Increasing effectiveness, efficiency & mobility of field employees with wireless applications

I N C R E A S I N G

EFFECTIVENESS EFFICIENCY & MOBILITYOF FIELD EMPLOYEES

WITH WIRELESS APPLICATIONS

INTRODUCTIONThe development of mobile wireless devices provide great po-tential to support work processes of field employees and has an enormous impact on the development of other strategic ap-plications for businesses. This presentation will investigate how both the mobile worker and stationary offices can benefit from using wireless applications to increase effectiveness and efficiency of the overall organization. Simultaneously contem-porary conceptual frameworks will be presented.

1.

THE MOBILE ENVIRONMENTMobile applications have a huge impact on organization. Ac-cording to a 2010 survey by Forrester Research, 75 percent of companies state that the worker productivity has increased by the deployment of mobile applications. This significant per-centage comes from increased responsiveness and speed of decision-making, faster customer responses, resolving inter-nal IT issues, and finally improving customer satisfaction. By extending the business data and applications to mobile devic-es, the value of the organization assets increase through real-time access, always on and always connected, fewer delays and faster execution [Sybase 2011: 28]

2.

VERTICAL VS. HORIZONTAL APPLICATIONSVertical applications could be designed for Customer Relation-ship Management, as they include both employee and custom-er needs. Employees want real-time access to customer data, and customers demand responsiveness and high quality sup-port.

The horizontal applications focus on business processes and often decrease administration costs. However, this requires application frameworks that connect with systems such as procurement management, expense management, and human resources.

3.

CURRENT TRENDS IN ENTERPRISE APPS4.Very Interested In Developing For Each Platform

iPhone (iOS)

Android Phone

iPad (iOS)

Android tablet

BlackBerry Phone

Windows Phone 7

BlackBerry PlayBook

webOS tablet

webOS Phone (pre)

Symbian

Kindle

MeeGo

Base: 1,971 responses

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80 90% 100%%

92%

87%

87%

74%

38%

36%

28%

16%

13%

12%

9%

6%

Very Interested In Developing For Each Platform

iPhone (iOS)

iPad (iOS)

Android Phone

Android Tablet

HTML5 Mobile Web

Windows Phone 7

BlackBerry Phone

BlackBerry PlayBook

HP TouchPad

Symbian

webOS Phone

MeeGo


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80 90% 100%%

91%

88%

83%

68%

66%

38%

21%

13%

9%

7%

6%

5%

Mobile Ecosystem Interest - Jan 2011

Mobile Ecosystem Interest - Nov 2011


iPhone (iOS)

Android Phone

iPad (iOS)

Android tablet

BlackBerry Phone

Windows Phone 7

BlackBerry PlayBook

webOS tablet

webOS Phone (pre)

Symbian

Kindle

MeeGo


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80 90% 100%%

92%

87%

87%

74%

38%

36%

28%

16%

13%

12%

9%

6%


iPhone (iOS)

iPad (iOS)

Android Phone

Android Tablet

HTML5 Mobile Web

Windows Phone 7

BlackBerry Phone

BlackBerry PlayBook

HP TouchPad

Symbian

webOS Phone

MeeGo


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80 90% 100%%

91%

88%

83%

68%

66%

38%

21%

13%

9%

7%

6%

5%

Mobile Ecosystem Interest - Jan 2011

Mobile Ecosystem Interest - Nov 2011

The iOS and Android platforms are by far the most interesting for companies. As this corresponds to the current smartphone sales to end

users, where iOS (18%) and Android (43%) have a combined market share of 61% . The main reason for the popularity of Android is the

vast supply of devices that use them as an operating system. There are nearly 47 million devices running 8 different Android operating

systems and therein lies a problem. The Android versions installed on the phones differ significantly from device to device. This makes it

difficult to deploy applications to all devices without code, making it an expensive operation. Google’s “continuous beta” philosophy falls

short when compared with Apple and iOS, which is more secure, stable, and manageable. Also, it is notable that Windows Phone 7 is on

the rise. Many industry experts agree that interoperability and connectivity with the existing Windows platform, is a huge advantage for

both individual end users and organizations, thus explaining the growth rate of the platform

Source: Mobile Ecosystem - Source: Appcelerator / IDC – 11/2011

KEY BENEFITS OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS5.What Benefit Has Your Firm Experiencedas a Result of Deploying Mobile Applications?

