Mobile and wireless
technologies can deliver significant benefits to small and
medium-sized enterprises. According to Forrester Research, 60% of
companies using wireless technology report higher productivity and
40% see improved customer service. An additional 20% say wireless
has helped their business improve logistics.
The downside for SMEs is
that there are a bewildering number of options when it comes to
mobile computing. It is possible to spend anything from a few
hundred to millions of pounds on any combination of mobile
hardware, software and networks. But how do you know you are
getting value for money?
Certainly you do not have
to be a big organisation to reap the rewards of mobile technology.
Hepworth Heating, an independent heating service company based in
Derbyshire, has rolled out mobile computers to its field service
engineers, who use high-speed GPRS data cards to access real-time
stock and ordering information.
"Our engineers used to fill
in paper reports that were posted or faxed to the office," says
Keith Mathers, Hepworth's customer service director. "Now they can
fill in reports on the handheld and send them back
instantly."
Mathers believes the
company's mobile project paid for itself within six months, thanks
to careful forward planning. "Before we bought any hardware or
software, we sat down and agreed on what we wanted to achieve, then
invested on that basis," he says.
To get mobile technology
right, it is vital to start with a business aim rather than a
technical solution, says Adrian Tatum, mobilesolutions director at IT
services supplier Computacenter. "A lot of SMEs think that mobile
computing is all about Blackberry devices, but that is coming at it
from completely the wrong direction," he says. "You need to know
where you want the business to go, what information that will
require and how quickly you need it."
So, the first step in any
mobile project should be to ask what you want to achieve. More
contact with customers? Faster logistics? Better customer service?
Once you have a business goal in mind, think about how mobile could
help to achieve this goal.
According to Forrester
Research, there are certain sweet spots where mobile technology
tends to deliver the biggest and fastest benefits to the business.
For example, providing warehouse staff with wireless access to
inventory applications can make stock reporting more accurate and
reduce the time taken to meet customer orders.
Giving sales staff wireless
access to customer ordering applications means they can check
stock, calculate discounts and arrange payment schedules while they
are still at a customer's premises. Wireless is also a good option
where staff do a lot of work in the field.
"Our research suggests that
companies that do not do this sort of upfront planning spend more
than twice as much on mobile computing as a result," says Forrester
analyst Carl Smiley. "Knowing what you need means you are less
likely to spend money on unnecessary technology
later."
Smiley says thinking about
how sophisticated your needs are is more important than
automatically investing in the fastest, shiniest technology you can
find. So, do the sales staff need real-time access to the CRM
application, or is connection once or twice a day enough? Will they
mostly be sending or receiving information? Do they need to access
the full database or will they mostly look at one or two pieces of
information?
Having this knowledge
before you approach technology suppliers means you have a
farbetter
chance of choosing the right hardware, software and services, says
Smiley. For example, you might find it cheaper to access small
amounts of information often, using SMS and mobile phones, while
GPRS cards in tablet
PCs could be a better
option where larger amounts of information are being transmitted
and viewed.
Broadly speaking, the
choice of hardware ranges from small mobile or smartphones to
full-sized laptop computers. In between, there is a wide range of
handheld computers or PDAs, offering various screen sizes, battery
life and operating systems.
At this stage, consider who
will be using the hardware, and how. "If your staff
arefamiliar
with Windows machines, it is probably worth looking at Microsoft
Pocket PC or smartphones," says Eric Lesser, an associate partner
at IBM's Institute of Business Value. "That will dramatically
reduce training costs and increase the likelihood of them being
used."
Similarly, if your staff
are not technically literate and do not routinely use computers in
their work, you might be better served by rugged touch-screen
devices that run simplified applications and require no
training.
When choosing software, it
is possible to buy mobile versions of most popular business
applications from companies such as Oracle, Sybase and
Microsoft.
Alternatively, where mobile
workers only need access to selected features of an application,
you could opt for a thin client architecture or a custom web-based
application that pulls together information from multiple back-end
systems.
