Realizing ROI

As more and more companies are enabling their workforces with mobile computers, you may have observed that the technology has not always delivered on its promises. For many organizations, the cost of supporting and maintaining the devices has turned out to be much higher than initially anticipated. For others, workforce productivity and overall business efficiency may have even decreased. How can the same technology benefit some companies but not others? The answer is that no technology is right for everyone. So what makes an enterprise mobility deployment successful in terms of ROI (Return On Investment)?

CRITICAL ASPECTS OF MOBILE SOLUTIONS

USABILITY

One of the most critical factors is the usability of the system. Maybe the system was designed by software engineers who simply didn't understand how the system users normally perform their job, or maybe it was built using standard user interface design principles that just weren't appropriate for mobile devices. In the minds of many software developers, usability is often viewed as a third or even fourth priority during development. On many types of software, that may be an appropriate priority, but a mobile system that isn't usable is simply asking for problems. Usability is the most important factor in many mobile deployments.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Recently there has been an explosion of consulting and development firms claiming to be experts in enterprise "wireless" solutions. Many of them take the often improper approach of simply creating a scaled-down Web page. Although that may be appropriate for some situations, it does not take full advantage of the technology that is available today. Sometimes thin-client or Web-based architecture is appropriate, but other times a distributed stand-alone or fat-client/server architecture would be a much better choice. Do not make this decision solely based on cost, because if the incorrect architecture is used, will not provide enough benefits to give a return and will end up costing more in the long-run. Thus, the decisions surrounding the system architectural design are quite important.

IMPLEMENTATION

In order to successfully deploy a mobile computing solution in the enterprise, you must implement a solution that follows a solid strategy. This may mean purchasing commercial software, or it may mean that you need to have some custom software developed, but whatever path is chosen, the technology must be solving more problems than it is creating. This should be determined through research, testing, and pilot programs. Simply remember that any solution that solves more problems than it creates will have an ROI.

DEPLOYMENT FACILITATION

Some organizations don't realize that their mobile deployments will be more complicated than simply handing out handheld devices to their employees. Not only will there be some kind of a learning curve, but also the employees must consistently use the mobile technology instead of the old methods. If a company allows workers to choose the method they use, significant positive change may never take place.

There must be a mechanism for efficient handling of help desk requests, as well as for overall device management and maintenance. These issues are often overlooked but are still critical to a successful deployment.

BUSINESS PROCESSES

A final key in successful, high-ROI mobile deployments is the business processes which actually employ the technology. The processes must be designed to efficiently take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of the technology, and will often have to be rebuilt from existing processes. Nonetheless, this is very important to achieving an ROI in a mobile deployment.

ENSURING A POSITIVE RETURN