July 2013
Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. What is Mobility? 4 3. Mobility Adoption 5 4. Drivers and Barriers 10 5. Opportunities for Digital Entrepreneurship 11 5.1. Supply-side Business opportunities 11 5.2. Demand-Side Business opportunities: Functions and Horizontal Business Processes 13 5.3. Demand-Side Business opportunities: Operations and Vertical Specific Business Processes 15 2
1. Introduction Novel digital technologies (particularly Social, Cloud, Mobile and Big Data) are transforming the ICT industry and the way companies across all vertical markets can operate. They create new business opportunities for digital entrepreneurship both on the supply-side (to launch new services and/or establish new businesses) and on the demand-side (to optimize operations, reduce costs, improve services and/or launch new services along companies' horizontal business processes and vertical specific ones). This report focuses on Enterprise mobility. It assesses current adoption, plans of adoption, and drivers and barriers, and identifies business opportunities that EU companies can leverage by relying on enterprise mobility. Focus of the analysis is on the potential for new business value creation, driven by new or higher revenue, faster go-to-market, enhanced services, reduced costs, increased productivity or competitiveness. New opportunities are described as well as functional related ones, impacting R&D, production and operations, sales and marketing, customer support, financial and administrative functions. Industry specific opportunities are also identified. While the focus of the report is on raising awareness of the potential opportunities related to novel digital technologies, it should be stressed that these of course depend on their appropriateness for specific enterprises, the quality of their actual execution as well as the market and enterprise context. In short, opportunities always entail risks and barriers, which should be very carefully considered by enterprise managers, directors and shareholders. The analysis is part of a series of reports which assess the impact and business opportunities of other key novel digital technologies: Big Data and Analytics, social media and the cloud. 3
2. What is Mobility? Mobility describes the broad phenomenon of leveraging mobile solutions in the business environment. It involves people, processes and technology. From a technology perspective, enterprise mobility entails mobile devices (tablets, smart phones, etc), mobile software (including mobile device management, mobile application platform and mobile applications), the related IT professional services and mobile telecom services. Mobile enterprise applications consist of enterprise applications designed expressly for mobile and wireless environments. They can focus on delivering the critical front-end functionality for mobile workers based on the role of the worker and the subsegment of data that that worker requires from existing back-end functionality residing on an internal enterprise IT system or accessed via a hosted environment. Such applications include but are not limited to sales force automation, field force/service automation, supply chain management, services operations management, time and expenses (T&E), logistics, and messaging. 4
3. Mobility Adoption The penetration of mobile devices in European enterprises is already strong and set to increase. More than half of European companies on average adopt more than one mobile device. Advances in technology and improved ecosystem interest have driven strong growth in shipments of smartphones for business use. Adoption of tablets has also started strengthening, moving from being consumer devices to increasingly being adopted for business purposes at the enterprise level. The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) phenomenon is making the picture even more complex as employees increasingly expect to be able to work anywhere on the device of their choice. Moreover, an increasing number of companies allow remote working to enhance productivity, while improving employees' lifestyle and satisfaction. A strategic view of mobility is beginning to be adopted within forward-looking organizations. Many deployments to date have been tactical, and in many cases limited to mobile access to e-mail, but the nature of some more recent deployments indicate that EU companies are starting to adopt a corporatewide approach to enabling, managing, and securing the mobility initiatives of lines of business. Mobile applications have now become attractive to user groups beyond traditional field workers to cover many worker roles including executives, business managers, sales, marketers, contractors and partners, warehouse staff, and general mobile knowledge workers. Reliance on mobility solutions has indeed grown substantially in the recent past and in 2012 nearly one third of European companies (with more than 10 employees) had already adopted either a native mobile application for external usage (customer related services) and/or a native mobile application for internal usage (employee related services), beyond e-mail (Figure 1). Oil and gas processing companies and telecom companies emerge as the sectors with highest mobility maturity (close to 70%), driven by the adoption of mobile field service and customer services' solutions. Selected manufacturing sectors, automotive & aerospace, computer & electronics, and process manufacturing segments in particular (which count on adoption rates above 40%), also reveal to be ahead of other sectors in terms of reliance of mobility solutions. However, survey results also confirm wide heterogeneity in this sector overall, as we can observe that food, beverage and tobacco (CPG) and other manufacturing companies still lag