The Power of Mobility: How Your Business Can Compete and Win in the Next Technology Revolution

Chapter 8. Evaluate: How Is the Value of Your Product or Service Limited?

Mobility creates value above and beyond digitization and networking in three forms:

1. By increasing the availability of a product or service.

2. By using the immediate context of the product or service use to improve the relevance of the product or service to the customer.

3. By reducing the cost of a product or service.

Now that you have digitized and connected to create value for your business, you must evaluate ways in which you can increase that value through the increased availability, contextual relevance, or reduced cost promised by mobility.

Increasing Availability

What percentage of the time is your product or service fully available to your customers?

For a product, availability usually means how often your product is within their reach with its full capabilities. Do they take it with them everywhere they go? Does your product work anywhere, or are there special requirements, such as needing to be plugged in, needing to be connected to a certain kind of network, or only able to be used under certain conditions?

For a service, availability usually means when and where your customers can use your service. Do they need to go to a certain location? Are there only certain times and days that the service is available? Do your customers need something (e.g., a computer or telephone) to access your service?

What could you do to increase the availability of your product or service?

What could you do so that your customers ...