Mobilizing India Inc

Sanjay Sharma is your usual sales rep who''s on his routine sales round.

Only this time he''s sporting an all-new PDA. He now uses his mobile device to

use the waiting time, in between meeting clients, to catch up on lost time

reviewing account and product information, scheduling sales appointments and

completing his sales administrative tasks. His company, a large FMCG major, soon

discovered that salesmen like Sanjay spend one third of their time waiting in

the offices of clients with little or nothing to do. This, subsequently, was

having a negative impact on the company''s overall productivity.

So, what''s the story here? Well, Sanjay''s top management, in consultation

with the CIO and his IT team, decided to provide mobile devices (mostly Reliance

phones and in some cases PDAs) to employees to allow them to port their

mission-critical enterprise applications to a mobile platform. The company hopes

that this move will result in more sales leads, more orders and consequently

higher revenues.

Similar usage in many other industries like pharma, express services,

insurance, consumer goods and auto holds the promise for improved productivity

and efficiency and CIOs have started examining the potential of mobile

computing. The trend seems to be catching on fast: pharmaceutical firms like

Pfizer, Glaxo SmithKline, Ranbaxy and FMCG giants like Hindusthan Lever have

already started ''mobilizing mission critical staff''.

Mobile Promise



To set the term straight, ''mobile computing'' in its most general sense

refers to the use of any computer that is not hard-wired to the central or host

system with which it needs to interact. The required interaction occurs through

a wireless, real-time connection, a batch synchronization procedure, or a

combination of wireless and batch. Enterprises globally are seeking means to

extend corporate data to an increasingly mobile workforce. IDC estimates that by

the end of 2006, roughly 66% of the US workforce would be mobile workers. Mobile

workers are defined as employees spending at least 20% of their time away from

office.

According to Gartner, mobile applications are becoming strategic parts of a

company''s IT portfolio, rather than being tactical tools for productivity

gains. Satish Pendse, CIO, Kuoni Travels, however feels that India Inc. is yet

to mature to this level. "Barring a few exceptions such as sales force

automation with the pharma or FMCG industry, mobile applications have not yet

started contributing to the topline for most Indian enterprises".

Enterprises spent up to 5% of their budget in mobile applications in 2003;

the percentage will double by 2007 globally. In comparison, Indian enterprises

have just about started moving in the mobile computing direction. In a survey

conducted by Dataquest among 68 large organizations, 25 of them planned to

invest in wireless networks and sales-force automation projects during 2004,

while 14 planned to go in for other mobile applications.

Key Considerations



Enterprises need to make a number of technology decisions based on the

constituent parts of the mobile solution- the mobile devices that can be used,

the mobile database components and the middleware, developing mobile

applications, and interfacing with the back-end systems. The technical

considerations aside, CIOs would need to understand a few key points before

embarking on a mobile computing initiative.

Arun O Gupta, senior director- business technology, Pfizer, points out that

mobility is just an added advantage to an enterprise and doesn''t really

replace conventional connectivity solutions. To the largest possible extent, the

aim should be to extend the existing technology stack instead of creating a

standalone infrastructure that is expensive and cumbersome to manage and

support. "The virtual office is still a long way. The existing business

processes need to factor in the mobility, they do not need re-engineering. Like

the Internet or e-enabling of the enterprise was not at the cost of existing

channels of engaging customers, mobile computing and access will complement the

enterprise."

Part of the externally visible sheen in mobile computing is the mobile device

that empowers the person. The choice of the device though important is quite a

non-issue as long as the organization is clear what it wants to achieve.

Enterprises can choose from a multitude of types and brands of mobile devices

ranging from phones to laptops to the lowly application-specific handheld. In

India, one could look at mobile phones (both GSM and CDMA), while the

penetration of laptops increase. PDAs though are yet to become affordable.

Similarly, devices like smart phones and tablet PCs are still quite a distance

away from Indian enterprises.

The nature of the work process often decides what device form factor will be

suitable for a particular task. For example, if the device will be used for

client interaction or demonstration purposes, consider laptops or tablet PCs

with big screens and good resolution. Some devices are designed to support the

needs of highly specialized tasks or quite extreme environments. For example,

warehouse staff needs barcode scanners integrated into their devices in order to

integrated product information into SCM systems. To decide on how ''thick'' or

''thin'' the client device needs to be in terms of processing power, the

amount of data managed and the frequency of access between enterprise networks

and the mobile employee has to be considered. At present, bandwidths are not

sufficient to support the full range of applications and thicker clients

predominate. However, as networks develop, thin clients can be employed on a

wider scale.