Increased worker productivity

Increased employee responsiveness and decision-making speed

Resolved customer issues faster

Resolved internal IT issues faster

Improved customer satisfaction

Reduced sales cycle time

Reduced personnel costsReduced fuel, gas or fleet

maintenance costsCompetitive differentiation

Increased sales revenues

Improved brand perception

Reduced inventory costs

Base: 2,247 network and telecom decision-makers

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80

75%

65%

48%

48%

42%

16%

16%

15%

14%

14%

10%

6%

Source: Forrester, Enterprise and SMB Networks and Telecommunications Survey, North America and Europe, Q1 2010

In Q3 of 2011, Good technologies reported

that iPads accounted for over 28% of device

activations in the enterprise – and predic-

tions for 2012 mirror this trend. According

to Gartner, there will be sold around 63,6

million tablets sold on global tablet mar-

ket, and they predict that this number will

increase to 326,3 million devices in 2015.

Apples market share for 2011 is expected

to land around 73,4% and decrease to 50%

in 2014

KEY BENEFITS OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS5.By utilizing mobile applications, the enterprise can:

1. Maximize the value of existing investments by extending business software to mobile users

2. Increase productivity by empowering employees to work where, when, and how they want

3. Minimize risk with a secure mobile technology architecture

4. Improve customer satisfaction through higher availability and greater responsiveness

ENTERPRISE MOBILITY MANAGEMENT6.» Enterprise mobility management (EMM) is the set of people, pro-cesses and technology focused on managing the increasing array of mobile devices, wireless networks, and related services to en-able broad use of mobile computing in a business context «

It is challenging to reconfigure, update, or install software on mobile devices without some kind of mobile management platform that can (1) Distribute software, (2) Distribute con-tent and information, (3) Track assets, hardware, and software inventory, and (4) Backup or delete data

MANAGED MOBILITY SAS SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE7.Managed mobility software as a service is more efficient, cost-effective, and potentially shortens the implementation cycle. Tools such as Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms (MEAPs) enable a unified platform for developing and manag-ing applications within the organization. Thus helping relieve the administration workload by automating processes and centralizing device management [Sybase 2011: 30]

RULE OF THREE8.Gartner has a “rule of three” that states that a MEAP offers significant advantages

in three situations:

• When there are 3 or more mobile applications

• When there are 3 or more targeted operating systems or platforms

• When they involve the integration of 3 or more back-end systems

These three rules come in handy when an enterprise decides to develop enterprise

applications. The most significant factor of MEAP is to avoid point to point con-

nections, where devices are connected to a back-end system. Changes made in the

back-end, increase the workload, as it requires knowledge of which devices that are

connected to the system. Hence it becomes difficult to maintain and develop the

system and total cost of development (TCD) increases

» By enabling mobile access to corporate information systems anytime, anywhere for a wide array of end users , businesses can typically experience a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and higher return on investment (ROI). According to a 2010 study by the University of Texas at Austin, if a Fortune 1000 business in-creases the usability of its data by just 10 percent, it can realize a $2.01 billion annual revenue increase «Source: University of Texas, Austin 2010

THE MOBILE ENTERPRISE MODEL9.The Mobile Enterprise Model (MEM), developed by Stuart J. Barnes , is a conceptual framework for understanding the de-velopment of enterprise mobility in organizations by looking at dimensions and stages of mobile enterprise.

