I spoke last week with Steve Lamont and Al Delattre, both senior partners at Accenture, on the challenges companies face bringing mobility to the enterprise. The two have developed five predictions on “how the most successful companies will use mobility in the work place.”
1. Enterprise adoption of mobility will be primarily driven by people who have increasing personal experience as consumers. 2. Winning companies will be those who “design” for mobility as the standard, instead of as a special case. 3. The power is in the packaging. Bundled solutions (and “ease of use”) will drive adoption and render most sub-components commodities. 4. Winners will be those who use mobility to fundamentally transform the way commerce happens, not just “work unplugged.” 5. The source of demand for mobility will likely come from unexpected sources as new value creation opportunities appear.
We talked about taking mobility to the next level, taking it to the (sometimes-hesitant) enterprise, and what might be the next big applications to break through. We talked about finding solutions that completely change the way people work and live … for instance the unexpected phenomenon of the BlackBerry, ring tones and instant messaging, among others. We talked about technology usually being ahead of applications. We talked about executives feeling threatened by wireless moving into the workplace at the insistence and initiative of employees and the resulting scramble to manage technology in the enterprise. We talked about permission and access being key to the next phase of the wireless evolution.
The wireless industry is the The Grand Old Opry of technology. The performers (apps. developers, content providers) have to get the right people (carriers, device makers, infrastructure providers) to listen in the first place to get a chance on stage. You don’t know if the audience (consumer and enterprise market) is going to love the act or hate it until the song starts. The “right people”-the producers, agents, critics-are sometimes surprised by what actually clicks with the public. Maybe the performer will throw out something special in the last moment, or maybe the producer will come up with a brilliant collaboration. The biggest stars are able to quickly adapt. Will you be that superstar or just get 15 minutes in the spotlight? As I write this, a curtain is set to rise at the BREW 2004 Developers Conference in San Diego. I can’t wait to see what’s on stage.
