This is the third opus of a series of posts and comments published by « Enterprise Mobility Matters » which will be the subject of a “parallel blogging” experiment with Analystik, editor of the « Productivité + » blog, onto which you will find a reply to these posts and comments.
Mobility – Productivity! What a rhyme?
We have ended our second post with this mention: “For sure, Mobility tools extend business reality beyond walls; which could be very profitable in terms of productivity if well integrated… into the business reality!” Which leads us to the real question: do you really need to and moreover, can you bring up advanced functions onto your mobile devices? One must think about it.
In fact, before anything else, one must examine the true nature of its business reality, both internally and externally. And, ideally, this analysis exercise must be initiated by those who requested / bought advanced Mobility tools such as Smartphones because they’ll be the ones who, ultimately, will have to take the necessary steps to integrate those new Mobility tools into the business reality and meet the cost. It is of the utmost importance to identify the mobile workers productivity critical processes and their relative functions in order to define those Smartphones expected productivity gain metrics. We suggest three levels of analysis.
The « Business Reality »
Define the functions and processes critical to mobile workers productivity, both behind and beyond walls? What kind of Business Intelligence is used or collected; what information is being manipulated? Which tools are being used within the working environment (on the road) such as paper forms, autonomous GPS unit, code bar scanner, diagnostic tools, portables, etc.? Which processes, functions and information are critical to the decision-making process, to sales, to ensure good technical support or to clientele satisfaction? Do mobile workers place many calls for the same information request? Answers to these questions will help you get a clear picture of your business situation.
Communications vs Productivity
Are Smartphones intrinsic functionalities (contacts, email, agenda, and phone numbers) sufficient to extend your enterprise business reality (processes and functions critical to mobile workers productivity) beyond walls? Is this necessary, desirable or with no impact whatsoever on mobile workers productivity? Is this mobility tool contribution sufficient? For example, if your mobile workers only use a telephone and your CRM in their daily routine, chances are, the productivity gain from a Smartphone will be quite small; it’ll most likely just be used as a “de luxe” communications tool!!!
Process Optimization
Do Smartphones bring about, just on their own, an opportunity to optimize mobile workers productivity? For example, is your “mobile worker” still manipulating paper forms, despite all the new technologies available? Are there data readings or information gathering done with other tools or portables? How many calls must a mobile worker make to get an answer to an information request? Can we enhance these functions, methods and processes with an existing mobile application or by developing a customized mobile application which gains would exceed its cost and, by the same token, would increase productivity?
Worth mentioning though, the iPhone, which is definitely targeted at the grand public and is available since only roughly 6 months, already puts forward more than 20 000 applications of all types such as geo-localization, multimedia, emailing, IM, social networks, etc.; you name it, the choice is yours! Now, if the grand public is buying into all these new functionalities just for the sake of enhancing life; then, what about your mobile workers and enhancing their working life?
What is your business reality and how integrating Smartphones into this reality will enhance mobile workers productivity? That is the question. Any new business tool, whatsoever, will have an impact both on your employees and your processes; it’s up to you to circumscribe this impact and turn it into a positive factor for business objectives.
Conclusion
In conclusion, let’s all recall that the concept of optimization entails either a time gain or a resource reduction for a specific task. Now, can a Smartphone contribute a t the optimization of those processes critical to mobile workers productivity? A true leader will immediately proceed by analyzing its critical business processes and assessing their optimization potential with Smartphones. And, of course, he will have in no time put into place metrics to ensure the productivity gains are delivered!!!
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