How does the mobile device impact the business process? Is it something that can bring a real return, or is it best quarantined from the rest of the enterprise? Mobile phones and tablets are rapidly replacing manual and paper-based processes in all sorts of businesses and the pace is increasing. Kendall Watt, solutions specialist at Mimecast, says it's starting to become ubiquitous.
"We're seeing our suppliers using mobile devices and not necessarily just PDAs and phones, but full devices to track goods and signing procedures, and they're plugging straight back into the SAP or other line-of-business systems in the backend. We discussed this trend a good few years ago but we weren't quite seeing it yet then. Now I see it every single day: someone arrives from a courier, you sign for the goods on the device and off he goes. It's no longer paper-based."
Paulo Ferreira, head of mobile product and software at Samsung SA, has seen this in action.
"We have a customer who replaced a cumbersome solution with a tablet. The way they're measuring the ROI is that signing up new customers has improved, a far higher return of signups than before."
Paul Kennedy, associate director of global technology solutions, PricewaterhouseCoopers, says his implementation is different from the run-of-the mill one in that it's not so much a technology enabler within the organisation but more of a recruitment tool to get graduates out of the universities.
It's about flexibility.
Grant Spindler, Dimension Data
"We recruit 1 000 graduates a year from university and they all want the latest and greatest services. So this is a way for us to attract them. Today's graduates ask not what they can do for you but what you can give them. That's where it started but obviously over time it's evolved and we've seen a real benefit to having mail and applications such as timesheets on mobile devices."
Dries van Jaarsveld, senior manager of mobility at Accenture, says his organisation also uses mobiles in the field.
"We use mobile devices to track time and expenses. In consulting, expenses are one of the key metrics we need to track but we are also pushing learning material onto mobiles."
The reason is mainly speed, says Warren O'Reilly, director of IMMIX Solutions, but mobiles have other benefits too.
"The speed is a very important factor: a tablet or a phone is way quicker than a notebook. For our sales engagements, speed is of the essence and our sales people are enabled in that way. Secondly, we make use of Microsoft Linq in our organisation because offline mobility is really important for us given the bandwidth constraints in SA. Also, we track geo-location: it's important for us to make sure that someone has really checked in somewhere."
Robyn Milham, head of enterprise sales for RIM in SA, uses mobility for real-time feedback.
"The way we use mobility is to be able to have field representatives exchange information on site at stores reliably. For instance, one company might have certain requirements for a point of sale and the ability to be able to do that wherever we are and get live information back is critical."
Getting started
What are the applications that companies need to be looking at developing? And how do they get started? For David Prosser, MD of Comunity, users don't care about the infrastructure or the technical questions: "Users talk about the services they want to experience - not the network, not the device or the applications.
“If you walk into a Steers and are given a couple of rolls, some slices of tomato and a cow, that's the equivalent to giving people basic access to systems. You want to be able to do more than deliver services to people that require interaction with a lot of systems. So you need to be able to subtract the content from the systems."
IT has a huge problem that isn't going away.
Paulo Ferreira, Samsung
Grant Spindler, services business development manager at Dimension Data, agrees.
"Everyone here has their mobile devices up and running. For me it's about flexibility: my device, my particular applications, my work. There are very few of us here with exactly the same device so it's about end-user experience but also the way we're working. We're no longer using Excel or documents but tapping into rich information and big data in the back end."
The first challenge is that the developers don't control the device to which they are deploying: not the make, model or operating system. PricewaterhouseCoopers' Kennedy has had to solve this.
"Managing the 'bring your own device' problem really is a challenge given that there are so many out there.
And our backend is Lotus Notes so it's not as widely adopted by suppliers and we're a bit limited in what we can chose.
“At a global level, the propeller heads solve these problems and prescribe to our offices around the world. We do have a choice between two products that have security, remote wipes and device management but it's still no guarantee: tomorrow your security could be breached. Notes Traveler, for instance, was full of holes.
“We haven't got the solution yet and the regulatory environment around the sensitivity of our data is considerable. Support is another challenge because I don't have a team that knows every single device inside out. So we have to make some pretty strict rules about what we will support to what level. We don't support devices per se but we will support the applications. If an iPad or a BlackBerry breaks, it's not our problem."
