Telecom Habits — Part 2 — Inside and Outside

This is the second part in the Series of “Telecom Habits- How it is driving change inside and outside of us”.

In my first article, I spoke about the changes overcoming our personal lives due to the influx of telecom and in this part I will touch upon the changes happening from an organizational perspective.

Second Part — Mobility Shift at Organizations

In the second part of my article, I intend to speak about the Mobility Shift experienced and embraced by Corporates world over.

I was reading somewhere the other day that there are more than 5 billion mobile subscribers worldwide and more than a Billion smartphone users. Whew, Staggering statistics, isn’t it ?

Mind you, this statistic is one of the primary drivers of the mobility shift that is happening all around us, be it in our persona lives or in the organizations that we work for.

Infact, the cars we drive to the restaurants we eat in, have already started embracing the technology change.

This is not going to be a “Shift”, it is going to be a “Transformation”.

Independent surveys carried out on corporate customers has thrown up some interesting findings –

One of the major ones being….CIO’s (Chief Information Officers) or CTO’s (Chief Technology Officers) are today comfortable talking about Mobility as part of their IT strategy and are beginning to embrace it even more willingly. This is surely a welcome change from the last decade when Mobility did not find a place in the Overall IT Strategy and businesses did not know how to leverage on the advantages.

Clearly. This shift has been brought about due to the ever-changing landscape of the Telecom scenario. The Mobile industry has greatly matured both in terms of devices and in terms of Operating Systems and platforms.

Today, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and mobile applications have become inclusive. Though I still believe that BYOD in its real avatar will take some more time to permeate into organizations. But clearly, the thinking has started and so have the functional heads started evolving to that level.

While Security, maintaining Employee privacy and securing an organization’s data continue to remain one of the top priorities across the globe, the fact also remains that Mobility Shift cannot be overlooked. And add to it, the Social networking aspect that I will talk about later in my article.

Why Mobility for Organizations?

With Market place dynamics and competitive scenarios undergoing a massive change world over, companies have very little option but to react to consumer demands and be on their toes all the time to cater to market needs. You will realize that organizations that have embraced change, especially in this segment have reaped benefits and have even managed to make some dents in the market place.

A few years back, it was only the multi-national corporates and large conglomerates that embraced Mobility and mobile applications, but today that landscape has changed. Infact, you will find that it is the smaller and nimble companies that have actually embraced Mobility and used it to great impact for their businesses.

What is also happening is that organizations are progressing along the Mobile Maturity curve and are moving towards a more mature landscape. Not only are organizations delivering critical data to their employees and decision makers, the eco system is also benefiting from this transformation.

A recent report from Forrester notes that 70% of enterprises see providing more mobile support to employees over the next 12 months as a high or critical priority

Infact, the report further goes on to state that in the coming months, organizations will need to provide CRM, BPM, HR applications etc. on the mobile platform.

Today, applications (business) are being delivered on mobile devices as well, and not only on PCs or laptops. A large number of Tablets have also come into play, not only in personal lives, but also in organizations and I have myself seen some corporates use this technology quite effectively resulting in healthy bottom lines.

I was reading a report the other day, which stated that 2014 is the year of Mobility and use of Mobile is going to see a boom, especially in the Financial Services industry. Infact,

50% of the respondents interviewed, expected that a majority of their employees would be not only using Email, but even applications on their mobile deices over the next 12 months.

They also expect adoption of BYOD to grow and so also, the influx of Tablets.

Over a period of time, we expect that new generation Tablets and Smart Phones will see a migration from the traditional desktops. One of the reasons for the embrace or “Euphoria” if I may call it, is due to the fact that organizations have seen a rise in employee productivity and the output that they deliver.

Having said all that is above, the pre-requisite for this is inclusion of Mobility in the It strategy and the willingness of business leaders to embrace this change and use it effectively.

“As a CIO, I have always believed that success of a Technology, any technology for that matter lies in the ability and willingness of the business leaders to embrace this change”.

Mobile Provides New Opportunities

And

With Opportunities, cometh the Challenges

While I believe the Mobility space provides us with a plethora of opportunities, I also believe that with opportunities come challenges. So it is imperative for the Technology Leader and organizations to be aware of this and keep in mind while coming up with a strategy and In fact be more careful during implementation.