If your investigations
suggest you need a custom application, or you want to integrate
data from multiple back-end systems, you will probably need to call
in an integrator or specialist developer, says Tatum. "Most SMEs do
not have the technical resources to do that kind of work, but it
does not mean they shouldn't," he says. "The benefits of that type
of integration often far outweigh the costs of a
consultant."
The third, most important
choice ofmobile technology is
network access. Many mobile operators offer packages specifically
designed for SMEs that include a certain amount of mobile bandwidth
per month. If your employees are going to be accessing the network
remotely from hotels or warehouses, it may be more cost effective
to build your own wireless network using a widely available Wi-Fi
kit.
However, it is important to
remember that these upfront costs are only a small proportion of
the likely total costs. As a rule of thumb, these costs account for
30% of a typical mobile project, with the remaining 70% including
items such as training, maintenance, security, management and
integration.
"If you have a workforce
where the devices are likely to be dropped or lost, it is important
to factor in the cost of replacing and reconfiguring them," says
Tatum. "If you have expensive devices, it might be worth investing
in a thin client architecture or web-basedapplication that the mobile
workers access remotely."
The final step in planning
a mobile computing project is to consider training and management.
Poor planning in this respect can be disastrous. Research conducted
earlier this year by IBM found that many mobile workers felt
isolated, overworked and mistrusted by their
employers.
"Often, people do not set
expectations clearly at the outset," says Lesser. "It is important
to provide training for mobile workers and their managers to spell
out how communication will be conducted, when people are expected
to be in touch and how quickly they are expected to respond to
messages they receive on the move."
In many cases, deploying
mobile technology means asking employees to make big changes to
their working habits. For example, field service engineers at
Hepworth used to choose which jobs they completed and in which
order, but now head office calculates the most efficient option and
directs staff accordingly. Removing this kind of autonomy was
unpopular until Hepworth met with staff and explained the reason
for the new system, says Mathers.
"It is important to ask
people how they feel about the technology, and think about how you
will support them," says Lesser. "Cultural issues and good training
matter just as much as - if not more than - the choice of network
technology or hardware."
Steps to mobile
success
Save costs by
choosing established products. The price of new mobile devices
usually falls by 25% in the first six months.
Standardise.
Allowing employees to choose their own laptops, phones and PDAs
will increase support costs enormously.
Look for
service discounts. Buying handheld computers from your network
operator, for example, may be cheaper than buying the two
separately. Further discounts may be offered if you commit to the
network for a set period.
Buy more
devices than you think you will need. Spares will come in handy if
the project is successful and needs to be expanded, or if your
staff are more clumsy than you thought.
Case
study: Cruising to greater efficiency
Two years ago,
only 30% of bookings with cruise company Norwegian Coastal Voyage
came through high street travel agents. Today, thanks partly to the
use of mobile technology, bookings from the high street are up,
accounting for 50% of the company's business.
"For a small
company, it is more efficient to market our services through well
known brands on the high street," says John Smith, head of finance
and IT at Norwegian Coastal Voyage. "So we hired a team of sales
executives who basically go up and down the country knocking on
travel agents' doors and drumming up business."
The sales
executives spend most of their time on the road and used to access
e-mail whenever they returned home or to a hotel. However, this
sometimes meant missing out on potential business.
"If a travel
agent contacts us looking to cut a deal, and does not hear back,
they will go to a competitor," says Smith. "It is also inconvenient
for the executives to spend four days on the road and then come
back to 200 e-mails that need to be dealt with."
To address this
issue, Norwegian Coastal Voyage approached consulting group Doherty
IT Solutions to help develop a mobile system. Since the company was
already using Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Windows Server 2003,
Doherty recommended using Hewlett-Packard's iPaq handhelds fitted
with Bluetooth cards, together with mobile phones.
This worked
well for 12 months, but staff found using a phone and a PDA
cumbersome. They now use a Windows smartphone, which is a lot less
clunky, says Smith. "It is also great because it is Windows-based,
so there is almost no training."
Mobile IT
allows sales executives to make use of dead time between
appointments, and also means customers experience better service,
says Smith. "Now we know messages are being dealt with promptly and
we are not losing potential business," he says. "For not very much
cost, we have radically improved our business prospects."