Always On. Always Connected. Keeping Up With Mobility

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1 Always On. Always Connected. Keeping Up With Mobility The Enter u

2 Keeping Up With Mobility Even while CIOs target mobility as a priority, they face competitive and development challenges. What s the best way to develop a cogent strategy and stay ahead of the curve? If the intense popularity of and focus on all things mobile smartphones, tablets, connected devices, and mobile applications seems familiar, it s because the 1990s Internet mania is repeating itself. Think about it suddenly a new technology swept in, threatening and promising to change the way people worked. It became an instant priority for IT, but its multiple facets weren t so easily mastered. Companies spent money creating web sites akin to brochureware, while savvier companies realized that, with some careful back-end investment, the Internet could not only offer data access to employees, partners, and suppliers, but also represented an unprecedented transactional opportunity. The latter companies often thrived while the others floundered. According to two recent surveys by Accenture Research, history is indeed repeating itself. Mobile devices have made the transition from being a secondary device to being a primary device; hence they have become a platform unto themselves, whether the enterprise supplies them or employees can use their own on a bring your own device (BYOD) basis. They bring an astonishing number of capabilities, but companies are still in the early phase of developing their mobility strategies. While they scramble to develop their mobile strategies, they must balance a variety of issues. These issues include the monetization of applications; accommodating the divergent needs of employees, customers, prospects, partners, and suppliers; addressing the increasing fragmentation of the mobile device market, with tablets joining smartphones and complicating development issues for Operating System (OS)-specific or browser-based applications. As always, too, questions regarding security and connectivity loom over any remote access strategy. As with the Internet, our research shows that successful CIOs should do three things: understand where in their organization developers are creating mobility applications; discern how to quickly integrate them into a cohesive strategy; and then use that strategy as a foundation for competitive advantage.

3 Mobility Is Both a Priority and a Challenge To gauge the perceptions of mobility among IT professionals, Accenture Research surveyed several hundred CIOs and several thousand application developers in North America, Europe, Asia, and South America in late The results were startling. When asked to tally their priorities, 78 percent of CIOs placed mobility in their top five; some 38 percent put it in their top two priorities. Only 19 percent said it was in their top ten, and 3 percent said it garnered a low priority for them. But the survey results also revealed some intriguing anomalies. When Accenture asked CIOs about their priorities for the coming year, the answers diverged based on geography. Far more CIOs in emerging markets are focusing on mobility compared to those in established markets. For instance, 100 percent of CIOs in China indicated mobility was their No. 1 or No. 2 (58 percent) priority or their top 5 (42 percent) priority. The percentage was 85 percent for CIOs in Mexico, 84 percent for those in Brazil, and 77 percent for those in India. The response from the UK only trailed India by a percentage point, but only 66 percent of the CIOs in the U.S. rated mobility as their No. 1 or No. 2 priority or their top 5 priority. Figure 1: More than two-thirds of organizations rank mobility as a high priority How does mobility rank among your list of priorities for your company in the next year? US UK India Brazil China Mexico Total Very high (top 1 or 2) priority 26.0% 58.3% 33.3% 48.0% 58.3% 65.0% 37.9% High (within top 5) priority 40.0% 60.0% 43.3% 36.0% 41.7% 20.0% 40.8% Medium (within top 10) priority 30.0% 24.0% 20.0% 16.0% 0% 10.0% 19.0% Low priority 4.0% 0% 3.3% 0% 0% 5.0% 2.3% Not a priority at all for our 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% company in the next year Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