Application is the Key



Enterprises have a wide choice in terms of the applications that they

mobilize. These may be packaged or customized, applications that are already in

use in the fixed environment, such as a SAP R3, or applications that have been

developed to fit the capabilities of wireless networks and a very specific

mobilized task. The whole purpose of mobile applications is to provide wireless

and remote access to business systems. Says Ishwar Jha, senior manager-IT, Sony

Music, "If the mobile application is not integrated with enterprise

application then it will only be the fancy device in the hands of mobile

workforce without any major RoI for the organization. For enterprise

applications such as ERP/ SCM/CRM, the value provided by



the mobile applications can be classified in to two categories: for one, capture
of data very close to its source and in the real time basis i.e. when the data

gets "created" and secondly, availability of information to the

business users whenever needed and wherever needed.

If information is available whenever and wherever needed in a convenient

manner, then the time to take decisions and initiate action is reduced, thus

improving productivity.

Says Pendse, " For an FMCG or pharma scenario, the sales person is

usually travelling and is away from his office for one week at a time. If a

cheque of his customer bounces, then he gets that information only when he

returns back to his office, say after a week. Instead, if the system can send

alert on his mobile whenever the cheque bounces, he can initiate appropriate

action much earlier."

Mobility also facilitates extension of scope of the enterprise application.

For example, for a consumer of pharma companies, ERP''s scope in the erstwhile

scenario was restricted to organization''s own offices, factories and C&F

agents. Says Jha, "Mobile applications have facilitated extension of the

scope to its sales force who is spread across geography and its distributors who

are also spread geographically. In future, the same may also get extended to

retailers and end consumers."

End customers too have a value proposition, which can serve as a

differentiator to the business. For example, in service industries like travel,

tourism, hotels, transportation, banking and insurance, the end-customer''s

convenience improves dramatically when he gets access to the enterprise data on

an on-line basis.

This alone can differentiate the organization from its competition, in the

minds of its customers. Many a times it helps to expand the market or to create

new markets. As a thumb rule for a service industry, increased convenience helps

to expand the market or create new market. Mobile applications fit this bill

very well.

The benefit of real-time associated with mobile applications is due to the

near elimination of the time lag between an event and it being captured into an

enterprise application. This also eliminates the chances of data not getting

captured (due to "transmission losses"), errors in data-capture etc.,

thereby improving authenticity and timeliness of the information generated.

There is also an improvement of productivity, since the person directly

associated with the event is the one capturing it, instead of a separate person

capturing it at a separate place. In a FMCG or pharma scenario, the travelling

salesman can capture some information when he gathers it at a retail point,

instead of capturing the same at the end-of-the-day in office. Thus actions can

be initiated earlier and overall cycle-time gets reduced.

What CIOs Should Consider?



Purely from a business perspective, the CIO needs to ask the following

questions:

• Is the information associated with the process or job function
  
  time-sensitive?
• Would converting to a mobile environment make the staff more productive?
• Will it reduce the cost of operation or increase customer satisfaction?

If so, then there is a strong case to investigate going in

the direction of mobile applications.

The next step is to make a more detailed value analysis of

introducing mobile apps to supplement or replace parts of existing enterprise

applications. This analysis should specifically examine internal costs, current

expenditures (for instance, on communication resources and information

technology), and provide a detailed cost scenario of what would happen with the

introduction of the mobile strategy. The goal of this step is to assess the

opportunity cost of spending resources on the project as opposed to other

projects in the portfolio. Pendse believes will be one of the most important

elements in justifying the project internally.

Mobile initiatives can range from enterprise-wide to

automating a task to test the waters. It is important to minimize the scope of

the project if you are doing this for the first time.

Agrees Jha, "We have first developed a test application

for order capturing and subsequently made a business case for starting the

mobile application infrastructure. This has helped us to justify the cost and

ROI."

Since mobile applications mandate a behavioral change, it is

essential to develop user profiles as part of the mobile application design. If

users are inexperienced, it creates all sorts of problems for the designers and

developers of information and software systems. The key is to understand the

challenges that the users present to the design and development team before

major design decisions are made.

No enterprise can make it alone. Partnerships are very

important and there are three basic categories of partners: network providers,

hardware platform providers and software/application providers. Companies should

choose the software provider first because application integration is of

paramount importance. Ideally, companies want to have access that is ubiquitous,

regardless of the device platform. Network and hardware platform decisions will

be derived from these.

Rajneesh De

Maxims for Enterprise Mobility

Develop a mobile strategy now Enterprise demand for support of mobile

computing initiatives now requires extending the full complement of enterprise

resources to do business anywhere, anytime. The enterprise that proactively

pursues a comprehensive mobile computing strategy will be successful in building

competitive advantage. Gupta believes that the creation of a mobile worker

extends the work time beyond conventional 9-5.

