If up to this year companies only investigated enterprise mobile solutions, 2012 might prove to be a milestone year for companies to finally include them in their IT strategy, Paulo Camara, mobility services manager at Ci&T, said in an exclusive interview.
“We are facing a much more demand from companies that aim to adopt mobile tools eyeing process automation and corporate applications, mainly boosted by the growth of tablet use,” said Camara.
Last year, several companies started to investigate and evaluate mobile tools, mostly due to consumerization and BYOD (bring-your-own-device) phenomenon, Camara said. Those analyses have great potential to become projects.
Eyeing this potential market, the multinational Brazilian ICT company Ci&T created a special unit branded Mobile Studio two years ago to address mobility solutions. “We gathered competencies such as user experience, technical skills, development process, and a comprehensive overview beyond mobile under the same structure,” Camara said.
The unit was formed in Brazil, but from the beginning it has served U.S. clients. “Today it is a global structure, with most of it in Brazil, and workers from U.S., China, and Japan,” Camara explained. By March 2011, Ci&T, which was already a SAP partner, began to develop mobile tools with the German giant of enterprise solutions.
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Indeed, mobile technologies were highlighted as the second highest CIO technology priority in Gartner‘s 2012 CIO Agenda survey. The market for mobility services is one of the fastest growing segments in the IT services market. According to Forrester Research, Inc., the total mobile apps services market could be worth in excess of US$ 17 billion by 2015.
The rapidly growth of mobility adoption in the next few years will be a result of companies embracing this new channel. Corporations aim to untether their work forces as well as better connect with customers. “This market had completely changed from two, three years now. The advent of iPhone and tablets has transformed this industry,” noted Camara.
Ci&T expects to receive 10 to 20 projects involving integrating SAP mobile solutions this year alone in Brazil and similar demand from U.S. corporations are pushing for simple user experiences for iOS and Android, while also meeting corporate requirements of security, stability, and performance.
Among current clients, Ci&T listed Coca-Cola, Pão de Açúcar (the second biggest retail company in Latin America by revenue), the insurance company SulAmérica, and the major Brazilian publisher and printing company Editora Abril.
Ci&T’s global 2011 revenue was US$ 81,438,742.