Ericsson predicts that there will be over 50 Billion connected devices world wide by 2020. This will mean that IT leaders will need to undergo a transformation even in their thinking and bring the new thought into play while they draw up strategies and working models for the organizations they are doing it for. Agree ?

Infact, in an “Enterprise Mobility Benchmark study that was conducted couple of years back, IT Leaders had listed Mobility, among other things as one of their top concerns.

IT Leaders will have to enable their CRM and ERP, including Order Management etc. on the Mobile platform, be it Tablets or Smart phones.

Obviously, this does not mean that everything needs to be moved onto the mobile platform. Infact, even if it may be technically possible, it is just not a wise move !

The CIO or IT Leaders clearly has to do a detailed feasibility study to understand what are the applications and business functions that can be moved onto the mobile platform and which are the ones that will benefit the business leaders/users and in turn benefit the consumers, who really are the main target audience.

Similarly, everything in an organization does not have to be real time or interactive, there are still some functions that can be dealt with in a periodic fashion, so I would urge the IT leaders not to jump into a “Do it all” scenario.

Really, the best way to go about would be for the IT Leaders to have a discussion with Business and develop a integrated strategy and probably identify some Quick Wins that can deliver quick results to business and thereby improve the acceptance.

Go with a small but effective solution that can be implemented and have a Win under your belt, you may then move to other phases one by one.

Mind you, this is just the initial implementation or introduction phase. Obviously, once this is done and users have started using and enjoying the benefits of this mobility platform, the very next thing would be for them to start asking more J. This is true of every area, whether it is mobility or otherwise. So, the next stage would really be to upgrade or Enhance the applications, by building more features, functionality, nice to have stuff etc.

This is the stage in which Technology Leaders and Business Stakeholders will work hand-in-hand to work on solutions that can be graduated to the next level thereby increasing productivity and improving workplace effectiveness.

There are enough and more examples of companies in different industries who have introduced basic mobile solutions and have over a period of time, advanced to the next level and are now enjoying the benefits of Mobility platform and have managed to impact consumers lives as well and increasing customer service. This is very critical in todays time and age where the market place is very competitive and companies have to face with everyday dynamics that are so challenging in nature.

Retail, FMCG, Warehousing companies, Airlines, etc are industries where Mobility can bring about a direct impact on the consumers lives.

Enterprises will continue to improve the way they do business in the market place and over the next couple of years, we will not only see more and more organizations embrace Mobility as an integral part of their business and Technology strategy, but we will also get to see organizations enter the Transformation Phase as far as these solutions go.

Organizations have evolved already to a large extent in the way they do business. Consumers have evolved in the way they demand service from companies, so also will the Technology shift need to undergo a transformation to cater to the ever increasing demands of the consumer in the market place.

On the Employer front, organizations are already demanding that their employees stay in touch with mails, etc. even while they are away from the office and the shift to Blackberry that happened a few years back was just the tip of the iceberg. The proliferation of Smart Phones in the last few years has transformed the market place and the demands of the organizations from their employees has also undergone a radical change.

Infact, Mobility today is not just accessing your mails and responding, but it also requires you to be able to access your applications and take decisions to complete a transaction.

Conclusion

It is an ever changing world…People and Organizations will continue to evolve and adapt to newer conditions and environment.

While our personal lives have changed to a large extent and got impacted by the entrance of mobility, a lot of our behavioural patterns have also undergone a change. From the way we speak to where we speak to how we speak to what we communicate, etc.

What was a big deal in the earlier years, the 90s, is now NO big deal or very common. :)

Are we going to wake up tomorrow morning and see that the world has moved to Mobility ? Nope, absolutely not.

But surely, the change and movement has started and its visible. Organizations and people will keep moving towards their ultimate Mobility goal.

As corporates evolve and move towards the Mobility platforms, they will obviously need to invest more in security for protecting their corporate data and also the intellectual property.

Infact, the smarter organizations will start leaning on Mobility to bring about a cost transformation and also provide a Migration path.

IT Leaders…Get Ready ! Time to Roll up your sleeves and fold your trousers !

Please do not forget your armour too !.

The next 2–3 years are going to be defining not only for your careers, but also for organizations, as they start embracing mobility and push their employees to depend more and more on this platform to deliver service and products to their consumers.

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