Business model innovation for managed mobility services

Telco managed revenue shared model for enterprise mobility

by Purushottam Darshankar

Today’s mobile devices with their significant processing power, multimodal communication and large storage capabilities are fast proving to be a productivity improver by enabling the business users to make better decisions by using up-to-date enterprise information, wherever they are working.

While field services and sales applications are the largest opportunities for mobility solutions, CIOs, CXOs, technical managers are busy working on ROI estimates to take go, no-go decisions. On one hand it brings direct benefits in terms of productivity improvement and few indirect benefits such as increased employee satisfaction, improved customer satisfaction that could save business thousands of dollars. On the other hand, there is ever increasing diversity of mobile devices and costs associated with managing and integrating these devices into organizations IT infrastructure, training, support, networks and recurring costs of data connectivity. There needs to be balance between the operational efficiencies and costs. The TCO of mobility solution may vary depending on the functionalities, middleware, type of architecture and deployment. The decision needs to be taken strategically and not purely on traditional ROI and TCO model.

Given the underlying complexities of mobility solution, it is necessary to have pilot-run prior to full scale all functionality deployment. Also, it is necessary to take serious look at the duration of productivity plateau, when it will be necessary to upgrade the solution and finally when it will be time to retire the solution.

With the economic slowdown enterprises want to stay lean. Faced with tight budget constraints and stretched operating budgets, every business is looking to cut the initial capital investment and recurring operating costs of the mobility solution. This has led to emergence of new business model of managed mobility services that uses a common platform to integrate, support and manage the mobility solution.

The current telecom market is very competitive and operators are constantly looking for new revenue sources. As a result, many telecom operators are now adapting to provide managed mobility services with revenue share model to add new revenue source. They are encouraging the solution providers to use their network resources to provide services to businesses and share the revenue earned. Solution providers are also attempting “non linear growth” to increase their revenue by investing in building the vertical solution for various verticals.

There are compelling financial and technical reasons why businesses will move from premise based services to hosted shared services model. The businesses can save on their capital investment as they stay away from purchasing, operating and maintaining any IT infrastructure for mobility solution. Telco managed shared services provides high reliability, security and uptime so that businesses can more focus on their core competency.

It is important that appropriate security infrastructure be in built into such shared services model. If proper measures are taken, shared services can offer a safe, secure and reliable means of communicating sensitive information and provide businesses with a mobile service infrastructure that is as secure as any organization's “traditional” IT infrastructure.

The pricing model for such services is usage based “On-Demand” pricing, fixed monthly payment for each user. The business does not bear any risk of losing the money. The telecom operators have required flexibility to scale-up or scale down based on rapid fluctuations in its customer demands and needs.

The hosted shared services model provides opportunity to businesses to pilot-run their services to demonstrate their ROI for decision making. Once successfully adapted by their end user the managed service model will place the businesses on longer term benefit.

Whether launching new mobility services or to manage the existing one , businesses can always look at managed mobility services option provided by operators that manages all part of mobility solution and also offers flexible per-user pricing option.

Mobile Web or Mobile Application ? - which way to go

Posted by Amit , http://fivemobile.com/development/mobile-web-mobile-apps

Having been in the mobile space for a number of years, I’m often asked by prospective customers whether they should develop a mobile website or create a downloadable application that runs on the handsets. The short answer is, it depends on what your trying to accomplish.

Developing for the Mobile Web

Web development on mobile phones has long suffered from a very rigid platform and the inability for mobile browsers to keep up with current web technologies. This is slowly changing, partially due to the recent spikes in Smartphone handset sales. With many handset manufacturers attempting to clone the iPhone’s usability and appeal, a larger focus has been placed on the content on mobile phones, which in turn, requires better software to render this content. For example, both the iPhone and Blackberry Bold browsers can view HTML pages and process JavaScript. Technologies such as Flash have been rumored to be coming in the near term, but it will take some time before its supported on a large number of devices.

