ABSTRACT
Chapter Key Points Presents the economic dimension of Mobile Enterprise Transition (MET) ◾ Stresses the strategic importance and use of mobility in business (as against ◾ tactical or routine use) Discusses and analyzes the importance of the cost factor in MET, including ◾ costs of mobile gadgets, mobile transactions, infrastructure, and operations Discusses and analyzes the importance of the competition factor in MET, ◾ including sophistication in services, excellence in content, and marketing by the competitor Discusses and analyzes the importance of the customer factor in MET, ◾ including the demand for mobile services by customers Discusses and analyzes the employee’s ability to provide enhanced, improved ◾ service to customers and manage employee processes better than before
Discusses and analyzes the importance of the convenience factor in MET, ◾ including local and global connectivity Analyzes survey data in terms of understanding the relative importance of ◾ economic factors and their position in creating a MET project plan Analyzes survey data to understand the best sequence of economic factors ◾ and place them in an economic sequence Discusses the informative, transactive, operative, and collaborative use of ◾ mobility by business in the context of the economic dimension Highlights the strategic advantage of mobility as compared to normal advan-◾ tage resulting from the use of a disruptive business technology
Introduction This chapter discusses a systematic approach to understanding the economic dimension of MET and the application of the economic factors within that dimension to MET. These include costs and competition,* which are usually the two primary drivers that compel a business to undertake MET. For example, a stockbroker using mobile technologies is likely to be more competitive compared with those relying only on electronic transactions; competitiveness is enhanced and costs are reduced with the use of mobility through timeliness of transactions. Along with other strategically important economic reasons, these drivers are significant in the decision-making process of the senior management of an organization as it contemplates MET. This is so because the decision of the senior management with regard to MET is based on the overall value of MET to business and customers, and not necessarily on how radical or impressive the features of mobile technologies themselves might be. In fact, without a proper understanding of the return on investment (ROI) on MET and the business opportunities it entails, formal mobile transition may hardly ever happen in the industry. Alternatively, without the benefit of analysis in this economic dimension, the senior management of an organization may even inadvertently assume that the organization is indeed mobile. A compelling need for MET is felt when the cost-benefit analysis of mobility and the strategic benefits likely to accrue from MET are brought to bear in the early decision-making process of the business. This chapter argues for a formal consideration of these economic drivers, and studying, incorporating, and using them in the MET framework. These formal economic drivers include, apart from cost and competition mentioned earlier, the financial opportunities that the mobile business can create and exploit because of the nature of mobility and an understanding of the effect of possible lost business opportunities for not considering mobility
in a formal and strategic manner. This chapter starts with a discussion of the importance of these cost factors from both the business’s and the customer’s viewpoint. It is followed by a discussion on the effect of competition on the economic performance of the organization. The highly significant discussion on the needs, demands, and capabilities of the customer as well as the corresponding advantages of mobility to employees in a mobile business ensues. Next, the ease of use or convenience accorded by global and local mobile connectivity is discussed from an economic perspective. The usefulness of mobility, especially its perception by the various users, is discussed to enable the transitioning organization to tap into the business opportunities that can result from such perception. The discussions on the various important economic factors are then followed by an analysis of these factors from the point of view of their priorities and relative importance in the transition. This analysis is based on the survey data collected during the research phase of the writing of this book, and it results in the formation of a project plan within the economic dimension of the MET framework. These economic factors of MET are then placed within the context of the discussion on “business usage of mobility” (as discussed in Chapter 1, Figure 1.3). Finally, a suggested approach to calculating and understanding the strategic benefits resulting from MET is discussed, particularly to understand this strategic advantage as different from the normal or nonstrategic advantage of mobile technologies.
