ENTERPRISE MOBILITY GIVE YOUR BUSINESS THE BIG ADVANTAGE

Transcription

1 Business Solutions through Software ENTERPRISE MOBILITY GIVE YOUR BUSINESS THE BIG ADVANTAGE 1

2 Executive Summary: Today, mobility is considered to be one of the most disruptive technology innovation faced by the enterprises. Since few years, from just providing and data on the move, mobile devices have evolved providing applications and services which have the potential to change the way enterprises do the business. The contextual data can reach the customers more effectively. Enterprise mobility has become an essential part of business due to the explosive growth of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Organizations across various industries such as financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, have started developing various Enterprise Mobile Applications that drive revenue, increase employee productivity, build brand loyalty, and strengthen communication with the partners. Decision makers in these industries and other leading adopters are reworking their mobile strategies to take advantage of the latest technologies. The rapid rollout of new mobile devices is driving new customers in the market and also forcing the developers to build mobile applications for multiple platforms and different devices. Just as there are various smartphone and tablet options available in the market, there s a plethora of mobility platform options to choose from such as ios, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Cross platform like PhoneGap and Worklight. This whitepaper talks about the increase in the usage of mobile devices in enterprises, forces driving enterprise mobility, benefits of enterprise mobile applications, their types, process of development and their advantages and disadvantages. Forces Driving Enterprise Mobility: Three forces driving the demand for smart mobile devices are: Technology convergence, Increasing affordability and Ubiquitous computing /connectivity. Forecasts indicate that the use of mobile devices will exceed that of desktop PC s and laptops in the coming years. The factors which led to development of Enterprise Mobile Applications are: Increased Use of Mobility by Consumers: Due to greater convenience and utility consumers are at the forefront of the smart mobile revolution. Mobility has empowered the consumers in multiple ways due to its ability to access information anytime, anywhere for real time decision making. Their behavior has changed in shopping, consuming news, games, music, social media. Increased Use of Mobility by Employees: Use of mobile devices for accessing business information is rapidly increasing among the employees. They rely more on consumer technology for both personal and professional purposes which is blurring the line dividing it. Dawn of BYOD: Employees demanded to use their own device at the workplaces which is now met as the enterprises started adopting the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy. 2

3 MOBILE usage in Enterprises: The growth and use of mobile devices like laptops, smartphones, tablets and other portable devices is increasing worldwide and the enterprises have started considering these devices as a resource of growing their business. Work can be done from home, while travelling or any other place outside the office. More than one billion mobile workers or one third of the global workforce work outside of their corporate headquarters. (Source: Forrester Research Inc.). Hence various job functions in the enterprise like accessing company data, creating documents, using corporate and accessing company applications are performed by the executives and workers using mobile devices. Thus mobile devices provide the ability to an enterprise to control people and access the assets from any location. The usage of mobile devices has initiated BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy where in order to carry out the job functions employees have to bring their own mobile devices. This policy has been increasingly accepted as a part of work culture because of the experience and familiarity of using one s own device. Factors like explosion of various mobile devices, evolution of high speed network and applications, familiarity with the mobile devices and their decreasing cost which leads to their increasing usability has triggered the idea of using them at workplace which can prove to be a great advantage. As per Forrester Research Inc. s survey in the year 2012, the increasing use of mobile devices as well as the apps on them will have a significant impact on the enterprise s IT services spending over the next 12 months. The constant increase in the usage of the mobile devices for job functions has emphasized the idea of developing mobile applications for enterprise which helps the workforce to remain close to their work along with their own device on hand. These applications help the managers to perform all the office tasks, get updates, and examine the reports, etc. while they are on the go. 3

4 Benefits of using Enterprise Mobile Applications: Less paperwork: The apps perform the business functions with a tap of the finger, thus discarding the bulky paperwork. Also signatures can be captured via tablet or smartphone. Hence it becomes easy and convenient for the employees to perform tasks. Increase in the efficiency and productivity: With the effective business applications, employees perform the job functions well remotely and while travelling which reduces wastage of time and energy and increase efficiency and productivity of the business operations. Increase in Revenue: Reduced paperwork, increased productivity and efficiency and quick customer response due to easily accessible business functions on mobile devices delivers more profit more profit in less time. Better Brand Image: Instant access to business functions and increase in the customer responsiveness helps in building a better brand image of the enterprise. Due to these benefits enterprises are looking forward to align their business functions with the mobile devices and consider the enterprise mobile applications in order to offer cutting edge benefits and growth platform to their businesses. Also some other generic benefits of enterprise mobile applications include: Define Success Measures Develop Security Increase in Employee Satisfaction Plan for Support and Maintenance Analyze the Target Users In order to develop a mobile application for an enterprise, the above points will help to move on the right track and provoke right benefits at right time for any business. Models of Enterprise Mobile Application Development: The following application development models are likely to be ideal for different business requirements. For a particular enterprise the best application is one which provides flexibility and ROI with minimum cost and time. 4