4 Why the disparity? We believe that emerging markets ability to capitalize on greenfield opportunities may provide the answer; the emerging markets also report a significantly higher lack of interoperability with legacy systems. So by focusing on mobility, they can avoid the hassle of integrating mobile applications with large back-end legacy systems, which were architected and built for very different business requirements and frequently require upgrades to accommodate 24/7 mobile traffic. In addition, they may not even have deployed desktop applications, and can use the increasing capabilities of smartphones and tablets to leapfrog PC deployments. The survey results also showed an interesting disparity when they measured whether companies were focusing on internal capabilities, such as improving field service and customer service delivery for employees, versus driving revenue through customer engagement on mobile devices. In some cases, in fact, the split was considerable: China CIOs were more focused on employees over customers, 58 to 33 percent, while UK CIOs were more focused on customers than employees, 56 to 24 percent. In this respect, Brazil was closer to China and Mexico was closer to the UK, so it s impossible to draw the same conclusion regarding greenfield status versus maturity. This information is significant, however, for companies planning to develop applications in those countries, in terms of understanding the thrust of the competitive landscape. Other concerns complicate the rush toward mobility. No matter where CIOs were around the world, cost and security led the list of their concerns. Among CIOs, 50 percent cited concerns regarding security and 43 percent cited budgetary issues. Again, concern for these issues differed extensively depending on geographical location except in the U.S., where the results were tied at 54 percent. Other stumbling blocks cited included a lack of interoperability with current systems and a lack of understanding about the benefits of mobility (both at 26 percent); a lack of required skill sets for development and deployment (18 percent), fractured ownership of mobility within the organization (17 percent); and lack of engagement from senior executives (16 percent). Interestingly, this indicates that the bigger issues are technical rather than cultural, presenting a picture of companies ready to tackle mobility as long as they can get assistance overcoming the technological issues. Figure 2: Countries mobile priorities differ across regions China 58% 33% Brazil 44% 28% US 38% 32% India 37% 43% Mexico 30% 45% UK 24% Enterprise: Improve field service/customer service delivery with instant data access, capture and processing Consumer: Drive revenue through customer engagement on mobile devices. 56%

5 Not surprisingly, the top issue for CIOs was also an issue for application developers. When developers were asked to name the smartphone platform with the best security, none of the platforms received an overwhelming endorsement: a little more than half of the application developers thought Apple Inc. s ios operating system had the best, while nearly one-quarter cited Google Inc. s AndroidTM operating system. The results also clearly highlighted the fragmentation of the mobile device market. This manifests itself not only in the vast number of mobile platforms and devices, but also in the question of whether to focus on consumer (B2C) or employee (B2B) applications. Application developers rated fragmentation among devices utilizing the AndroidTM and Blackberry platforms as particularly difficult to manage, and both platforms scored lower on their monetization potential than the iphone and ipad mobile digital devices.

6 Fragmentation complicates companies ability to accommodate one of the strongest trends in mobility: consumerization or BYOD. By allowing employees to run applications on any mobile device, IT runs the risk of having its resources diluted further. At the same time, our research indicates the market is clearly still in flux, with BlackBerry devices that were once rated as highly favored within the enterprise now receiving low or very low engagement scores. Accordingly, however, 52 percent of CIO respondents said they were taking a hybrid approach to development; that is, mediating both native and HTML5 development to create applications whose user interface runs at least partly in an embedded browser. Another potential burden on resources: the decision whether to focus on inbound employee applications or outbound consumer applications. Companies inherently understand that offering an application to consumers specific to them will likely increase customer interactivity and intimacy. But the same divergent number of devices on the employee side applies to the consumer side, complicating the issue of multi-platform development. The issue of consumer applications also relates to monetization, the ability to ensure that the results of mobile development relate to quantifiable revenue streams. 42 percent of all CIOs want to improve field service or customer service delivery with instant data access, capture, and processing.