The “Pros” for Developing Mobile Web Applications

- The cost of supporting a mobile web application is relatively cheap in comparison to a downloadable application
- Accordingly, the speed at which a mobile website can be created is relatively quick
- If you have an existing high traffic web destination, developing a mobile version makes sense as your site already has a brand attached to it and a loyal following
- Higher-end devices are beginning to support existing desktop browser capabilities thus making the delta between your mobile and desktop browser experience smaller
- Deployment of a mobile website is quite simple
- The mobile web allows you to develop on a single platform and target the broadest set of launched across all handsets


The “Cons” for Developing Mobile Web Applications

- Currently, mobile websites are unable to take advantage of device specific features
- Ex: For the same reasons you can’t use a website to burn a CD, you cannot use a mobile website to access your phone’s contact list
- This is why high traffic sites such as Facebook will create both a mobile website and downloadable application
- Relatively speaking, interfaces on mobile websites are quite poor and clunky resulting in a less than desirable user experience
- Currently, support for AJAX and DHTML technologies is quite limited
- Despite developing for a single platform, developers must take into account mobile device idiosyncrasies across different handsets, firmware versions and operators
- Users must be connected at all times… there is no concept of an “offline mode”
- With the increase in mobile handset vendors, there has also been an increase in browser fragmentation
- On the web, typically developers are focused on Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer and Safari
- In the mobile space, there are 10+ relevant browsers and many more in development
Mobile website owners must rely heavily on 3rd party sources such as Device Atlas to understand device characteristics


Developing Mobile Applications

Similar to the mobile web, the native capabilities of handsets have improved and so have the associated SDKs. If you’re watching how Apple markets the iPhone, its all about letting users know that their device is more than just a phone. Specifically, they showcase applications created for the handset that leverage it’s unique capabilities. In general, Apple has done a fantastic job of making users feel comfortable in downloading content to their handsets. It’s not only helped them, but it’s opened up the floodgates across other platforms.

The “Pros” for Developing Mobile Applications

- Mobile applications can interact directly with the device obtaining useful information such as location, contact lists, accelerometer functions, etc. This is critical for a “mobile” application
- Having the ability to control exactly what is displayed on screen allows for customized (and optimized), rich user interfaces directly on the device
- User interactions can also be directly controlled via the possible inputs (touch, voice, keyboard, etc)
- In your mobile application, you are able to store reasonable amounts of data directly on the handset in a secure manner as opposed to storing everything on a remote server (slow!)
- Performance can typically be optimized for each handset and platform
Mobile (Smartphone) development platforms are improving quite rapidly
- Developers can create a consistent look and feel throughout their application
- Measurement in terms of how users interact with an application is possible


The “Cons” for Developing Mobile Applications

- Unless proper design measures are taken, upkeep and continued portability of your application is difficult to maintain.
- There are 5-6 relevant mobile application development platforms to choose from, and understand which ones best suit your needs can be confusing
- Within these platforms, additional fragmentation exists at a per device, firmware and operator level
- Typically, developing rich mobile applications is more costly than creating a mobile website
- Mobile applications may require porting to additional platforms and this takes up front consideration
- A single, publicly available source for data across all mobile handset characteristics and attributes as they relate to the individual SDKs does not exist
- Testing can be time consuming and costly as mobile applications must be tested on the physical handset
- One needs to understand the various carrier requirements if an “on deck” strategy is preferred

In conclusion, it very much depends on your organization’s goals with regards to the mobile application. If it’s simply an extension of your mobile website, is heavily content focused and does not require an interactive user experience, then the mobile web may be a better choice. If one requires access to device functionality such as location or the contact list and have an appropriate development and porting strategy formed (either internally, or through a partner) that will help minimize the effects of device fragmentation, then developing a mobile application makes sense.