Undergo process realigning The CIOs should ensure that the

mobile worker concept generates business benefits by reducing lag for data

capture and information availability. According to Pendse, the length for a

process is being reduced since the person capturing the data and the time of

capture is changing. There is no need for some person, just to generate the

information, to feed the mobile worker. Instead the mobile worker can generate

the same himself and consume the same himself. The information can also be

generated by the computer and "pushed" to the person who consumes the

same. Adds Pendse, "Access to the applications need not be restricted to

the internal teams only. Customers themselves can access the information from a

point and time of their convenience." This calls for internal as well as

external process realignment since the mindset is 24x7 and the geographical

limitations cease to exist. The channels and means of contacting the customers

also undergo transformation leading to major process realignment.

Ensure secure transaction Security vulnerabilities are on a

higher side since we are yet to see good secured, standard protocol for wireless

communication. This may be one of the reasons while wireless based mobile

applications not picking up at a rapid pace. Agrees Jha, "There are

certainly a concern in terms of authentication and someone committing the

unethical transactions." Smart card and digital signature based encryption

solution is in the top of mind for the CIO for facilitating the secured

infrastructure for their enterprise.

Keep an eye on Wi-Fi Wi-Fi is yet to pick up in India to the

extent believed earlier. But this should not close the CIOs to the idea of going

the WLAN way as and when the technology matures and the regulatory hurdles are

overcome. The hospitality industry in the country has shown the way; CIOs in

other verticals should follow suit at the right time. Gupta reveals that one of

Pfizer’s experiments with wireless audience response systems has been able to

show a quick recovery of the investment with the ability to capture and analyze

data with speed.

Avoid consumer-focused vendors Most of the service providers

in the country today sweat by their data applications which they claim to suit

the enterprises. But scratch behind the surface, and you will find that most of

these applications are really catering to the consumers, not enterprises. For

most corporates, it is the question of porting their regular applications to a

mobile platform, and not at the service providers for offering new killer apps.

Pendse’s advice to other CIOs: "Don’t swear by the application;

instead, swear by business value. If the said application is providing value to

your business, then make efforts to convince the stakeholder about it. Educate

them, involve them and let them take decision regarding the adoption; don’t

force the decision down their throat."

The Future’s Bright, the Future’s PDAs: Lauren

The company has already deployed PDA applications and provided hardware to

several companies in the Indian and overseas market

Lauren Information Technologies is laying its bet on PDA-based applications.

This solution providing company has already deployed PDA applications and

hardware to several companies in the Indian and overseas market. Says Rawlin

Pinto, CMD, Lauren, "There is great scope for PDA-based applications in the

pharma and insurance sector and we have already come up with a generic

application that can be tweaked and used for any pharma company."

Lauren, that recently introduced its portfolio management software, Networth,

is coming out with the PDA version of this product. It will also launch a CRM

software application for PDAs. Citing an example about the scope of the

solutions, Rawlin recounts how Lauren has deployed a distribution management

application at 1,800 PDA nodes for Colgate’s stockists and salesmen in the

country. Following a successful run with this technology, Colgate is now

marketing this application to its counterparts in Malaysia and Philippines.

Rawlin says that these applications must be all-pervasive and should work

with heterogeneous environments to succeed. Lauren makes sure that its products

can work seamlessly with Symbian, Linux, Palm and Pocket PC OS. "Since the

application works on multiple platforms, we have to configure only the last-mile

conduit at the customer site," adds Rawlin.

Lauren has also developed a PDA-based application for Aventis, which has been

supplied to 25 doctors. The deployment is still in the initial stages. Among

other pharmas, it has worked with Pfizer for a test deployment of an application

to 35 people in New Zealand.

It has also worked with AFL for a trace and track system with Symbian OS.

Here the application is loaded on a PDA attached to a scanner. Every consignment

is scanned and the data is transferred to a central server, so that customers

and the company officials can keep a track of it.

Some of the applications are also created to work with multiple devices like

laptops, desktops and even mobile phones. "With mobile-technology catching

on, we plan to come out with more mobile-based applications, making sure that it

is shrunk to fit the smaller display screen," says Rawlin.

Another sweetener to creating PDA-based applications is the supply of the

hardware, which is inevitably done by Lauren. However, Rawlin insists that he is

not into the hardware part of the business, but coincidentally whenever they

deploy the application the client prefers to buy it from Lauren. "This is

because it is easier for them to go to one company for all their needs," he

explains.

Vinita Bhatia in Mumbai/DQCI