Mobile service creation

Mobile service value

Mobile channel access

Transient

Mobile

Remote

Automation

Information

Transformation

MARKET

PROCESS MOBILITY


TransientAutomation

Information



Mobile

RemoteTransformation

MARKET

PROCESS MOBILITY

MOBILITY9.The mobility dimension describes the geographical independ-ence of enterprise workers, which is enabled by the mobile so-lution. Barnes uses three levels to determine the degree of mo-bility in an organization. The first level; transient, refers to the support of field workers when they move from one location to another. The second level; mobile refers to field workers having a prolonged geographical independence from the enterprise. Finally, the third and highest level; remote refers to field work-ers that are completely detached from the corporate head of-fice, thus having a high degree of geographical independence




Transient

Mobile

Remote

Automation

Information

Transformation

MARKET

PROCESS MOBILITY

PROCESS9.The process dimension describes the change in work configu-ration and processes. The first level; automation refers to the efficiency gains from mobile data that is transferred to exist-ing processes. The second level information, determines the degree of effectiveness and knowledge gained from mobile solutions. Lastly, transformation, refers to changes in organi-zation processes inflicted by the mobile solution, which may change work and job roles in the organization




Transient

Mobile

Remote

Automation

Information

Transformation

MARKET

PROCESS MOBILITY

MARKET9.The market dimension describes the value proposition in the market and refers to changes in products, services, and rela-tionships with customers. The first level; mobile channel ac-cess, refers to mobile access to corporate information such as email, calendar, and common services. The second level; mo-bile service value, determines the value that mobile solutions bring to the value proposition, which is enhanced by enterprise mobility. The final and third level; mobile service creation, re-fers to mobile solutions that create completely new service of-ferings and value propositions to the market




Transient

Mobile

Remote

Automation

Information

Transformation

MARKET

PROCESS MOBILITY

PHASESPhase 1: Mobile employee linkage, underlines entry-level enterprise offerings that

focus on establishing the appropriate wireless infrastructure for employees. This

allows the employee to connect to corporate data and support.

Phase 2: Mobile employee management; This phase focuses on empowering the

work patterns of the employees by making corporate knowledge available on the

mobile device. The phase increases the possibility of effectiveness of the field

workers and assists them in obtaining a high degree of efficiency.

Phase 3: Mobile enterprise creation, describes field workers being geographically

separated from the enterprise. Work processes are completely supported by mobile

devices and the enterprise offers new products and services to employees.

9.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK10.When Barnes developed the framework there was a lack of lit-erature, surveys, and scientific proof about enterprise mobil-ity. He states that the framework » gives some early directions for examining the conceptual idea of enterprise mobility, but not a fully formed theoretical offering «. In this respect a more recent conceptual framework from 2007 by Wuping Zheng and Yufei Yuan can provide guidelines for the development of effective mobile work support systems to compliment the Mobility En-terprise Model.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK10.

The concept of mobile work refers to mobile workers perform-ing mobile tasks in a mobile context by means of mobile tech-nological support. The framework consists of four aspects: mobile workers, mobile tasks, mobile context and mobile tech-nology that address the questions of Who, What, Where, When and How, respectively [W. Zheng and Y. Yuan2007:110]

Within

Utilize

Used by

Mobile task

Mobile technologies Mobile context

Mobile workers

Accomplish

Mobile worksupport

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK10.Table 1 Dimensions of the mobile work framework

Dimension Questions to address Characteristics

1. Worker (Who) Who are the mobile

workers?

Mobility and job category

2. Task (What) What tasks the mobile

workers perform

Location/Time

dependency, multitask

handling

3. Context (Where and

When)

What environment in

which the tasks are

performed by mobile

workers

Workplace and temporal

structure

4. Technology (How) What information

technologies are

available to support

mobile work?

Mobile devices, mobile

communication

infrastructure and

applications

Source: W. Zheng and Y. Yuan, 2007

CONCLUSION11.» Often, the mobile solution does not fit the long-term business or IT goals and the focus of the solution is often too narrow. This is because in the past mobility has been tactically geared around a specific task, problem or process and essentially deployed in a silo within the company «

» Businesses should evaluate tablet applications based on func-tionality and business process integration, user factors, system integration, management and security, application architecture and vendor viability «

Source: Nicholas McQuire, research director for the EMEA Enterprise Mobility, IDC

Source: David Willis, Vice president for Gartner

Increasing effectiveness, efficiency & mobility of field employees with wireless applications

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