7 On the consumer side, another 40 percent want to drive revenue through customer engagement. One might think that all these obstacles together constitute a Gordian knot for mobility, one that s not easily untied or even sliced. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even as companies wrangled with the challenges of the web fifteen years ago, they grasped its inherent value. The same applies to mobility. No matter what the obstacles, CIOs report a strong commitment to mobile technology. On average, companies are allocating 31% of their discretionary IT budget to mobility projects in In addition, some 84 percent reported either an extensively or moderately developed formal mobile strategy. That indicates both a strong commitment to mobility s advantages and a high understanding of its potential benefits. Interestingly, emerging markets led in being committed to a strategy as well. In the U.S. and the UK, 76 percent of CIOs indicated they had an extensively or moderately developed formal mobile strategy; for India, Mexico, Brazil, and China, the figure was significantly higher at 94 percent. When asked which capabilities they were focusing on, the trend was clear: process improvements. In the next twelve months, some 48 percent plan to make changes in processes, workflow, and employee roles to better incorporate mobility services in their company. Nearly the same percentage plan to deploy employees dedicated to mobile efforts (47 percent). Within the same 12-month timeframe, 41 percent plan to create a prioritized list of mobility initiatives; 34 percent plan to have a dedicated mobile budget; and 31 percent plan to deploy application lifecycle management initiatives for the development, testing, and updating of applications. In addition to making changes to their business processes to better enable mobility, CIOs are already charging full steam into implementing their mobile priorities. When asked about what mobile services they plan to implement, CIOs cited streamlining operations through the ability to track orders, assets, or inventory from anywhere; 37 percent had completed such efforts, while another 37 percent were already executing them. Close behind that (35 percent) was accelerating the sales cycle with improved access to back-end systems and data quality for the sales force. These two areas represented the highest percentage of completed projects. An even higher percentage of CIOs (43 percent) were in the middle of efforts to empower communication and collaboration among employees no matter where they were. 53 percent of CIOs reported being in the middle of projects to improve field and customer service activities. Figure 3: Nearly half of CIOs plan to make changes in processes, workflow and roles defined to better incorporate mobility services What components of a mobile strategy do you plan to have in place within the year? (Please check) N = 238 Column N % Dedicated mobile budget(s) 33.6% Prioritized list of mobile initiatives 41.2% Dedicated mobility-related employees 46.6% Changes in processes, workflow and roles defined to better incorporate mobility services 47.5% Standard list of devices/platforms required to support 36.6% Application lifecycle management (development, testing, distribution, updating) 31.1% KPI definition and ability to measure/report/analyze and act 18.5% None of the above 3.4% Total 100%

8 Tackling the Challenges Through a Cohesive Strategy Given that mobility like the Internet before it is equally confusing and compelling, it only remains for IT to craft a strategy for conquering it. Creating such a strategy means first acknowledging the shift from applications containing data, logic, and presentation tiers to one in which services exchange information. A strategy will also help keep the obstacles from overwhelming multiple internal, though uncoordinated, efforts. What goes into a mobile strategy? Accenture sees three important elements: technology, business requirements, and management. Technology. This element spans everything from platform choice to development tools. Are you going to internally standardize on one device, or encourage the BYOD concept? This impacts your choice of development tools, which range from native to cross-platform or hybrid approaches. It will also affect your deployment choices, such as whether you will make applications available through external application stores or internal downloads. Business Requirements. This element encompasses identifying where mobile solutions are most important within your company, so you can prioritize development efforts. Given the strong commitment that CIOs in emerging markets have toward mobile solutions, it may behoove other CIOs to not only make mobile solutions available to employees in other countries, but ensure they are localized properly. At the same time, companies may choose to emphasize other key areas highlighted by the survey results: sales, internal collaboration, or applications serving customer service. Management. Given the degree with which the mobility market shifts, it s important that CIOs maintain strong oversight of their strategy, in order to tweak it when necessary as conditions shift. It won t be easy to establish your strategy because such an effort requires not only identifying future projects, but identifying current projects and ensuring that they are nudged toward your ultimate goals.

9 In essence, CIOs must embark on a three-step process to hone their strategy Step one: Discovery. Identify current projects as well as future goals; keep in mind that business units may be tackling applications on their own. Step two: Acceleration. Having identified the projects you want to pursue and the underlying technologies, promote acceleration by standardizing your efforts as much as possible. Use common code aka an application factory for basic elements spanning people, process, and tools. These help reduce overlap and increase developer efficiency. Establishing common interface elements for employees will also help reduce training time and increase productivity. Step three: Innovation. Once you ve created a strong foundation for internal progress, you can start looking at other capabilities to help make your mobile applications even more of a competitive advantage. How can you target those key areas and create even better tools for helping to reduce sales cycles or gathering customer insights at the moment they re making purchase decisions? Those kinds of insights are closer to reality than ever before, but only if you understand your strategic goals. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that you re still aiming at a moving target. Remember Internet time? You re now living on mobile time. Devices continue to evolve, as do application development tools. Just as you had to do in Internet time, you must focus on what aspects of mobility serve your business requirements most, and recalibrate them periodically. While you can easily refresh some strategies every year or two, for the time being, you must reconsider your mobile strategy as often as every six to 12 months to verify that you re still placing your bets on the right trends.

