile Enterprise
Services and devices to input patient data and send it
electronically, nurses save time and, perhaps more important,
real-time patient data becomes instantly available.
Transportation and Logistics
In the
transportation and logistics sector, the optimization of scheduling,
dispatching, and route planning is a key driver of operational
efficiency. To compete, providers need to minimize their costs and
at the same time be flexible enough to respond quickly to customers’
transportation needs. To achieve this goal, one provider of ground
transportation and limousine services is using Mobile Enterprise
Services and devices to give its drivers access to real-time
dispatch data from its back-end systems. This functionality enables
drivers to keep dispatchers up to date on their status and
availability and allows drivers to proactively plan their routes or
to react to any last-minute trip scheduling changes that may have
occurred. In the logistics business, one of the key differentiators
is the ability to keep customers notified about the status of their
shipments in real time. One provider is using Mobile devices to
track and manage on-time performance of deliveries in process and
improve routing efficiencies for its Expedited Services customers. A
key enabler is the ability to scan barcodes via Mobile devices,
providing more information transparency at all phases of the
delivery cycle.
Legal
One of
the biggest initial drivers of Mobile devices usage in the legal
community, like other sectors, was its ability to support wireless
email, a reflection of just how important it is for law firms to
stay in constant touch with their clients. Put simply, being in
court is no excuse. Law firms have begun to employ Mobile devices to
provide ubiquitous access to information . such as case files and
motions . from within their internal case management systems. Given
the importance of staff productivity for law firms, the most
significant ROI for Mobile Enterprise Services usage has been the
increase in billable hours enabled by its support for remote data
access. One firm reported an increase in productivity of four hours
per week/per lawyer, representing additional billings of $40,000 per
month. The ability for lawyers to input data directly into billing
systems via their Mobile Devices has also enabled significant
administrative cost savings by lessening the need for traditional
manual updating by clerical staff.
Construction
Because
the construction industry relies heavily on subcontracting in its
business model, project management is one of its most important
business processes. To optimize it, commercial construction
companies are using Mobile Enterprise Services and devices to enable
project managers to update project data at the work site, thus
keeping clients up to date on project details. Real-time access to
project data also enables project managers to solve problems onsite,
thus reducing costly delays. Moreover, given the rigors of
large-scale construction sites, the ability to employ a more compact
device . instead of a laptop . provides the project manager with
more flexibility. Mobile application access has also been important
in the residential construction market, where mass production makes
quality control and assurance critical functions. To improve it, one
midsize homebuilder has outfitted its field supervisors with Mobile
devices to directly access its quality control reporting system. The
fact that supervisors directly input the data improved their
efficiency and lowered the company’s administrative costs. But more
important, it resulted in a substantial improvement in quality
because data on contractor performance was made more available for
review by headquarters staff.
OnSite
Managed Services
For
providers of onsite managed services, such as printer or IT support
and maintenance, the key challenges are to respond promptly to
customer needs (e.g., outages) and to do so in an efficient and
cost-effective manner. A key competency required to meet this
challenge is fast and effective reporting from onsite field
technicians. One company that sought to improve its reporting
capability employed Mobile Enterprise Services and devices to
provide technicians with access to its CRM system, which is used to
store, track, and analyze customer metrics. By creating a wireless
infrastructure for gathering and disseminating customer data to and
from remote sites, the company made customer information more timely
and useful. Through its analytical capabilities, the company was
able to proactively determine areas that needed improvement. On-hand
parts inventory levels were lowered by 15%, and emergency parts
orders were reduced by 90%. Both reductions came about as a result
of improved data gathering at the customer site. At the same time,
the ability to access CRM data in the field improved the overall
efficiency of field service personnel, resulting in a 10% increase
in firsttime problem resolution.
CONCLUSION
● The value proposition for
industry-specific Mobile Enterprise Services, and their truly
defining trait, is their ability to enable the fundamental
transformation of the business processes relying on them. The agents
of this transformation include alert-based automation, improved data
transparency throughout the process cycle, and improved efficiency.
● Among business processes, the "sweet
spot" for mobility-enabled Services and Applications are defined as
a) those where process time cycle reduction can bring major payoffs
in terms of customer satisfaction, cost reduction, and efficiency
and b) those where key data either resides outside of the enterprise
(e.g., retail inventory levels) or is needed but inaccessible (e.g.,
sales presentations). By addressing these conditions,
mobility-enabled applications make organizations more responsive,
nimble, and competitive.
● The fact that CRM is leading the way in
mobile enablement reflects the importance of coordinating field
forces (e.g., sales) and centralizing resources (e.g., customer
databases, marketing collateral). ERP and SCM also present
significant opportunities for process optimization based on the
incorporation of real-time data.
● We will need to overcome both lingering
perception issues and technical barriers for application mobility to
reach its full potential. The value proposition, improving
responsiveness through shorter cycles and greater information
transparency must be effectively articulated to end users.
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