Mobility advantage of dual mode phones to enterprises

by Purushottam Darshankar

Dual mode phones that are capable of communicating with more than one form are increasingly becoming popular as organization seeks to be more productive. From an enterprise market point of view, having this ability is of great advantage as it makes organization more agile and more responsive to emerging market opportunities and to support increasing customer demands.

The dual mode handset market is picking up fast and according to a new report from Juniper research, the worldwide revenues of dual mode phones are expected to reach over $82bn by 2012.

In order to build the capability for mobile employees to stay connected over dual mode phones, infrastructure side will want to support both cellular and WiFi-type voice application and phone manufacturers will want their devices to work over both networks. There have been some challenges for seamless roaming between cellular and WiFi environment. There’s a lot of interference that eats into your WiFi network capacity, causing things such as retransmissions and jitter. If you’re just running data you won’t necessarily notice it, but when you start to run real-time applications such as voice, you suddenly realize that your WiFi network is not as tuned-up as you had hoped. Security and interoperability between different access point, gateway, and devices like WiFi/GSM handsets may be an issue.

The phones that do not support multitasking such as iPhone may drop your ongoing VOIP call when cellular call arrives. The Google Android phone does not expose adequate information through the WiFi API to allow the VOIP client to take hand-off decisions. The Java environment on most of the devices does not expose enough functionality for application developer to develop the voice over IP (VOIP) client. Nokia includes a SIP stack in their E-series and N-Series phones to support this technology in their dual mode phones.

Use of SIP – Session Initiation Protocol- provides multimodal communication capabilities that provide faster and secure communication. The presence capability can help to know employee presence availability status, thereby deciding the mode of call before user makes the call. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) has been accepted as the protocol of choice for voice over IP calls.

The enterprises are quickly seeing the advantage of such devices as not only their workforce becomes more mobile, but it also brings a cost advantage to them. It has been observed that 30% of office calls are now received on mobile phones, instead of desktop phones, even if the employees are in office. Also, a study by the International Teleworking Association found that between 50 to 70 percent of office space is unoccupied during normal business hours. To provide the ultimate in on-premises mobility, enterprises are complementing hotdesking practices with on-premises wireless LAN (WLAN) networks ensuring mobile access to all types of enterprise information. This improves customer responsiveness, improve productivity and save office space costs as organizations are going for shared desk policy.

The enterprises don’t have to pay carriers if they are making calls working of their premise over Wi-Fi. It is easy to justify the cost benefit at enterprise level; the resistance has been from the carriers as they do not see how they can really make money on them.

Advanced features and services that up-to-now have only been available to the desk are now broadly available to enterprise users everywhere due to the potential of the dual mode mobile console. This is a new class of enterprise mobility.

Enterprise Mobility Market Outlook: 2009

Enterprise mobility predictions: 2009

by Purushottam Darshankar

Amidst the gloomy economic scenario, year 2008 saw companies of all sizes, in many vertical markets, and across various geographic regions identifying enterprise mobility initiatives as key priorities, and that is unlikely to change dramatically in 2009. Organizations still face the challenge of tracking and managing decentralized workforces and reducing operational costs. Concerns around mobile security continue to inhibit the uptake of mobile solutions, especially among financial services organizations, however, the mobilization of enterprises is growing, from simple applications, such as email, to more complex one such as mobile SCM.

In 2008, Forrester’s survey results show that between 40% and 60% of enterprises in North America and Europe identified more mobility support to employees, implementation of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) solutions, and formalization of a mobile strategy as critical priorities.

The iPhone launch in 2008 caused a mobile operating systems war which will continue in year 2009. The mobile device market will still continue to remain fragmented across BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, iPhone and Android smartphones. The launch of iPhone has increased user interface expectation of end users as touch screen interface based phone will continue to dominate in 2009. As a result, iPhone will make a more significant dent in the enterprise mobility market, primarily among SMBs. However the BlackBerry will continue to lead the enterprise mobility market, knowing the security that BalckBerry offers. In 2009, vendors will develop devices that will address the dual needs of personal and professional use of mobile devices as well as implications on device size, battery life, keyboard requirements, and form factors.

