The Business Case for Mobile 3 Opportunities Where Mobile Can Impact the Bottom Line
This guide will explore the opportunities and challenges in each area based on Sourcebits perspective as a mobile development services provider to a wide range of companies in verticals ranging from CPG to healthcare. According to Gartner, What Are The Top Opportunities for Enterprise Mobility? A recent Gartner report identified several common key areas where organizations can build business cases around mobile technology, across multiple industries: Although mobile technology seems to be at the pinnacle of its progression, future waves of opportunity are still to come. Therefore, the enterprise must have a position on how mobile technology will improve the enterprise strategy waiting too long poses too much risk of missing or not being ready for future opportunities... The goal of this guide to to help you better understand where your organization can take advantage of those future waves of opportunity and how to champion and develop your enterprise s mobile technology strategy. Context-Aware Marketing Self-Service Removing Field Assets
Source: Gartner (June 2012) Why Is Mobile So Relevant to Business Now? Mobile is not the future, it s now. The unprecedented adoption of mobile is being driven by consumers and by employees, not by enterprise. But to thrive, enterprise must join its customers and workforces in the new mobile ecosystem where they re living, working, and playing today. Key Mobile Drivers: 38% of mobile devices are brought into the workplace by employees (bring-yourown-device). Smartphone shipments are growing rapidly in mature markets. Media tablets will start to gain significant market share, relative to laptops. Smartphone adoption varies widely by region, and the relatively high price of smartphones means that they will be adopted only slowly in emerging markets.
Promotions can also be triggered when a user is in a specific store to drive a purchase decision--right in the stream of commerce. Opportunities: Context-Aware Marketing Mobile offers a unique opportunity to target marketing to consumers that both encourages them to proactively opt-in and increases conversion rates. For example, American Express recently launched a mobile program that allows consumers to receive time and location-sensitive promotions from businesses that partner with American Express. In one use case, AMEX recognizes that a user is near a particular restaurant at dinner time and can then send a highly targeted message with a promotion for a discount or special. We believe the biggest opportunities in context-aware mobile marketing will be driven through promotions and offers--messaging which consumers are more likely to both optin to, and to respond to when they receive it. There is also a significant opportunity to tie in big-data with context-aware messaging, particularly for organizations that have deep customer data or are able to capture rich customer information within their mobile applications. Challenges: As more mobile applications take advantage of context-aware messaging organizations will be challenged to keep their messaging above the fray. Appropriate use of relevant customer data can also be a double-edged sword. The more context-specific a message, the more a consumer may experience it as an invasion of privacy. consumer. messaging, particularly for organizations that have deep customer data or are able to capture rich customer information within their mobile applications.
Self-Service Portals For services consumed on-the-go, mobile offers an opportunity to deliver everything from reservations to status updates that were previously handled by phone agents. United Airline s is an excellent example of an enterprise making the most of self-serve mobile. The United mobile application allows users to do anything from booking or changing a flight to receiving a mobile boarding pass, to checking their flight status. Users of the United app can consistently get quicker information, with less aggravation than waiting in line at a gate or in queue on the phone. consumers are currently interacting with live agents or frustrating IVR systems and envision that most reservations, cancelations, and status checks for services from travel to medical appointments will be handled largely via mobile within the next 5-7 years. Opportunities: The advantages to companies like United that have embraced mobile technology can be significant. Every status check or flight change handled on a user s phone is one less costly call center transaction United is able to avoid. We see significant opportunities for businesses to benefit from mobile in any industry where Challenges: While mobile and smartphone adoption is growing dramatically a sizable percentage of the population will not adopt mobile self-serve applications unless they don t have an option. As the need for call centers and agents decreases, organizations will be challenged to scale down those operations cost-effectively.
Mobile applications can have a significant impact reducing physical assets--particularly those relying on stand-alone electronics and components that can easily be replaced by consumer or employee mobile devices. Opportunities: Nearly anywhere businesses are currently providing technology access to users through a device there is an opportunity to remove that field asset and transfer the use to a mobile application. Use cases include digital kiosks and signage, security and identification tools, communication devices (courtesy phones, intercom systems, etc.) Removing Field Assets According to Gartner, Because most consumers and employees will be carrying their own smartphones (or tablets), enterprises have the opportunity to significantly reduce the number of technology assets (such as kiosks) in operational and customer-facing settings. Enterprises will interact through consumers' or employees' devices rather than through enterprise assets. Enterprise will significantly reduce costs by replacing aging, static technology in the field with dynamic apps running on devices provided by users. Challenges: Because many of the devices that applications would replace require the use of phone sensors (think bar-code readers) they require native applications for each platform (ios, Android, etc.), adding to development and maintenance costs. Messaging to users is also an issue, particularly in the early stages as customers and employees learn to complete tasks with their own devices.
Summary and Take Aways With mobile devices eclipsing PCs in device deliveries in 2014, mobile offers a wide range of opportunities to help drive business goals. Context-aware applications and marketing will allow enterprise to drive marketing messages that are highly relevant and targetedincreasing user opt-in and conversions. Self-serve applications for industries providing goods and services consumed outside the home or office offer an opportunity to reduce call center and agent costs while improving customer service. Finally, replacing field assets with applications powered by users own devices will dramatically reduce the costs for enterprise to provide access to technology platforms from retail information kiosks to in-store bar code scanners. Take Aways: 3 Areas Where Your Enterprise Can Benefit From Mobile 1. Build context-aware features into applications like American Express has to drive user opt-in and conversion. 2. Reduce the need for call center and live agent resources while improving customer service by developing rich self-service applications like United Airlines. 3. Reduce the number of field assets you require by replacing static, fixed technology devices with mobile applications powered by users own mobile devices. Want to Learn More? Call: 415.288.3697 Visit: www.sourcebits.com Confidential Sourcebits, Inc. 2012 7