behind, due to low penetration in the many small and medium enterprises operating in these segments. Software and IT services companies and financial services institutions also emerge to be more advanced than other sectors for what concerns mobility, followed to a lesser extent by companies in utilities, media, and professional services. Sales professionals at large IT software and services organizations, insurance agents and banks' retail sales teams are largely equipped with mobile customer facing applications to access customer data while in the field. In the finance segments, many banks are investigating m-banking as a new channel to enhance customers' reach. Other sectors in which mobility is more widespread than average (but lower than what observed in the more sophisticated sectors) include equipment & machinery, utilities, media, and professional services (with penetration rates around 35%). Despite strong adoption rates in transportation companies with more than 250 employees, limited penetration by small couriers results in below average adoption in the segment. 5
Generally speaking, these results reflect the fact that mobile solutions (beyond e-mail) have been more readily embraced by larger sized companies as opposed to SMEs and indeed, Figure 2 shows that there is a wide adoption gap between SMEs and large companies; some 27.9% of European SMEs with between 10 and 249 employees had already embraced mobility while about 60% of large European enterprises had done so. Figure 3 shows adoption of mobility by vertical among large European enterprises (LEs) with more than 250 employees and we can see that some relevant differences emerge when compared to the overall market. In particular, if on average the European distribution, hotels and restaurants sector falls behind in terms of mobility reliance (Figure 1), when considering only large companies this sector is among the most sophisticated. Large retailers are not only adopting mobile solutions to streamline operations and inventory, but are also pushing applications out to consumers to encourage m-commerce. Similarly, adoption by large transportation and storage companies is also above average. Very large postal, logistic and transport companies (500 and 1000+ employees) are at the forefront in the adoption of mobile fleet management and location-based services. In air transport, more than 80% of companies with more than 250 employees have already invested in mobile solutions as many players are leveraging mobile enabled personalized services as means to differentiate themselves from increasing competition. Solutions such as websites optimized for mobile access, mobile check-in and boarding passes, and pushing tailored targeted messages and advertisements to passengers mobile phones have grown in acceptance. Moreover, innovative mobility enhancements are emerging in airport and airline operations in the areas of operational messaging (between the aircraft and airline headquarters), maintenance, flight planning, and asset and spare parts management. Nonetheless, even among large companies, the penetration of mobile solutions remains limited compared to potential. SMEs that have already adopted mobile solutions have on average invested just in 1.5 areas, large companies in 2.27 areas (excluding e-mail). On average, most adopted solutions in a mobile environment are as follows: Manufacturing: Procurement, Shop floor and manufacturing systems, customer facing systems, Field service technician applications Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants: Logistics, Supply Chain automation, Industry specific Finance: Customer facing systems, Industry specific IT (software and services) and other information services: customer facing systems Media: Field service technician applications, customer facing systems Telecom: customer facing systems Transport and Storage: Procurement, Industry Specific Utilities: Field service technician applications 6
Figure 1: Mobility Adoption in the Business Sector by Vertical Market (2012) (Source: IDC on IDC European Vertical Markets Survey 2012) Oil&Gas processing Telecom Automotive & Aerospace Computers and Electronics Process manufacturing IT (software and services) and other information services Finance Equipment and machinery Utilities Media Professional services Transport and Storage Business sector (10+) Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants Food, drink and tobacco (CPG) Construction Other manufacturing Mining 46,8% 43,6% 43,0% 41,8% 41,7% 36,8% 36,0% 35,9% 35,0% 30,7% 28,8% 26,7% 24,7% 23,9% 22,0% 14,3% 71,1% 69,1% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% Note: Data refer to companies with 10+ employees and are weighted by number of enterprises Figure 2: Mobility Adoption in the Business Sector by Size (2012) (Source: IDC on IDC European Vertical Markets Survey 2012) Business sector LEs (250+) 60,3% Business sector SMEs (10 249) 27,9% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Note: Data refer to companies with 10+ employees and are weighted by number of enterprises 7