10 How Accenture Can Help Companies Devise a Mobile Strategy For companies staking their claim in mobility, Accenture brings a spectrum of capabilities as broad as the underlying challenge. Its international presence gives it insight into global mobility issues, which encompasses an understanding of both cultural and technological issues relating to development, deployment, and connectivity. In addition, it brings cross-industry knowledge that helps clients use mobility to deepen connections with consumers, employees, businesses and even machines. Its Accenture Mobility group helps clients tackle mobility in a variety of ways. In addition to helping clients seize opportunities for growth and manage the demands of an alwayson environment, it helps clients use mobility to run their businesses more efficiently. Whether it involves efforts to improve connection and communication with their workforce, their customers, or their partners, Accenture Mobility experience in nearly every industry brings in-depth understanding of how businesses can achieve growth through mobility. In the specific area of developing mobile strategies, it has crafted a multi-step methodology for companies to follow. Initially, Accenture Mobility helps clients understand the ramifications of a mobile strategy, both from the business and technology perspective. For the business perspective, this includes identifying: Who s going to use the mobile application? What business processes they touch? What capabilities they need? What internal support structure is necessary? What training is necessary? How should functions be governed? For the technology perspective, this requires identifying: What devices should be used? What applications are necessary? Do they need to be built or can they be acquired? What should the network infrastructure look like? How will the applications integrate with back-end applications? How will the applications be secured? How will the applications be configured, deployed, maintained, and updated?

11 Once Accenture Mobility, in collaboration with the client, answers these questions, they begin the threestep strategic planning approach. In the Assessment phase, Accenture Mobility benchmarks the clients mobility capabilities and identifies opportunities. In the Blueprint phase, Accenture Mobility defines standards and capabilities that should be supported for a future vision of mobility. Then it develops an implementation roadmap to guide potential mobility growth. Within Accenture Mobility as well are teams of savvy developers experienced in all facets of mobile applications. Whether clients need Apple ios, AndroidTM, or cross-platform HTML5 applications, the Accenture Mobility team can provide the requisite knowledge. Combining all these capabilities, Accenture Mobility offers help with applications, devices and platforms, managed services, and business integration services. With this unique combination of consulting and development skills, Accenture and Accenture Mobility have the capabilities to lead companies from strategic opportunities to success in their mobile deployments.

12 To learn more about Accenture Mobility, visit:

13 For more information on Accenture Mobility please scan the 2D barcode Copyright 2012 Accenture All rights reserved. Accenture, its Signature, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture. Methodology In January 2012, Accenture conducted an online survey with 240 IT professionals (directors of IT, CIOs, CTOs, Directors of Technologies and Chief Mobility Officers) across 23 industries in 12 countries: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States. Half work for companies that generate between USD$500 million and USD$1 billion in annual revenues; the other half between USD$1 billion and USD$5 billion. The January research also included an online survey of nearly 4,000 mobility application developers based in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, and North America, who create applications, products and services for employees and enterprises, as well as consumers. About Accenture Mobility Accenture is focused on enabling its clients to achieve breakthrough growth throughout the rapidly changing mobile ecosystem. The Accenture Mobility group offers five mobility services including consulting, software services applications, software services devices and platforms, managed services, and business integration services. These are designed to help organizations embrace business to employee (B2E),business to consumer (B2C), business to business (B2B) and machine to machine (M2M) business opportunities. Accenture offers mobility and embedded software services across a wide range of industries, devices and platforms, including Symbian, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, Android, Blackberry, iphone, Java, Linux, and MeeGo. About Accenture Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 244,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, Its home page is Rights to trademarks referenced herein, other than Accenture trademarks, belong to their respective owners. We disclaim proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Apple, ipad, iphone: Apple, iphone and ipad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. ios: IOS is a trademark or registered trademark of Cisco in the U.S. and other countries and is used under license. Android: Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Blackberry: BlackBerry and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of Research In Motion Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. Used under licence from Research In Motion Limited. Back Exit u