Welcome to the latest edition of Inside Looking Out. This past week (right before the July 4th break), I got to speak with Alan Snyder. Alan is the President and CEO of Boxtone, a Maryland based mobility management company.
Whenever I talk to Alan, we invariably get into a philosophical debate regarding what role his company has in the market, whether it's device management, application management, or service management (that's the one I go with, btw).
Regardless, Alan comes back and tells me he's all about user management. Read on to see why he makes a lot of sense. And by the way, he's one of the people who helped me come up with the name of this series!
Enterprise Mobility Matters: Hi Alan. It's nice to speak with you again! Welcome to Inside Looking Out. So let's jump right in. What would you say is the greatest advancement in enterprise mobility in the last few years?
Alan Snyder: Hi Philippe. GPS enabled devices combined with high-speed internet access. I believe, as do you, that technology waves continually repeat themselves. The “mobility wave” is very similar to the “Internet wave”. Initially there were stand-alone internet only applications supported by an “internet” team and companies paid for employee’s connection to the internet at home. There was an entire boom of internet companies and applications to solve all sorts of issues, real and imagined. Eventually the Internet just became part of the fabric of the enterprise and the consumer. The thought of a new application today that was not “internet enabled” would be silly. Management of Internet applications within the enterprise has gone mainstream. Mobility will follow a very similar path and the combination of location based services with high speed access opens up an entirely new world of applications to solve new issues, real and imagined.
EMM: Are companies looking at mobility differently today as compared to a few years ago?
AS: Many companies are taking a very hard look at the total cost of operations of mobility, but the truly progressive companies are also looking at their mobile strategy as well. They know that mobility is mission critical and an important part of the enterprise service delivery model. So they are looking to reduce the total cost of operation (just good business practice in any economic environment) and expand their mobile capabilities since the mobile platform is essentially a base-cost item. We see many of our clients deploying additional mobile applications to employees and customers to improve patient care, client service, inventory management, sales management and customer service.
EMM: How do you see the economy impacting mobility in the enterprise? When are we going to see an upturn in the (our) market?
AS: The current economy is slowing, but not stopping the rate of growth of mobility in the enterprise. It is placing more pressure on cost management, which in turn is placing more pressure on the mobility teams and reducing service quality for the end users. We also see a significant trend towards Managed Service Providers for all messaging and mobility needs. I hate to see anything that slows the growth of a major productivity enhancing tool such as mobility, but I believe that it presents a real opportunity for companies to take a breather and get themselves organized. They should be looking at their mobility strategy and preparing for both growth of users and applications. The mobility market is still strong today and I believe that you will see stronger growth return in Q4 of 2009.
EMM: What do you think is the greatest current opportunity for enterprise mobility?
AS: The use of mobile applications to increase employee productivity and customer loyalty. Most companies now have a mobile deployment of between 15% and 40% of their workforce. The cost of mobility is pretty much an embedded cost since mobility is not going away. In fact we see it growing through both enterprise-provided and employee-provided devices. Enterprises should embrace that fact and look to get more out of what they already have deployed. With the proper selection of tools and applications they can both increase employee productivity and customer loyalty while reducing the total cost of operations at the same time.
EMM: What do you think is the greatest risk for organizations right now?
AS: Lack of focus on the Mobile End-User. The whole reason that mobility is deployed in the first place is to make people more productive. I have yet to encounter a company that deployed devices and servers because they thought that it would be fun. If the primary objective is to make the End-User more productive – what is being done to ensure that the objective is being met and just as important, how can we make them even more productive? Too many companies are focused solely on the infrastructure and the costs and they have lost site of the real opportunity to improve employee productivity and customer loyalty.
EMM: What steps should executives take to ensure the success of their mobility implementations?
AS:
- Understand the mobility marketplace and capabilities
- Develop a mobility strategy that is appropriate for your business
- Monitor and measure the results (no surprise from a systems management guy…)
- Adjust as necessary and be prepared to handle change
Well there you have it. Thanks Alan, for taking the time to chat with me about your views on Enterprise Mobility. Do you know anyone who should be a guest here on Inside Looking Out? Drop me a line.