Figure 3: Mobility Adoption in Large Enterprises by Vertical Market (2012) (Source: IDC on IDC European Vertical Markets Survey 2012) Telecom Oil&Gas processing IT (software and services) and other information services Finance Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants Process manufacturing Automotive & Aerospace Computers and Electronics Utilities Transport and Storage Professional services Business sector LEs (250+) Equipment and machinery Media Construction Food, drink and tobacco (CPG) Mining Other manufacturing 46,2% 40,4% 40,2% 37,5% 34,0% 85,5% 82,5% 77,2% 74,7% 73,3% 70,2% 69,8% 69,3% 65,4% 64,0% 61,5% 60,3% 60,0% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Note: Data refer to companies with 10+ employees and are weighted by number of enterprises Figure 4 shows that plans of investments for the next 24 months are quite strong, with some 24% of companies expecting to deploy mobility solutions in this timeframe, driven by investments from SMEs that currently lag behind in adoption. In fact, figure 5 shows that some 24.2% of SMEs will invest in mobility over the next two years, so by in 2014 the installed base will have close to doubled with one in two SMEs relying on mobility solutions for their business. Demand among large European enterprises, which were already at the forefront of adoption in 2012, will also progress steadily; some 22% have plans to invest in mobility. By 2014 it is anticipated that more than 80% of LEs will have therefore embraced mobility. From a vertical market perspective, figure 4 shows that: New deployments will move faster in the IT services and software and transport and storage sectors, in which close to one in three companies will invest in mobility over the next two years. In these two sectors, investments will be rather balanced between SMEs and LEs. Healthy investments are anticipated also in the Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants and financial services sectors, as growing numbers of SMEs join large enterprises in embracing 8
mobility. Utilities is yet another sector in which mobility is anticipated to move at a healthier than average pace. Beyond first time investments, companies already investing in mobility solutions will look into other processes to mobilise. As such mobility is expected to become a really broad phenomenon with strong opportunities to capitalise, as highlighted in Section 5 below. Figure 4: Mobility Investments in the Business Sector by Vertical Market over the Next 2 years (Source: IDC on IDC European Vertical Markets Survey 2012) IT (software and services) and other information services Transport and Storage Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants Finance Utilities Professional services Equipment and machinery Business sector (10+) Automotive & Aerospace Other manufacturing Oil&Gas processing Mining Food, drink and tobacco (CPG) Process manufacturing Construction Telecom Computers and Electronics Media 12% 26% 26% 25% 24% 24% 24% 24% 22% 22% 21% 21% 20% 20% 18% 18% 31% 33% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% Note: Data refer to companies with 10+ employees and are weighted by number of enterprises Figure 5: Mobility Investments in the Business Sector by Vertical Market over the Next 2 years (Source: IDC on IDC European Vertical Markets Survey 2012) Business sector SMEs (10 249) 24% Business sector LEs (250+) 22% 20% 21% 22% 23% 24% 25% Note: Data refer to companies with 10+ employees and are weighted by number of enterprises 9
4. Drivers and Barriers Mobility is one of the fastest growing IT solutions. Even though the economic crisis has hit strongly the ICT budget of many EU companies, investments in mobility have continued steadily. The emergence of cloud computing further strengthened this trend, and the cloud is now set to become the real enabler of companies' mobility strategies. Factors hampering adoption are mainly related to: Security concerns and mobile device management issues, but strong progresses have been recently made on the technology side Governance issues, also related to the BYOD phenomenon Challenges around interoperability and integration with existing systems (especially legacy IT) Budget constraints Management buy-in/companies' culture Wrong perception that mobile solutions only serve companies with a large presence of mobile workers (sales or technicians in the field) Lack of familiarity with available offerings Skills constraints, especially in SMEs Limited features of certain applications compared to traditional ones Beyond the obvious benefit of anytime and anywhere availability, there are several drivers pushing companies to adopt mobility strategies either to enhance customer services and/or to increase employees' efficiency. On the customer side, they include: Meeting increasingly rising expectations of technology savvy customers Reducing lead time and improving service level Higher degree of service personalization Adding a new channel to market Launching new services On the employee efficiency side, they include: Enhancing employees' productivity Increasing employees' flexibility and satisfaction Improving information and data accuracy; instant and visible information management Providing mobile workforce with faster access to time-critical information for enhanced customer responsiveness Increasing sales performance by automating sales orders, allowing the sales force to access current product and shipment information from any location Allowing better and faster decisions thanks to quicker reaction to unexpected changed situation in the field Automating inventory stock take/supply tracking Enhancing communication links between office and warehouse 10
5. Opportunities for Digital Entrepreneurship In line with the drivers presented above, business opportunities linked to mobile solutions can be categorized in two broad areas: Mobility to reach new customers and/or enhance customer services (external usage). Mobile solutions can enhance customer reach and/or enable new customer services (through mobile web sites and/or mobile apps). With most of consumers equipped with smartphones, companies of all sizes can benefit from effective multi channel strategies and from enhanced customer services to end-users looking for information while on the road. Mobility to enhance workforce efficiency, and productivity (internal usage). Mobile solutions can help streamline internal processes to increase employee efficiency and/or rethink collaboration and partner strategies. Furthermore, opportunities in these different areas can bring benefits both supply side and demand side: On the supply side, opportunities will be linked to the launch of new services and/or the establishment of new businesses offering services/technologies related to Mobility On the demand side, opportunities will be linked to the value generated in both horizontal and vertical specific processes of EU companies across all vertical markets. 5.1. Supply-side Business opportunities Extending e-commerce to mobile devices is perhaps the biggest game changer of all. Retailers also realize that mobile technology has transformed the in-store experience. Tablets are available in several retailers stores for shoppers to view catwalk shows, browse product specifications and to enter their information for customer relationship management purposes and marketing lists. With mobile devices, users are able to buy or cancel tickets and use their tickets immediately, by presenting their mobile phone at the ticket check. Retailers also use mobile technology for distribution of vouchers, coupons and loyalty cards. A rapidly growing number of mobile applications are developed and distributed allowing users to access a variety of services from their mobile devices. Originally available for general productivity and information retrieval (email, calendar, contacts, weather...), new generation of mobile applications benefit from smartphone features such as GPS, camera, orientation sensors, voice and provide location-based services, banking, order-tracking, ticket purchases, mobile games and much more. 11
In this context it is evident that EU companies can benefit from opportunities opened by mobility on the supply-side to launch new services and/or establish new businesses. They include (Figure 6A+6B): Mobile Commerce Mobile ticketing, vouchers, coupons and loyalty cards Mobile applications Mobile related services Mobile games Changing the Doctor-Patient relationship Figure 6A: Supply side Mobile Business Opportunities Mobile commerce (m-commerce) Extending ecommerce to m- commerce to facilitate sales via mobile devices and take profit from the increasing mobile user base. Mobile Commerce is the fastest growing revenue route in the Digital Commerce business. Launching of new m-commerce marketplaces allowing sellers to list their products and reach new customers through mobile devices with minimum costs. Designing of new m-commerce applications/solutions, for example mobile payment, mobile marketing applications. Extending all services linked to the Internet to the m-internet, allowing users to access services via mobile devices. m-commerce for example can become a driver of m- advertising, price comparison of m- sites, etc. Mobile ticketing, vouchers, coupons and loyalty cards Allowing tickets to be booked and cancelled with mobile phones using a variety of technologies (Mobile ticketing). Users will be able to use their tickets immediately, by presenting their phones at the venue. Using mobile technology for the distribution of vouchers, coupons, and loyalty cards. These items are represented by a virtual token that is sent to the mobile phone which can be presented at the point of sale to receive the same benefits as traditional tokens. Mobile Applications Developing mobile applications which explode in number and variety. Originally available for general productivity and information retrieval (including email, calendar, contacts), they rapidly expanded into other categories, such as mobile games, factory automation, GPS and location-based services, banking, order-tracking, ticket purchases etc. Figure 6B: Supply side Mobile Business Opportunities Mobile related services Mobile games Reinventing the Doctor Patient Relationship Shifting focus to the mobile world for web developers (mobile enabling websites, as features and functions need a redefinition) Offering services to design an effective mobile strategy (m-commerce, m- marketing etc) Hosting/cloud provisioning of mobile based applications/solutions Expanding game-inspired marketing via the mobile channel leading to a highly engaged consumer. Using mobile devices to disrupt the health care industry and reinvent the doctorpatient relationship. Empowering patients with chronic diseases to become apprentices and active participants in their own health, Supporting doctors and other health professionals in real-time monitoring, assistance and feedback. 12
5.2. Demand-Side Business opportunities: Functions and Horizontal Business Processes Benefits from mobility are not driven only by increase in number of mobile devices but also by the availability of mobile applications allowing to interact in real-time with information systems. Mobility is becoming part of the day to day operations leading to higher productivity, lower costs, effective and faster decision-making. Mobility will bring benefits in major business functions of EU organisations. Looking into companies' key horizontal processes, it is possible to identify several areas of business opportunities. They include (but are not limited to): R&D: Advanced Knowledge Generation & Motion Applications (Figure 7) Production, operations and delivery: Tracking of goods in Transport & Logistics, Mobile field Workers, Internet of mobile things, Mobile Supply chain management (Figure 8) Sales and marketing: Mobile store management, Sales Force Automation, Mobile Payment, Real-time Business intelligence (Figures 9) Customer support: Mobile Customer Service & Support (Figure 10) Administration and support: Staff productivity, Mobile Enterprise Resource Planning and other Mobile Enterprise Applications (Figure 11) Figure 7: R&D Enterprise Mobility Business Opportunities Advanced Knowledge Generation Giving employees anytime and anywhere access to external resources via smart mobile devices resulting in advance knowledge creation and raise of productivity. Motion Applications Using smartphones with sensors that detect motion, and displays that respond to the device tilting allow developing or using games and other applications that take advantage of the phones motion detection capabilities and build that into a user interface. Examples include: Leveraging motion detection and geo locating capabilities, to learn what floor a person is on in a building, tell them someone they know is in a meeting down the hall, or indicate what printer is closest to them. Monitoring physical activities of patients or fitness customers and therefore helping generate new applications such as activity tracking for calorie counting and diet purposes or effectiveness assessments of exercise regimes and physical therapist treatment. Sensing accidents and in case of non response from the owner, the smartphone could send a distress message or even make an emergency call. Targeting directly customers with special offerings when they are near or inside a store. 13
Figure 8: Production, Operations and Delivery Enterprise Mobility Business Opportunities Tracking of goods in transport & logistics Mobile Field Workers/ Technicians Internet of mobile things Mobile Supply Chain Management Inventory Management Using mobile applications in areas such as vehicle tracking, and tracing in transport and logistics companies. These typically relied on specialized devices, which looks set to change further Using applications to improve fleet scheduling, route planning, dispatching and tracking. Real time connection between drivers and scheduling teams through fully connected vehicle terminals or personal devices. Improving communication between field and office personal and increasing availability to customers, resulting in better employee productivity and customer service. Detecting breakdowns and maintenance needs in real time, and using automated push alerts to schedule a response. Allowing better and faster decisions thanks to quicker reaction to unexpected changed situation in the field. Leveraging Internet of mobile things made possible by broadband connectivity, 3-D sensors, and enhanced geo location capability. This is turning the devices into intelligent, humanassisted network nodes on the public Web. Adding social networking to that capability to get an emerging form of large-scale, contextually aware mobile networking. Mobilizing supply chain to allow quick information sharing with various stakeholders thus enabling smoother work flow, real-time access to data, and proper monitoring. Tracking movement of goods, and orders in real time. Managing shopfloor to forecast, deploy, monitor, and manage the workforce. - Updating inventory information through barcode scanning, enabling common warehouse and shop floor transactions, analytics, reports and other documentation. Enabling tracking of raw materials, unfinished goods and final products with mobile devices and sensors from the moment they enter the factory to the moment they are sent to the customer Replacing paper based quality management systems with mobile ones. Figure 9: Sales & Marketing and Customer Service Enterprise Mobility Business Opportunities Mobile Store management Sales Force Automation Mobile Payment Real-time Business Intelligence Transforming in-store experience using mobile applications. Examples include allowing shoppers to scan QR codes to redeem coupons at stores checkouts and collect or use frequent shopper reward points. Mobile shopping has enabled retailers to find new places to sell beyond stores, where shoppers can view images of products, scan a QR code to add items to their basket and buy through their phone. Giving sales team members anytime, anywhere access to key information allowing them to perform critical sales functions including accessing product information, placement of orders, checking order status, updating sales pipeline information, and looking up client details to increase sales performance. Enabling mobile payment where customers can make a payment from a wallet application on their smartphone and the vendor can process payments using the register application on a smartphone or tablet. No more fumbling for change, digging through credit cards, or even picking up the smartphone. Making a payment can become hands-free. Learning more about customers and others in real time and providing most of the information needed in the right context at the right time.. For example, a salesman about to visit a prospect s headquarters office can learn about mutual friends and connections before walking in the door. 14
Figure 10: Customer Service & Support Service Enterprise Mobility Business Opportunities Mobile Customer Service & Support Entering service requests on-the-go and get real-time status. Providing comprehensive view of client complaints, problems and history. Enabling systematic workflow information between various participants in the process. Planning travel, visits and other work activities with a calendar and scheduling app. Enabling customers to log complaints and get real-time solutions as they do on companies' websites. Minimizing the role of customer support centre and reducing costs. Providing analytics and reports.- Remotely monitoring equipment and automatically alerting on issues in real time, resulting in faster repair times and improved after sales services. Figure 11: Administration and Support Enterprise Mobility Business Opportunities Staff Productivity Enhancing workforce flexibility, productivity and satisfaction by using personalized mobile devices.using mobile devices has made it possible for the entire workforce to be constantly available and productive. Business executives point to gains already made and high expectations related to mobile in term of productivity, efficiency and customer engagement. Providing immediate access to documents, corporate materials and presentations, and connecting workers to core business processes. Mobile Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)/Other Enterprise Applications - Allowing access to real-time information from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and other enterprise application to aid the sales and other team in providing customized service, fast and effective decision making and increased customer satisfaction: Improving account management- customers, prospects and channel-partners. Enhancing lead management - real-time new lead notifications as updated in companies' CRM. Allowing vendors and channel partners to view prices, requirements, stocks etc. Providing retailers and salesman at shops with the latest price list of products, stock availability, booking orders and payment processing etc., on their device. Enabling product demonstrations and other selling activities. Accessing companies' ERP system to get stock of the inventory, track orders and delivery. Planning travel, visits and other work activities with a calendar and scheduling application. Viewing and creating reports, updating and analyzing sales & revenue data. 5.3. Demand-Side Business opportunities: Operations and Vertical Specific Business Processes A higher percentage of companies in finance, manufacturing, telecom, media have focused investments on mobile applications for internal usage while in retail, focus has been so far stronger on applications to reach new customers. Going forward, the customer orientation of the different vertical industries will determine the pace of demand for mobility applications used to reach new customers and/or enhance services. 15
Telecommunications, media, distribution/retail/hotels, and finance in general deliver their services to a very wide audience of both consumers and businesses. IDC European vertical markets' survey confirms most of these vertical markets will put a strong focus on applications for external use in the next couple of years, to "mobile enable" their customers. Opportunities will include Mobile payment in telecom, Mobile commerce, mobile payment ad near field communications, digital couponing and also mobile in-store systems, mobile kiosks and mobile POS in retail Mobile booking in hotels Mobile banking in finance Mobile news, mobile video, mobile TV in media Looking at solutions aimed at streamlining internal business processes, customer-facing ones (mobile sales force automation and other mobile CRM systems) have been those with strongest development. Less customer-centric applications such as mobile HR, Finance/Administration and Supply Chain Management (SCM) have more recently started to promote process optimization in such areas as procurement, production planning, inventory/warehouse management, and logistics. IDC European vertical markets' survey highlights short-term higher than average mobile opportunities for: Optimising sales force automation in oil&gas, media and insurance Enhancing mobile customer services and marketing, especially in finance, process manufacturing, wholesale and utilities. In this area, mobile applications are also making their way into the contact centre to reduce call handling times. Banks, for example, are developing features where a customer service representative can be reached through onetouch. Mobilizing finance/administrative back office applications, particularly in media, utilities and retail. Some of the horizontal applications that are growing in popularity in this area have been in travel and expense management. Mobilizing HR in insurance, oil&gas, pharmaceutical and utilities Streamlining mobile field workers/technicians' activities in utilities and oil&gas and time reporting activities in the professional services' sector Optimising supply chain and logistics, especially in utilities, oil&gas and retail Getting instant access to BI and analytics in utilities, insurance and professional services Optimizing vertical specific applications in insurance, oil&gas, professional services and utilities Enabling mobile merchandise management in retail While these represent short-term plans of investment, it is evident that many opportunities are to be found in those verticals that are lagging behind in the adoption but that can largely benefit from mobility. They include: Construction: with most of workers being in the field, construction is one of the vertical markets that can benefit the most from the usage of mobile solutions to enhance employee 16
productivity (internal usage) and enable better project management, especially on subcontracting. Retail: with adoption still limited compared to potential, also SME retailers can benefit from solutions aimed at streamlining inventory and logistics, but especially from mobile optimized websites to leverage m-commerce and payment. Hotels: similarly to retail, hotels of all sizes can benefit from mobile booking and loyalty programs. Manufacturing: current adoption is fragmented and varies significantly by sub-industry and company size. Manufacturers of all sub-industries and sizes can take advantage from mobile solutions to respond to changes in demand. Areas of opportunities will be tied to several manufacturing business processes including SCM, procurement, inventory, production planning, plant performance tracking, logistics, and after sales services. Professional services: many workers in professional services are mobile. Adoption rates of mobile solutions are above average among companies with 250 + employees, but still limited as the low-end of the market. Time reporting and billing, project management, job scheduling and customer facing solutions can offer strong opportunities also to SMEs in the segment. 17