5 Model Advantages Disadvantages Custom Developed Apps: Single platform to develop multiple apps Time consuming as the apps are built from scratch When apps available in the market do not address the specific concerns of the business then customized apps can be built which fulfill the requirements as per the budget and resource on hand. Better control and management Apps meet specific required functions Well integration with the back end system High efforts required to maintain the development process May lack required User Interface and graphics Ready to Use Apps: Pre focused to perform defined functions Integration, security and management issues These apps are easy and quick for deployment and they can be easily purchased or downloaded from the market or app store. They are deprived of appropriate alignment and with the business functions Fast and easy for deployment Better UI in order to meet requirements of huge customer base ROI most likely achieved in specified time Not compatible with various mobile phones Unlikely to meet the chosen operating system Efforts required to integrate apps with devices Modifiable Apps: Acts as a bridge between custom developed apps and ready-made apps. Such apps are speedy, flexible and sustainable in design and deployment and can be downloaded from any app store and modified as per the requirement Less time required in designing and deployment Addresses complete requirements with less effort, cost and time What should be modified is an issue The modified app not certainly meet the desired requirements Web based Apps: Supports all browsers, operating systems and devices Continuous connectivity with the internet is required They are website design apps or online apps used to perform specific functions when requirement and functional sustainability are not major concern Highly compatible Supports future improvements and upgradation Deployment, development and integration is free Takes long time to access the app compared to the one installed on the device Less likely to integrate with the internal functions of the device 5

6 Process of Enterprise Mobile Application Development and Deployment: Application Construction Includes all back end tasks like defining functions, architecture, customization or modification of app, building features to execute the app and solving business problems Designing Its the look and feel of the app consisting of incorporating graphics, media, animations and developing UI which gives rich user experience Coding & Integration Coding of the app is connecting the application with the device which has to be in line with the functioning of the devices. Also integrating the apps with the legacy systems of the organization eg. 3-tier architecture Testing It is done in order to ensure that the app is developed correctly and runs smoothly on the user's device. This is done for all devices and operating systems on which the app is to be run Deployment It is carried out till all the problems are ironed out and the enterprise is completely satisfied with the functioning of the app Maintenance Maintaining the app and ensure that the end users do not face any problems. Also continuously upgrading and revising it to get complete benefits for performing the job work with the app 6

7 Case Study: Field Sales App to Process Sales Orders On-Site Industry: Retail Client Profile: A leading online discount Art Supply Store offering a wide selection of arts, crafts and books. Business Situation: The client wanted to enable the sales workforce to enter the sales orders from the customer s location using the mobile devices like smartphones/tablets. Key Functionalities: Application integrated with the ERP through Business Connector Field-based view and update information through smartphone Multiple mobile platform support Smartphone application and web component driving integration with ERP Google Maps Integration for driving directions for sales personnel Client Benefits: Increased productivity by 29% Paperless sales order entry Increased orders by 18% Better visibility into sales data with optimum routing feature for sales calls Reduction in overheads related to unnecessary paper work, phone calls, visits, etc. Reduced transportation cost by 37% Empowered sales force Easy search functionality Easy price verification, customer profiling, supplier relationship management and contract reference tracking Solution: A Field Sales App was developed for the client for the order placement in real time. It had two main components: Mobile App which is installed in sales person s mobile device in which all data related to orders, customers and products is saved as XML files. The Web Component facilitates data transfer between the ERP database and the Mobile app database. Sales persons visit their customers at their office or any location of customer s choice with their smartphone. The application helps the sales personnel generate orders or create new customers instantly. Using the Search feature of the application the customer and the sales person discuss the business needs. When ready the customer confirms the order which is placed by the sales person using the application. The customer immediately gets a short order confirmation mail. Then the sales person connects the smartphone to the laptop to commit the order to the customer s ERP and at the end the customer gets a final order confirmation along with the tracking and delivery details. 7

8 Conclusion: Enterprises planning to go for mobile technology for their business and implementing the policy of working from anywhere can certainly go for adopting Enterprise Mobile Applications. These can bring benefits like real-time decision making, collaboration, mobile asset tracking and faster response from business users. This can lead to competitive benefits in a cost effective manner. There are a lot of Enterprise Mobile Applications available in the market working on various operating systems and devices. The image below shows various Mobile App ideas on which many applications are developed for the enterprises. Enterprise Mobile Applications for specific areas: Agro Purchase App providing real time updates Field Sales App for enriching productivity, better planning and tracking of sales process Field Service App to increase the productivity of field service personnel, order management and offline work support App for supply chain transformation which includes inventory, warehouse management, logistics, distribution, etc. App for effective manufacturing App for asset management App for sales executives in order to access their company network when they are on move Service Rep Sales Rep Operation s Customer Managers Business Solutions through Software Web: sales@indusa.com Follow us on: LinkedIn Twitter YouTube About INDUSA Organizations in North America, Europe and the APAC regions rely on INDUSA for technology consulting, IT services and business solutions. INDUSA s unique ROI and TCO driven approach helps clients prioritize their IT spend, and allocate valuable IT resources in the most effective manner Corporate Headquarter: INDUSA Technical Corp., 1TransAm Plaza Dr., Suite 350, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181, USA Tel: 1 (630) UK Office: INDUSA Infotech (UK) Ltd, 1 Lyric Square, Suite 03-25, Hammersmith, London W6 0NB, UK Tel: 44 (0) Development Center: INDUSA Infotech Services Pvt. Ltd., 2 nd Floor, GNFC Info tower, SG Road, Ahmedabad , India Tel: