It is no secret that India is among the fastest growing economies in the world, registering a consistent growth rate of over 7 per cent in the past five years. The mobile services industry has both contributed to the economic expansion and benefited from its growth.
However, in recent times, intense competition among service providers, market saturation in urban areas and the financial burden resulting from high capital expenditure have created a number of challenges in the mobility space. In particular, the huge cost of 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum, and decreasing tariffs have impacted the average revenue per user. Significantly, spectrum allocation has led to a unique situation ? operators now have excess capacity but are challenged to offer a variety of services since 3G and BWA are more suitable for data rather than voice.
In light of these challenges, mobility providers would do well to look closely at the enterprise market.
According to Frost & Sullivan, although the enterprise mobile market in India contributed only 8 per cent to the overall mobile services revenue as of March 2009, it is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of more than 22 per cent and contribute approximately 20 per cent to the total mobile service revenue by 2015. Clearly, this relatively untapped market offers mobile service providers an excellent opportunity to pitch mobility services to enterprise customers.
Business scene ripe for enterprise mobility
Businesses in a growth mode, such as those in India, have a lot in common. They must adopt best practices, including mobile technology that will keep them on the growth path, provide a connected environment, a mobile workforce and flexible service delivery, and enable quick decision-making.
India?s high performance enterprises are striving to improve workflow, automate processes and introduce best practices even while its workforce is always on the move. Mobility applications used by employees can help increase productivity, resulting in enhanced revenue generation.
Some companies in India have implemented mobile office applications to help boost productivity, specifically in scenarios that require hierarchical approvals in making purchases, closing sales deals or signing contracts, and by enabling employees to access corporate data in a business environment ripe for enterprise mobility. This has helped set the stage to enable mobility in core enterprise processes as it calls for a higher degree of preparedness and stringent security measures.
Early adopters of mobility applications
Extending business applications to a mobile workforce has become an imperative in many verticals such as banking, manufacturing and retail to retain their competitiveness. Specifically, mobile customer resource management has come as a boon for enterprises because it helps them engage with the customer quickly, which improves customer service. Mobile ticketing, mobile banking and location-based advertising are some other examples of services that have enabled enterprises to make their businesses customer centric.
Similarly, sales force automation is one of the most widely adopted mobile applications, enabling the workforce to keep track of leads, update customer contacts, access information in real time, view customer purchase history and plan activities accordingly. This helps sales executives to leverage information in real time, and cross-sell as well as upsell products and services during customer interactions.
Industries leading the way in applying mobility services to their operations include banking, manufacturing, retail, hospitality and health care. Manufacturing, retail, automotive and consumer goods companies are increasingly using mobile supply chain systems to streamline inventory management, replenish stock, track demand, and manage shelf space and storage in an optimal manner. This has helped companies to address gaps in the supply chain, which helps enhance productivity.
In the services sector ? particularly in hospitality and retail ? the need to enhance the customer experience is driving the adoption of mobility. Hotels are deploying wireless technology to improve coordination between the front desk and back office. Retailers are using wireless technologies to gain insights into customer preference and offer a personalised shopping experience. This has helped businesses to increase revenue generation opportunities. Indian banks have also widely leveraged mobile banking services to provide greater customer satisfaction.
Tools that help capture information at the point of activity, such as remote metering, digital pens and remote monitoring of personal health data hold immense potential in the Indian market. Utilities can increase efficiency and predictability, and introduce accuracy in their systems by installing remote meters that can capture information and send updates automatically during a specified period. Similarly, a digital pen that is connected remotely to the back end can transmit information like identity verification and delivery confirmation, thereby increasing efficiency. Enterprises that deal in services, specifically those in courier delivery and postal services, are showing an increasing interest in digital pens.
The health care sector in India holds tremendous potential for mobility as the sector seeks to deploy technology to improve service delivery and increase its capability, accessibility and efficiency. Accessing patient information seamlessly can push the limits of medical diagnosis and bring about a paradigm change in delivering quality health care services. Remote health sensors can send alerts seeking medical attention, and medical practitioners can collaborate across locations to deliver better services.
State as well as local governments are also working to add mobility applications to their operations in an effort to streamline processes and bring about greater transparency.
Looking to the future for enterprises in India
Enterprises that want to use mobility to positively impact business outcomes must take a strategic approach with comprehensive planning, detailed assessment of internal systems and processes, and calibrated rollout, all of which must be aligned with the enterprise?s overarching goals.
One thing is clear ? managing and supporting a mobile workforce can be complex and challenging. It?s likely that enterprises will have to work with multiple carriers with different service plans, and various end-user devices with different operating systems. The extremely heterogeneous environment makes it difficult to administer and standardise processes for configuration, order management, replacement or renewal of plans.
However, service provisioning, monitoring and policy enforcement are crucial for smooth day-to-day operations. These specialised skill sets may surpass the capabilities of the information technology department. Mobile service providers are typically focused on providing robust network connectivity and introducing new services. As a result, it would be wise for them to team up with technology service providers that have domain expertise in the enablement and delivery of enterprise mobility services.
Such a relationship would be mutually beneficial. Mobile service providers would be more likely to gain a foothold in India?s potentially lucrative enterprise market segment. Technology service providers would also benefit by partnering with infrastructure providers since having secure and corporate-grade network connectivity is the basis for providing enterprise mobility.