In recent months, a number of major industry players that includes handset makers, and operators, have announced their concerns about handset volumes in 2009. According to IDC, total mobile phone volumes will be 1.9 percent lower in 2009 than 2008, the first downturn in annual shipment volumes since 2001. Lower prices will make converged mobile devices an attractive choice for consumers despite the fact consumers may choose to hold on to their current devices rather than replace or upgrade them.

In 2009, there will be rise in mobile application deployments in Asia Pacific region, particularly for mobile information applications such as email, calendar, and personal information. 2008 saw very interesting Location-based services applications for employee productivity improvements or worker efficiency. LBS will continue to remain a key component in variety of other applications including business, social networking and advertising domain. With 3G services to be rolled out in India, 2009 will see more advanced and data-heavy mobile applications and services on employee’s mobile device. These would require more sophisticated mobile middleware platforms to monitor and mange the applications.

Currently the enterprise mobility ecosystem is fragmented – companies offering mobile applications, mobile device management, mobile security solutions, mobile content etc. Many of these vendors have focused on developing specific type of application or services – such as SYBASE for mobile middleware, Pyxis mobile for financial market solution etc. In 2009, we will see mobility vendor consolidation as system integrator and mobile middleware vendors snatch up small players in the ecosystem, in order to expand their breadth in overall enterprise mobility service and solution capabilities.

As we look ahead to the challenging economic environment of 2009, the service providers, device makers, software vendors and mobile application developers will focus on their strategy to fulfill the demand for enterprise mobility solutions and the competition for products and services.

Event 2 : 3G: The Next Wave - Kochin

ASSOCHAM in association with Ericsson had organized the "3G: THE NEXT WAVE" on 4th - 5th December, 2008 at Le Meridian, Kochi, India. Siddhartha Behura Secretary, Department of Telecommunication and Chairman, Telecom Commission was the chief guest on the occasion.
The event was attended by all the leading telcos in India, content providers , content aggregators, entertainment channel providers and device vendors. The event had a lot of significance at the backdrop of government decision to auction 3G spectrum. The auction that is slotted for January’09 created lot of debate during the event.
This conference had coincided with the well known “Formula One Sport of Ocean Racing – the Volvo Ocean Race” at Kochi- Kochi hosting this 1st time.
After the welcome address by Balaji VP, Ericsson India , Gowton shared his views on Global 3G trends and its relevance to India, Sanjeev Aga, MD of Idea Cellular during his keynote address requested the DOT to conduct the auction in healthy manner and to think beyond the objective of revenue generation.
Jithu Niruthambath, Director of Wireless business at Texas Instrument emphasized on the importance of User experience and soon to launch devices such as MID (mobile internet devices) that would cost ~ 150 USD will bring revolution into a consumer applications such as MobileTV etc.
Jaikishan Rajaraman, Sr. Director at GSMA gave a brief of GSMA contribution to the telecom world and shared the global trends in Telecom market.
Before we head for a Gala night, the DOT gave on regulatory environment and overall auction process of 3G spectrum.
After having back-to-back session participants were in desperate need of some cocktail break. The evening couldn’t have been better and the site more electrified with good music, food and drinks around.
The second day all started with a “New revenue Doors” – a prospective from pioneers of entertainment providers in India viz. Sony and NDTV. In their view, Telcos due to lack of flexibility in business model have failed to provide the value for their content. Telcos have merely gone for acquiring the subscriber and have also retained a major share of revenue earned through content services. Sanjay Trehan, CEO NDTV emphasized on the need to synergies so as to tap the potential of mobile content.
The two day conference concluded with a memorable tour to VOR race village. The experience shared by the Ericsson crew who was on voyage kept us spellbound…!!!