Business Agility: Strategies for Gaining Competitive Advantage through Mobile Business Solutions

Drivers and Barriers

to Adoption

Drivers for Adoption

The drivers for adoption of mobile business within the enterprise and

with consumers are numerous (Figure 2–4). They include the follow-

ing: the increasing mobility of today’s workforce; the convergence of

telecommunications and software industries; the increasing need for

36 >> Business Agility

Task-To-Device Affinity—

WAP Phone and RIM Pager Comparison

A personal anecdote may be useful in explaining what Forrester Research has termed the

task-to-device affinity for wireless devices. This may help to explain why certain appli-

cations have been so successful with consumers and business users.

In addition to regularly using a laptop and PDA, I have a RIM pager and WAP-enabled

cell phone. When comparing the usage levels of wireless Web against interactive mes-

saging, I personally find myself spending more time with my RIM pager than with the

data features of my WAP phone. One of the reasons, I believe, is due to the ease of use

factor, or as Forrester terms it, the task-to-device affinity.

The RIMs’ keyboard makes composition of e-mail messages very easy and much simpler

than the equivalent process on a WAP phone. I tried sending e-mail over my WAP phone

when I first obtained the phone and wanted to experiment. The process was so difficult

that it took several minutes to compose a simple e-mail message and dispatch it. Con-

versely, I have found my WAP phone most useful for data access. Looking up stock

quotes and news items and any tasks that do not require heavy text input. Even reading

e-mail messages is acceptable on the WAP phone—the only limitation is really the data

entry portion at present.

The task-to-device affinity issue is certainly a moving target. As cell phones and PDAs

evolve into smartphones that combine the best of both worlds, the devices become more

useable for a variety of functions including voice, e-mail, and Internet access. Today,

WAP phones are good for data access, but not for all forms of data entry. Conversely,

pagers are good for the single function of sending and receiving e-mail. The task-to-

device affinity is an important topic especially for the enterprise since the ability to con-

solidate from three or four devices down to two or three can yield substantial cost

savings in support costs.

information and transactions anytime and anywhere; the new breed

of wireless handsets coming on the market; the revenue opportunities

created via location-based services and M-Commerce; the productiv-

ity improvements to be gained via wireless extensions to enterprise

applications and processes; the improvements in bandwidth brought

about by the migration from 2G to 2.5G and 3G networks; and the

adoption of wireless standards such as WAP and Bluetooth, together

with the cultural and regulatory drivers in various countries. If we

distill these drivers into their primary forces, we see the forces of

industry convergence, improvements in wireless technology and stan-

dards, together with cultural and regulatory effects as driving global

adoption of mobile business.

Chapter 2 • The M-Business Evolution >> 37

Figure 2–4 Drivers for Adoption of Mobile Data.

Telecom

Industry

"Wireless Web"

Voice to Data

Unified

Communications

Standards

Internet

2.5G/3G

WAP

Bluetooth

Wireless LAN

VoiceXML

Location-services

XML

J2ME

Cultural

Forces

Connected Society

Increased Mobility

of the Workforce

Collaboration

Social Status

Email/PIM

Devices

Laptops

Smartphones

PDAs

WAP Phones

Pagers

Mobile

Data

Technology

Industry

Wireless Content,

Applications

& Services

M-Commerce

Regulatory

Forces

E911

Telecom Act

Spectrum Licensing