Enterprise Mobility Matters: Hi Vivek. It's good speaking with you again. When we spoke last, we talked about productivity. The most common discussion point around the value of mobility solutions in the enterprise is “increased productivity.” This is such a tough sell in my opinion because productivity is in many respects an intangible concept. How do you think organizations should look at the tangible and intangible value of mobility solutions?

Vivek Thomas: I'd recommend that executive leaders embrace the tangible-intangible balance of productivity and set realistic expectations around it. For example, an organization can tangibly benchmark whether mobility has enabled its sales force to increase their number of daily customer visits or setup more geographically-optimized meetings while on the go, but the intangible benefit of saving 1-2 daily hours of work through mobility efficiencies may increase an employee's morale by allowing them more family time or to recharge for the next week. Mobility can also empower executive leadership teams to manage by exception and only respond to problems or high-priority issues. Both tangible and intangible sides are extremely valuable, but unless they are acknowledged, mobility’s value cannot be adequately measured.

EMM: Maximizer is focused on (mobile) CRM. Where do you see the greatest opportunity for business value from mobility beyond the sales team?

VT: Mobility drives value enterprise-wide and enables the business to respond to changes in real-time and capitalize on new opportunities, while also providing meaningful reporting on relevant activities.

Specifically, executive management and customer service present a tremendous mobility opportunity. Rather than getting mired down in non-critical tasks, executives need solutions that offer a pulse on key business elements including strategic reporting and alerts when attention is needed on a particular situation. Regarding customer service, mobility offers a centralized way to track the complete process, from the initial customer call routing through a call center to pushing the data to a service technician via a mobile device. The technician can track the customer location and even take payment via the device.

EMM: Does mobility improve or worsen the work life balance?

VT: This is an interesting question—the answer depends on how a business approaches mobility and positions it to its employees. For example, is it a benefit that allows employees to work while attending family events, or a hindrance that forces staff to always be “at work”? It also depends on how employees choose to set boundaries-- the word "Crackberry" has become part of our vernacular for good reason.

Those who are higher up on the food chain tend to check-in more frequently. On the other hand, mobility has enabled professionals to be in two places at once—for example, to stay connected at work while attending a daughter's play rehearsal. This flexibility was only available to entrepreneurs and one-person shop owners previously.

EMM: What does the industry need to do to make mobility be perceived as strategic to the organization?

VT: Every industry player, including the telcos, device manufacturers, and application developers, needs to recognize that organizations are evaluating mobility by asking how it helps them grow, compete and be profitable right now. Collectively, we should examine how people really work and live to enable a more strategic perception from the top-down. For example, today we classify mobile users primarily as Gen X and Gen Y. By digging deeper, the industry will find it easier to determine which type of user needs more of a voice vs. data plan and how they are using their device—leading to their strategic value in an organization and the need for mobility to make their roles more efficient.

Application developers also need to create tools that are mobile-optimized, meaning they cater to the primary needs of mobile professionals rather than offering the exact same elements of a desktop application, as the latter consumes a tremendous amount of mobile data and bandwidth.

Telcos specifically need to make their overall data rates more competitive and open their technology to enable application developers to sell based on a targeted data consumption level that matches the particular user type.

EMM: Is mobility about technology or business process re-engineering?

VT: It’s really about technology and business process optimization. Mobility allows a company to adopt and leverage technology to achieve best possible business process optimization. These generated efficiencies then enable employees to focus on higher-priority tasks and bring more value to the entire business.

EMM: The term device management is frequently used as a synonym for mobility management, which covers a much broader space. Where do you see the role of application management in that context?

VT: Application management will be crucial to the mobility management model adopted by an organization, as it impacts which data a user can access, what they can do with it and how the data flows between the device and the server. Applications should allow infrastructure rights/permissions to be carried forward to users of mobility.

EMM: One last question Vivek. Enterprise mobility is very different from consumer mobility where the carriers dictate the majority of “innovation.” How much does enterprise mobility need MNOs for customers to succeed?

VT: A device will always be linked to an MNO for voice and or data, so the relationship is critical. We are already seeing MNO’s making positive strides with corporate plans that allow shared minutes between employees. This will evolve with the role-specific usage to include business-critical applications like CRM, customer service apps and business management apps.

Well there you have it.  Thank you Vivek for taking the time to chat with me today. If interested, you can connect with Vivek on LinkedIn . Do you know anyone who should be a guest here on Inside Looking Out? Drop me a line.