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Put simply, organizations have started to apply mobile technology to those processes where the integration of real-time information can drastically improve process quality.

Although mobile email has made some inroads in these areas, the mobile enablement of enterprise applications represents a quantum shift in capabilities. The CRM packages have arguably been in the front line of this trend. One big reason is the strong overlap between the needs of customer-facing employees and the key strengths of mobile devices, including customer-specific alerts and the ability to access and update customer records. Thus, so far, the main emphasis of application mobility has been getting information 'out' into the hands of field personnel.

Increasingly, however, this emphasis is shifting toward more 'inwardly directed' (ie less customer-centric) applications such as ERP and SCM, in which the rapid incorporation of information from the field enables the optimization of processes such as production planning, inventory management, and logistics. In both cases, the extension of enterprise applications via mobile devices has tightened processes, increased responsiveness, and improved decision making. Examples of mobile applications in specific industries are outlined below.

Government
Within the government sector, mobile applications are being used to support public safety, law enforcement and municipal compliance activities. To improve its responsiveness to disasters, a state emergency response agency employs mobile devices to update damage assessment databases remotely, thus enabling key decision makers to assess the situation on the ground and optimize clean-up and recovery efforts. A state police in India is providing agents on the field with mobile devices to access a central repository of data on suspects, cases and other information to increase their effectiveness in arresting and prosecuting criminals.

Faced with a construction boom, a municipality is seeking to improve the productivity of building inspectors by providing them with wireless access to the inspection system and a mobile printing solution to help them work more effectively at job sites, and provide quicker updates to build the database.

Financial Services
In the financial services sector, responsiveness to both the existing customer needs and new opportunities is a critical competitive requirement. To this end, retail financial service providers are employing mobile devices to give representatives on the field access to real-time data on their clients' portfolios during customer meetings. This access gives representatives the tools to respond to queries instantly and helps customers see opportunities faster. Financial services providers are also using mobile devices to interact with their institutional customers.

Manufacturing
For manufacturers, a key to improved efficiency is the tight integration of SCM and ERP, such that changes to the status of inbound material shipments (via SCM) can be closely linked to production and delivery commitments they make to the customers (via ERP). This integration improves manufacturers' overall responsiveness by enabling them to rapidly adjust their production planning based on changes in their inbound supply chain. From a mobility standpoint, the major opportunity is to use mobile devices to speed the capture of this inbound supply chain data, thereby shortening the feedback loop between the supply chain and production planning.

Similarly, mobile devices represent a powerful tracking tool for on-hand inventories of supplies. By giving production planners a more granular and timely window into the existing supply inventories on the factory floor, they gain more flexibility to optimize production schedules and lower inventory costs. Within the manufacturing process itself, the emerging opportunity is to use these devices to monitor production-line activity and perform real-time quality control reporting.

Healthcare
Healthcare providers have used mobile devices to improve both quality control and efficiency in clinical care environments. One area of focus has been in streamlining the prescription management process, which often experiences delays because of illegible handwriting and undetected drug interaction issues. Time-consuming telephone calls are often required to resolve these problems. Recently, a large HMO began using mobile devices for 'e-prescribing' that is; doctors can issue prescriptions wirelessly as well as access electronic physician drug reference and patient-specific drug information. Another healthcare organization is using mobile devices to improve the efficiency of its nursing staff, which had previously been required to fill out patient monitoring forms by hand.

Transportation and Logistics
In the transportation and logistics sector, the optimization of scheduling, dispatching and route planning is a key driver of operational efficiency. And, to compete, providers need to minimize their costs and at the same time be flexible enough to respond quickly to customers' transportation needs. To achieve this goal, one provider of ground transportation and limousine services is using mobile devices to give its drivers access to real-time dispatch data from its back-end systems. In the logistics business, a key differentiator is the ability to keep customers notified about the status of their shipments in real time. One provider is using mobile devices to track and manage on-time performance of deliveries in process, and improve routing efficiencies for its premium customers. A key enabler is the ability to scan barcodes via mobile devices, providing more information transparency to all phases of the delivery cycle.

Legal
One of the biggest initial drivers of mobile device usage in the legal community, like other sectors, was its ability to support wireless email; a reflection of just how important it is for law firms to stay in constant touch with their clients. Simply put, being in court is no excuse. Law firms have begun to employ mobile devices to provide ubiquitous access to information such as case files and motions from within their internal case management systems. Given the importance of staff productivity for law firms, a significant RoI for mobile device usage has been the increase in billable hours enabled by its support for remote data access.

Construction
Considering the construction industry relies heavily on subcontracting in its business model, project management is one of its most important business processes. To optimize this, commercial construction companies are using mobile devices to enable project managers to update project data at the work site, thus keeping clients up to date on project details. Real-time access to project data also enables project managers to solve problems onsite, thus reducing costly delays. Moreover, given the rigors of large-scale construction sites, the ability to employ a more compact device instead of a laptop provides the project manager with more flexibility.

Mobile application access has also been important in the residential construction market, where mass production makes quality control and assurance critical functions. To improve this, a midsize homebuilder is outfitting its field supervisors with mobile devices to directly access its quality control reporting system.

The fact that supervisors can directly input the data, shall improve their efficiency and lower the company's administrative costs. But more important, it would result in a substantial improvement in quality because the data on the contractor performance is made readily available for review by headquarters staff.

On-site Managed Services
For providers of onsite managed services, such as printer or IT support and maintenance, some key challenges are to respond promptly to customer needs (eg outages) and to do so in an efficient and cost-effective manner. A key competency required to meet this challenge is fast and effective reporting from onsite field technicians. A company that sought to improve its reporting capability, employed mobile devices to provide technicians with access to its CRM system-used to store, track, and analyze customer metrics. By creating a wireless infrastructure for gathering and disseminating customer data to and from remote sites, the company made customer information available timely and useful. Through its analytical capabilities, the company was able to proactively determine areas that needed improvement. On-hand parts inventory levels were lowered by 15% and emergency parts orders were reduced by 90%. Both reductions came about as a result of improved data gathering at the customer site. At the same time, the ability to access CRM data in the field improved the overall efficiency of field service personnel, resulting in a 10% increase in first-time problem resolution.

Ravi Subramanyam, director, mobileOne Infocom
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

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