Yogi Berra, the hall of fame catcher for the NY Yankees was one of the most colorful players of his time. He was also one of the most quotable. Among his many ‘Yogi-isms’, he once quipped ‘This is like Deja Vu all over again.’ As a Mets fan, I remember Yogi as the man that took over as the Manager following the death of Gil Hodges in 1971, and led the Mets to the World Series in 1973.
I’ve heard that statement used in comparing the rise of enterprise mobility with the last ‘game changing’ technology, which was the World Wide Web. There’s no question that both are disruptive technologies which provide unprecedented opportunities to make fundamental shifts in how business is transacted and how companies communicate with their customers. But I do question if this is a fair comparison as I believe the impact of mobility can be much more powerful and the underlying issues more complex.
Deja Vu all Over Again!
From a pure business impact perspective I understand how people make this comparison. The potential business impact and opportunity for mobile is amazing and the rise of the iPad and tablets will only accelerate this trend. Can you imagine today doing business with a company today that does not have a website? Of course not, and a highly branded and functional website is table stakes for any business today.
Mobile is quickly becoming equally important to enterprises. The importance of having a high fidelity app in the app stores is a key factor in helping new customers discover, connect and most importantly, interact with your brand.
On a recent business trip I had a series of delays. Rather than waiting on a long line to speak with an agent or try to get a call through to an 800 number I went out to the app store in search of an app. To my dismay, I was surprised to find that US Airways did not have an app in the iTunes app store. So I had to interact with US Airways in the old fashion way – I wasn’t happy.
The Mobile Web is equally critical for those customers who want to spontaneously connect with your brand. A well designed mobile website enables users with smartphones or more traditional feature phones to connect with your company from anywhere at anytime.
Upon further inspection, it’s important to note that these new mobile channels have a key fundamental difference when compared to the Web. A lack of standards for mobile. On the Web, while there are different browsers they do follow a general set of standards. A webpage should be equally valuable if viewed through Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer.
Mobile devices on the other hand have no standard screen size, resolution or operating system. Clearly, this complicates the issue of supporting a variety of mobile devices. So the partnership between business and IT for planning is critical to how you approach mobility
Most companies have incorporated the internet into their operations as a channel for communication and commerce. Very few businesses – maybe none – will reach their full potential with solely a brick and mortar operation. Mobile offers another new opportunity.
Now is the time to for every business executive to take a hard look and mobile and understand how this new channel can raise the bar for their operations. Now is the time to review the daily workflow of your employees and understand how mobile will enhance their effectiveness.
The next step is to understand how customers and potential customers can engage with your brand via mobile technologies. What is the demographic of your customer today, and how can you expand it? It’s been reported many times that smartphone users are a young affluent community – most brands view this as a very desirable audience.
A well planned business strategy, not technology tinkering, should be the first step in determining how mobile can add impact to your enterprise. Just as with some websites of the early days – it was clear which were designed to enhance business and which were designed as part of a technology project.
In mobile, you only get one chance at a first impression – but that’s a topic for another post.
∞
Tags: Business Mobility, Business Process, Enterprise Mobility, Increase Customer Satisfaction, iPad, iPhone, Matt Torgersen, Mobile Web, Mobility - General, Pragmatic Mobility, Tablets
[...] DogMobile Futures TodayMobile MachinationsMobile Masters NewsMobile MasteryMobile ObservatoryPragmatic MobilityThe Mobile GourmetSubmit Guest Blog [...]