Mobile services wave approaches SA

South African companies are adopting mobile technologies but, for the most part, this has been limited to basic implementations.

So says Jeff Ballard, channel manager at EOH, a master distributor of Kofax, who notes that smartphone proliferation will be the next wave to hit SA - and it's coming fast. Thus, he believes it's critical that companies find a way to leverage mobile technology to better serve consumers as they begin to rapidly adopt this dynamic, interactive platform.

"We are starting to see it happening in the financial services sector, and some governmental agencies are beginning to address the mobile market as well. The pressure for more companies to pick up on this new wave, though, will increase as the mobile carriers find new, enticing ways to get South Africans to buy these new devices," says Ballard.

To better understand where the market is today in terms of mobile implementations, EOH and Kofax, in partnership with ITWeb, yesterday unveiled the Mobile Survey.

"Too often, customer adoption lags the industry pundits' timelines for new technologies. Mobile is definitely a game-changer though, so it is important to understand where the market is now and how to best help companies accelerate adoption to gain a competitive advantage - before mobile becomes a basic piece that everyone offers."

According to Ballard, with the buying dynamic moving from brick-and-mortar stores to the palm of the customer's hand, the balance of power in business is shifting heavily to the customer.

In fact, he elaborates, Forrester refers to this as the 'Age of the Customer', signifying a shift beyond the Information Age we have become accustomed to over the past 20-plus years. A couple of recent Gallup studies showed how customer engagement not only has a direct impact on a company's revenue, but also on its stock valuation, he adds.

"So with this significant level of power, addressing customers the way they want, when they want, and for what they want becomes critical to a company's success. Mobile not only provides that level of service, but is driving the need for that level of service."

Ballard points out that adoption has not happened as quickly in SA, as bandwidth and data costs have created barriers - but that is changing.

Big-name carriers are starting to roll out more smartphone- and data-friendly packages for their customers, he explains, adding that this will fuel a dynamic cycle where customers come to rely on their mobile devices to do more, driving demand for more data. That demand, in turn, will drive even better data packages from the carriers, Ballard predicts.

He believes that, with an estimated one billion smartphones in the market by 2015, this shift of power to the customer is not going to reverse anytime soon.

"The companies that are going to win in this new era are the ones that adapt and adopt, primarily around customer engagement, and that means, among other things, incorporating the customer's preferred channels into their processes. As customers are able to do more and more from their mobile devices, the companies not engaged with their customers this way will not only stand out, but will start to lose out. If a customer can buy a book, movie tickets, or start a loan process, then why can't they also buy insurance, check the status of a passport renewal, check the status of a loan application and more?"

Ballard, nonetheless, is of the view that adding mobile to existing processes without specifically redesigning the process to incorporate mobile is almost assuredly a path to failure. He explains that the first challenge is ensuring the right mindset towards developing mobile implementations from the ground up.

The next step is ensuring the implementation is built around the customer, rather than the process, he notes, adding that it is important to drive better customer engagements and this is influenced almost entirely by their experience with the application.

There are infrastructure challenges that have to be addressed as well, he points out. "Existing servers and networks may be ill-prepared for exploding volumes of traffic. The middleware, applications and security need to be addressed as well to ensure smooth traffic flow and that the data is secure from breach. And if not designed properly, a multichannel process could easily become a quagmire as customers look to move between mobile application, Internet site, phone calls and in-person interactions."

Ballard suspects the survey will show that the time is now for mobile implementations in SA. "We have seen mobile's impact the world over, and it is time for that impact to come to South Africa.

"Because of mobile technology, more and more customers have the power in the relationship with businesses. And it's the companies that understand this and design their customer interactions accordingly that will win out."

Click here to complete the survey and stand a chance to win an iPad mini.