And there are some organisations stuck in old procurement methods, notes Tim Walter, executive head of marketing at Nashua Mobile.
"What we're seeing is that historically, handset procurement and cellphone expenses were managed by the procurement departments in big corporates. Now there's a power struggle between the procurement departments who want to hold on to it and the CTO or the CIO who want to use mobility in their organisations. A lot of corporates are still struggling with this.
“As much as mobility is a buzzword, it is taking a while to filter down into organisations. We know this because we're still seeing a lot of negotiations from our customers about price rather than how we can support them in the field."
Manoli Rodokanakis says the process needs to be managed.
It's important for us to make sure that someone has really checked in somewhere.
Warren O'Reilly, IMMIX
"It's a very fast-moving landscape for applications. For $2 you can download a multi-track studio to your mobile device that has more capability than the Beatles had for producing Sergeant Pepper. The traction is massive. IT has to support the business and it has to be a managed process whether it's a mobile device or not."
Samsung's Ferreira agrees.
"The IT department has a huge problem, and it's not going away. First thing that IT will have to do is revisit the policies, determine what standard and what guidelines they want. They need not be prescriptive about choice but ask about the acceptable devices that can enter the corporate environment. I don't think enough work has been done on that yet."
Creative users
Just giving mobile users access to e-mail opens up a can of worms for the CIO. Christelle Hicklin, customer experience manager at Mimecast, has done research on the attitudes towards mobile e-mail in younger workers.
"We did some research on young people - who we call Generation Gmail - and we found that they're used to having at least three e-mail accounts, and when they come into a corporate environment with restrictions, they don't like it. They send e-mails from work accounts to Gmail accounts. It becomes very challenging for the CIO to know how restrictive to become, or perhaps give them the tools to work within the infrastructure without opening up the organisation to breaches."
Kennedy says finding the balance is critical.
"You don't want to stump the innovative ideas and their desire to work with you, but you do have a legal requirement to protect your clients' data. If it gets out there, you're gone."
Matthew Cook, business unit manager for Business Connexion's application development centre, says companies need to work with what users want to do because it's to their benefit.
"Why are people e-mailing themselves stuff to their Gmail account? Because they want to be able to do more work outside normal hours. As soon as organisations accept this, they will be able to control it - not in the sense of stopping it, but making sure it can be done in a secure fashion.
“It's about assisting consumers in enterprises with their business processes. Often they don't only have an SAP but a couple of different systems and want to integrate all of those to facilitate a process. Guys are finding loopholes to access SAP through the Internet, and through something else to get to their warehousing and so on. By giving them a mobile interface to these enterprise services, you can at least manage it."
Nick Staples, practice manager at Sybase, agrees that organisations need to follow a strategic approach to mobility.
"By that I mean being able to serve the consumer, the enterprise and all the way through. But companies need to both protect their IP and be able to leverage their investments in devices like iPads. There are two sides to this and a lot of companies are struggling with 'bring your own device'. There's a process requirement and a technology component."
And what of applications beyond e-mail? Mogen Naidoo, senior research analyst for software and IT services at IDC, says there are two approaches based on IDC's research of the market.
"One way to do it is that there's just access to the company services and everything resides in the data centre. So the security is handled in the data centre and access is granted to the mobile device. The second approach is data is brought to the device and work is done on the device itself and data is quarantined there."
The quarantine approach has additional challenges, points out Accenture's Van Jaarsveld.
"You need to look at security of storage: what do you back up? How do you secure it? What do you do if you lose it? E-mail has a certain risk profile. Other applications such as payroll and business applications have a different profile."
RIM's Milham says companies winning this battle haven't taken a technology approach at all.
"You can be as prescriptive and draconian as you like, but that generally doesn't resolve things. Our customers who have been most successful with the corporate consumerisation of IT have been those who have approached it from a people management perspective."
And getting it right brings rich reward, says Brent Aitken, channel and alliance manager at Microstrategy.
"There seems to be a scramble because there's competitive advantage if you get this right. It's a key communication channel with your customers. If you want to book a car or a flight, would you rather spend two minutes using a mobile application or 20 minutes waiting for a call centre?"
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