Mobility cannot be sold as stand alone solution

Mobile applications for corporations is a complex business. The decisions are being taken into so much perspectives and the situation of each company also has a big influence on it.

The real question is not how to sell mobile solutions, the right question is how mobile solutions are purchased.

Connectivity and web access, some years ago there were a fever to offer all applications through the web browser; this makes that in some cases almost all key applications are accessible through a web browser. The second component is the connectivity. During the last years the security industry has improved a lot and the big corporations have opened channels of communication through the internet to enable connectivity in a secure way.

So many people request their vacations through a web browser from home only entering their user name and password; all from home. It can be your PC at home, your tablet, your smart phone and soon… your  watch? or maybe … your glasses?

Critical and Key applications, companies take their portfolio of applications and they classify them (for instance by critical, key or non key applications). Each category receives more or less attention from the strategy point of view and hence more or less funds to improve or decommission a tool. It is also important to understand that behind these tools there are processes, that also are classified in the same way. So well, you have to look into the critical processes for your customer, not the others.

I know, I know, you can find so much productivity points for HR or administrative processes, and they can be improved with a mobile solution, but due to their classification they will not be considered or funded.

Platforms, today the companies invest on platforms (SalesForce, Microsoft Office 365, SAP…..) all of them have by default a configurable mobile layer or a way to access to it through mobile. Here it could be a niche, for instance SAP by default do not implement mobile layer, and a huge amount of effort is required to enable it. Well here you have a chance!! The main issue you can have is that the partner that today is performing that area will be better positioned to implement the mobile layer due to the detailed knowledge of the environment.

The “mobile” value, this is something important to think about it. For a given application, you put it available through a mobile device. what is the increased value of having it there? how much productive is going to be the organization? the answer to these questions have to be strong, and the people working on these processes are the ones that really know the pain points. They all are users of smart phones and they ask themselves “I would desire to see this data from my phone”. Operators maintaining manufacturing plants, people looking at semaphores, people that travel and request something or need to approve/reject something.

There are other perspectives or considerations to be taken into account.

So, before to think how to offer mobility to your customer, look for the right pain point that your customer has. Not all are bad news, all these companies have some niches where they have a need and they really are willing to have mobility.