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M-Business: The Race to Mobility
Summary
1. Structural Migration: From E-Business to M-Business
Chapter 1 describes the emergence of mobile as a new variable - mobility - affecting business. To set the stage, we discuss the lessons learned from e-commerce and also lay out the structure of the mobile marketplace. The key distinction between mobile infrastructure and mobile applications is made in this chapter. The focus of this book is on mobile applications.
2. Trends Shaping the Mobile Economy
Chapter 2 describes the ten broad trends that are driving the mobile economy. For the sake of analysis these trends are classified into three themes: changing customer priorities, new hardware/device innovation, and new infrastructure innovation. Telematics, Miniaturization, 3G Infrastructure and Residential Gateways.
3. The M-Business Landscape
A sound m-business vision begins by clearly articulating what is possible. This chapter illustrates that the mobile landscape is composed of six general but distinct frameworks. These frameworks are mutually exclusive and exhaustive enough to capture literally every activity taking place in the mobile landscape. This chapter provides the springboard to launch you into the world of mobile applications. Case Studies: Nokia
4. Breakthrough Platform Strategies
For many firms in the mobile space, the key concern is not what product to develop to meet the market’s needs. The major issue is identifying which product can serve as a platform for additional products well into the future. A platform’s strength is directly proportional to the size of its user community. History has shown that platforms that become de facto standards are very powerful in terms of version economics. Each version ensures a steady revenue stream from the replacement cycle and also ensures continued customer lock-in. M-business platform thinking can be classified along four important dimensions. Each of these four represents a long-term opportunity for growth and profits. They include client-side software, device platforms, hardware platforms, and the rapidly emerging Web services area. Case Studies: ARM Holdings, Intel, Handspring, Palm, Microsoft .NET
5. Mobile Application Infrastructure
To deliver a mobile solution, a large firm needs to first build an infrastructure. An infrastructure is made up of several different types of interrelated pieces. This chapter will break down the application infrastructure broad landscape into value-added types - application gateways, mobile application service providers, mobile Internet service provider, and application enablers (security, consulting, synchronization and databases). By defining these types, we can classify companies by the segment on which they focus. In addition, this approach clarifies where the conventional software providers are vulnerable to competition from mobile companies and whether the value proposition of these mobile-only companies is defensible. We believe that this categorization gives you a good sense of the mobile application infrastructure market today and where it is going. Case Studies: OpenWave, Aether, OmniSky
6. New Innovation Opportunities: Mobile Portals
Mobile portals represent an increasingly popular business strategy with many companies moving quickly to secure a place in the market. There are four main types of new portals in the market—wireless operator portals, multi-purpose Web portals, commerce portals, and pure-play portals. Each type possesses unique advantages for gaining primary ownership of the electronic relationship with consumers, and each type has its own strengths and weaknesses. This chapter will elaborate on each model using case studies. The chapter illustrates the value chain of players involved in creating a portal solution. The chapter illustrates the different revenue models used by the different players. Finally the chapter talks about the application infrastructure that forms the foundation of a mobile portal solution. Case Studies: NTT DoCoMo, AOL Mobile, Vivendi
7. Satisfying the Mobile Customer
The advent of m-business will spawn a new breed of responsive companies with a different—and often novel—understanding of what today’s customers want. Some fundamental questions in customer "diagnosis": What pain does the customer suffer from? What kind of experience is the customer looking for in the mobile environment? What activity style—ultrabusy, busy, or active—does the customer need support with? What features is the customer looking for? What is the customer willing to pay for alleviating the pain? To develop mobile applications with a strong mass-market and mainstream appeal, managers must narrow their focus. For instance, they must identify the target customer segments within the customer facing applications market. Once these segments have been identified, a company can better analyze profitability or target application development. By focusing on a specific customer segment in which to introduce their mobile offering, companies minimize the risk of wasting valuable marketing and development resources on customers who are not interested in the product or service. A key ingredient of a business model is that the mobile solutions be aligned with new, existing, and preferred distribution channels. Creating distinctive experiences is not enough; how they’re delivered is equally important. The Mobile Customer Framework developed in this chapter illustrates how mobile experiences can be delivered via four channel strategies. Case Studies: SAP, UPS, Bertelsmann AG
8. Supply Chain Focus
Compared to consumer applications, the breadth of mobile applications in the business-to-business (B2B) market is far more breathtaking. To really understand what mobility can do to improve the efficiency of supply chains and B2B commerce, it is important to look at the transformations taking place in the management of supply chains. This chapter illustrates the four major segments in which mobile solutions will have significant impact on supply chains. Case Studies: Kraft Foods, USPS, SAVI, Phase Forward, AAA, BostonCoach
9. Operational Focus: The Next Generation of Business-to-Employee Applications
A growing number of companies are using technology to personalize service for each individual customer. However, few companies have figured out unique ways to address the needs of white-collar knowledge workers and blue-collar manual workers. Increasing employee productivity by reducing "enterprise information access blackouts" is a nonstop challenge for companies. This is a widespread complaint about enterprise applications such as SAP R/3. Leading firms are addressing this challenge by extending their enterprise applications beyond the four walls of the enterprise to a workforce on the move. Four different mobile workforce solutions—messaging and personal information management (PIM), enterprise applications, corporate portals, and specialized solutions - are described in this chapter with corresponding case studies. Throughout this chapter, there are examples of successful ways of truly enhancing the value of mobility to the employee. No technology is of real value unless it enhances the user experience. The mobile channel is no exception. Employees will ignore new technology if it does not enrich their experience, simplify their life, or provide enhanced support for their activities. Case Studies: Research in Motion (RIM), Kodak, NYSE, Hertz
10. The Art of Mobile Strategy
The value of mobile business has been identified and explored throughout this book. The key question now is how to turn the concepts into a reality. The last chapter is prescriptive, focusing on the challenges of becoming mobile by describing the design process and explaining how to undertake it. Moving from "legacy" to "e-business" to "m-business" is a journey fraught with pitfalls and minefields. Without carefully planning and execution, the stakes are high and failure is swift. How an organization mobilizes itself into constructive action will determine its ultimate success. |
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