Why would our clients invest into Mobile Computing Platform?

 Topic – Why  would our clients invest into Mobile Computing Platform?

 Folks,

             Like many of  us, I have been in travels and visiting clients, and as  I speak to  many clients, I wanted to take a step back and reevaluate our approach to Mobile Computing Platform.  I use the term Mobile Computing Platform because I think Mobility as a term is too loosely defined  and we need to take a step back and understand the drivers and investments  that  our clients are willing to make into mobilizing  ‘a Initiative’. One thing I have been pondering on is that, I think Mobility has fueled a lot of creative applications, and every enterprise has a loose vision, but are we really paying attention to the design that includes back end plumbing as well? or is it expected for these new paradigm to be Ephemeral?

So I begin with  a basic question,  apart from the clamor from iOS7 release, geo location, Samsung’s auto scroll function  and many such ‘cool’ features. Why would our clients make a decision to Invest into Mobile Platforms? And  will the traditional ROI models suffice to  make  a level of investment that mimic’s investments made into traditional Enterprise application. One school of thought is that the mobile investment is mere extension of enterprise application infrastructure and hence is an incremental effort, and so is the investment.

So looking at the reasons on why our clients and enterprise will invest into mobility is broadly categorized into 3 areas:

1.     To Monetize – Simply put, a Mobile application/platform will generate new revenues, and becomes strategic go to market strategy. Example  retail, cruise lines etc.

Constituents – B2C and B2B in some cases.

2.     To make people productive – This includes ensue that employees in office and field, be is sales or oil rigs can do their job and add to efficiency factor.

Constituents: B2E or B2F(ield)

3.     To provide better customer service – This category, the enterprise may not be able to monetize or have direct impact on bottom line, but need to provide a channel that is in tune with times. This is simply cost of doing business. At times it is hard to put numbers behind goo customer service.

Constituents: B2C or even B2E

Business drivers	Monetize	Enhance Productivity	Better Customer Service
Technology	Hybrid	Native	Mobile Web/Responsive Web
Constituents	B2C, B2B	B2E, B2F	B2C, B2E

Figure 1: Think of this as a matrix, where the Business drivers/constituents and technology can be chosen, there is not strict tie with technology choices. Which I think in many cases depends on the use cases.

So Why are we not talking technology? – what about Mobile Middleware, Mobile Device management, iOS7 – iPhone 5s/5c, Samsung Galaxy, Worklight…. And more… Well I have learned that unless we realize why we do  and what we do? And how much investment our clients will make? our effort to capture Mobile interests will simply go into educating our clients. So I feel that it is very important for us to have a surgical approach towards enterprise Mobile Computing platform.

So an Organization where we do expend energy? – This has been a hard question for me, as I think our chase to keep up with the industry and evolution in Mobile OS is not only important, but resource intensive with  return that involves volume. Not to mention the competitive pressures we face from open source frameworks (with software sales) and boutique firms ( with software services). So I have been pondering on where we compete and where do we leave off the low-lying  run of the mill projects for others. This IMHO is the area we will need to innovate and understand from an offering perspective, as to providing a comprehensive platform where NOT only our clients can address the notion of ‘extending’ or ‘Mobilizing’ existing enterprise application but tap into innovative areas of business where ‘Mobile context’ can ‘transform business’ and provide new avenues of growth and revenue. This is where IMHO is  where we can prove with a sustainable ROI models and venture into areas that neither Open source or any of the 1000s of the boutique firms can penetrate because of they lack “Enterprise IQ’ and thought leadership.

In my next post I will expand on this, as some of my thought are still raw and I  will need to refine some of it with research.

Until then…please send me your thought and critique on this forum.

;)

Nitin