People are no longer anywhere near as static as they used to be. Nowadays they're constantly on the move, either visiting customers or working from home or overseas.
Customers have changed as well, and now expect to interact with the companies they deal with via mobile devices, to check information, place orders or conduct transactions without ever leaving their seats.
That is forcing an IT evolution to make core applications available to everyone, so we asked several CIOs how seriously they were implementing mobile access to enterprise applications.
Insurance company Santam is moving into this domain from several perspectives, says CIO Jan de Klerk. The first step is to help the organisation understand how value can be derived from investing in mobile access to enterprise applications.
“While the mobile space is definitely exciting, some organisations struggle to understand how this new capability can be used to create business value. Our approach has been to strategically understand the use of mobility solutions that can increase the efficiency of our workforce,” he says. “At the same time, we are establishing the needs of clients and business partners to ensure mobile solutions add value, by making it easier to do business with us or by creating positive user experiences.”
It can't be entirely bricks and mortar so we are looking at electronic and other virtual channels to access and service Post Office and Postbank customers.
Justin White, SAPO
As a result, innovative mobile solutions have been implemented for Santam's assessors and at its drive-in centres, improving the claims service for its policyholders.
The next step is designed to increase customer loyalty, De Klerk says, so it will soon release its first mobile application and mobi site to provide policyholders with a unique experience.
Real-time assessment
The government's Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation has the task of monitoring service delivery by the government, which is a large and often thankless task. At least it will get easier one day as mobile applications are introduced.
“One of our key tasks is to send out field professionals who monitor frontline citizen-focused services across the whole of government,” says CIO Solomon Bhungu. “Our future intentions are to allow real-time capture of monitoring data into our enterprise applications, enabling real-time assessment of the workflows and data quality. This will ensure fewer errors and more efficient data-processing.”
In terms of disadvantages, mobile devices cannot run all the systems users at the university need, due to cross-platform incompatibilities.
Ren'e Schutte, Wits
Bhungu hasn't put a timeframe on when that will occur, but says: “We believe mobile technology will greatly add value to how we will implement our Performance Monitoring and Evaluation programmes.”
The South African Post Office (SAPO) is also still in the early days of adding mobile access to its services, but CIO Justin White is making it a core focus. He is working hard to keep the organisation relevant in a world that's going digital.
“The primary driver is how to extend our service offerings to existing customers and reach new customers in a cost-effective manner,” he says. “It can't be entirely bricks and mortar so we are looking at electronic and other virtual channels to access and service Post Office and Postbank customers.”
White is eager to make SAPO's Postbank services accessible to low income earners and the unbanked by giving them an electronic channel that is “as functionally rich as the big four banks are currently providing, but potentially cheaper”.
As part of that, SAPO plans to make the necessary software available on smartphones and tablet computers so its staff can take core banking applications into their communities.
“We will allow them to be providers of banking services in communities with the aid of smart devices,” says White. “Our people will, in the future, be able to help customers open a bank account, provide them with a debit card for ATM withdrawals and show them how to conduct most of their banking, including money transfers, on their phones.”
Existing Postbank account holders will in the future be able to download a new mobile application, or access USSD services, to enjoy the same functionality on their phones, White says.
SAPO has already moved some of its traditional businesses into the digital space, so consumers can renew their post boxes, pay bills and obtain postal codes online.
The `Virtual Post Office' also lets corporate clients use SAPO as a channel for bill presentment and payments, with customers sent billing information via SMS or e-mail. But it's not enough, White says, as there are other exciting opportunities to explore.
One move is towards Hybrid Mail, a more efficient and environmentally-friendly option than traditional post. Customers that need to send out bulk mails, bills or customer statements can route that data electronically for printing at SAPO's closest point of delivery.
SAPO's existing digital capabilities must now scale up materially to become a mainstream facility, says White. “It's a very quickly growing part of our business compared with traditional post. Our existing platforms have sufficient flexibility to scale in the short to medium term. As more customers look to embrace a digital alternative, we will allocate the necessary investments and resources to enhance the functionality and efficiency of our electronic solutions.”
Useful benefits
Wits University is also exploring mobility as part of itsgoal of being a top 100 university.
“Many factors are at play when considering the depth and extent of adoption of any new technology, such as cost, availability, industry trends and cross-platform compatibility,” says Ren'e Schutte, Wits assistant director of Student and Client Support.
Providing access to enterprise applications via mobile devices has great benefits, she says, and smartphones and tablets are giving the staff anywhere, anytime access to enterprise e-mail, contacts and calendaring applications.
Mobile access to Wits' intranet and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is also fairly seamless due to the Web-based nature of these systems, and that has also created useful benefits.
From an educational perspective, students and teachers now have the opportunity to use mobile gadgets as consumption devices to read course material and conduct online research. “How the use of these devices stacks up against paper-based information consumption will only become clearer over time, as outcomes of current mobile pilot projects unfold,” Schutte says.
“In terms of disadvantages, mobile devices cannot run all the systems users at the university need, due to cross-platform incompatibilities. This could lead to an environment where tablets, smartphones, netbooks and laptops are all needed to complete one's studies. Clearly this is not ideal, even just from a cost perspective.”
The solution may be to use cloud technologies to provide a desktop version of Windows to run some proprietary third-party applications. But for that to be truly viable, an underlying infrastructure that includes broadband everywhere is needed. That creates cost issues both for Wits and for end-users.
“As such, developing for today's mobile device is not the current focus,” Schutte says. Instead, Wits is assessing the usefulness of these devices through pilot implementations, while also providing support for key enterprise applications such as e-mail across the major mobile platforms.
First published in the February 2012 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine.
Share