Category: Mobilize

Mobilize covers the range of issues facing IT leaders and team members in their efforts to support the business activities of an increasingly mobile workforce.

Global M2M Partnerships Heat Up, but Will They Succeed?

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize

K. Weldon
K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

  • For years, operators have been trying to crack the code on how to offer cost-effective global M2M services that can span multiple network footprints.
  • Two alliances – one from Jasper Wireless-enabled operators and one from standards bodies across the world – point to new models that may accelerate the growth of global M2M.

Over the last couple of weeks, there have been some unusual partnership announcements from the M2M ecosystem that may solve a set of problems which have thwarted the widespread growth of global M2M deals.  Last week, KPN, NTT DoCoMo, Rogers Communications, SingTel, Telefónica, Telstra, and Vimpelcom agreed to form an alliance to support a single, global platform that multinational businesses will leverage to enable connected devices to span multiple countries cost-effectively with a uniform SIM.  Since these operators all use the Jasper Wireless service delivery platform (as does AT&T, which was not part of the partnership), they can also service customers consistently; the Jasper platform provides a uniform portal for service activation, SIM management, troubleshooting, and subscription/rate management.  While a number of operators such as Orange, Vodafone, and AT&T have already developed global SIMs that can be used in multiple countries to simplify inventory management and related expenses, there has still been a lot of work to do to make global M2M seamless and cost-effective.  Some operators have also been working together to offer global connectivity at prices below the traditional expensive commercial roaming rates, but in many cases, enterprises have either had to set up relationships with multiple carriers or gone to aggregators to try to bridge together a global network with a single point of contact and single contract. Continue reading “Global M2M Partnerships Heat Up, but Will They Succeed?” →

The Mobile Platform Battle for the Enterprise Continues

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in Mobilize

C. Dunlap
C. Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

  • By year’s end, MEAPs will expand backend system connector support.
  • MEAPs need to continue to penetrate the enterprise through channel programs, OEM partnerships, and cloud coupling.

The battle to gain ground in the mobile platform space continues between traditional enterprise application platform (EAP) providers and the newer group of mobile application development platform (MADP) vendors, both vying for the attention of the enterprise.  Between now and the end of the year, expect to hear a lot more from both of these groups, each of which will present strong arguments for why enterprise developers will want to invest in their platform technology to implement mobile strategies which include mobile development, deployment, and management of applications for a variety of devices. Continue reading “The Mobile Platform Battle for the Enterprise Continues” →

The Season of Analyst Events: Operators Look to the Enterprise

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize

K. Weldon
K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

  • The top U.S. carriers for enterprise mobility (AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint) held analyst events over the past two months, disclosing service strategies for the business market.
  • How different are their plans, do they see the same trends in customer deployments, and what kinds of new offerings are on the horizon?

The season for analyst events is not quite over, with a number of European operators still planning to host analysts over the summer and fall.  These events provide a general perspective on each company’s strategic focus, performance, key service areas, customer case studies, and in some cases, planned service launches.  Do they all have the same priorities in providing solutions to enterprise customers? Continue reading “The Season of Analyst Events: Operators Look to the Enterprise” →

Live from the Sprint Analyst Event

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize
K. Weldon
K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

  • Sprint’s morale is up, with discussions of its financial turnaround, excellent customer satisfaction, and positive net adds at the heart of its messages to the analyst community
  • While consumer topics took up more air time, Sprint also remains focused on its sweet spots in the SMB and mid-market business segments, looking towards a resurgence in PTT and continued momentum in M2M

The annual Sprint analyst event at the carrier’s headquarters in Kansas was upbeat, as Sprint views that it now has hard proof of its turnaround (beyond third-party customer service accolades) and is looking forward to a future in which net adds continue to grow across all user segments. While it still has a ways to go (and a few years of serious capital expenses to bear) as it continues to build out LTE, Sprint is certainly faring better than it has in recent years. While a good portion of its customer additions are coming from the prepaid segment, it still has a solid core of business customers and prospects, especially among the SMB and mid-market segments. While other carriers have increasingly separate business and consumer sales, marketing and product development organizations, Sprint has now consolidated many of these groups to reach across segments; therefore there was something for everyone at the event. Continue reading “Live from the Sprint Analyst Event” →

The Smartphone and the Tablet: Catalysts of Change in Mobile Customer Care

by , posted in Mobilize

K. Landoline
K. Landoline

Summary Bullets:

  • Today, there are more mobile phones in service in the U.S. than there are people.  It is estimated that 40% of these phones are smartphones, and this percentage will likely double in the next four to five years.
  • Smartphones and tablets offer a broad range of functionality that will improve the mobile customer service offerings of enterprise contact centers.  To date, contact center application providers have only scratched the surface of the many possibilities.

In my December 22, 2011 blog entry, “Step Two in Mobilizing Your Contact Center: Create a Continuous and Seamless Customer Experience,” I discussed the importance of providing a smooth transition from self-service to live agent assistance on the mobile phone.  Since that blog was published, no fewer than four contact center software providers (Genesys, Interactive Intelligence, NICE Systems, and Virtual Hold Technology) have announced or introduced such functionality to take advantage of the advanced capabilities available on increasingly ubiquitous smartphones and tablets.  While this is very encouraging, I see it only as an initial step in capitalizing on the capabilities of these devices. Continue reading “The Smartphone and the Tablet: Catalysts of Change in Mobile Customer Care” →

Live from the Axeda M2M Conference

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize
K. Weldon
K. Weldon
  • Axeda offers a cloud-based platform that helps customers develop and manage M2M applications across many vertical industries, and has been in the business for many years
  • At its annual event, enthusiasm for M2M continues to mount, and customer case stories show advancement in the maturity of deployments

The annual Axeda Connexion M2M event (held in Cambridge, MA this week) was subtitled: “Get Serious about M2M”. The implication is that we are now at (or close to) the stage where M2M can be transformational to businesses.

To drive the point home, Axeda referred to its Connected Product Maturity Model, a growth curve that depicts six levels of maturity for the industry, against which each company deploying M2M solutions can measure itself. The levels range from Unconnected to Connected to Serviceable to Intelligent to Optimized to Innovative. Most of the customers describing their deployments seem to be somewhere in the middle, where M2M connectivity has begun to not only enhance their existing products and services with productivity benefits and cost reductions, but is beginning to leverage the kind of intelligence that can create even greater organizational impact. Continue reading “Live from the Axeda M2M Conference” →

Wet Your Beak, or Drown Trying

by , posted in Mobilize

A. Braunberg
A. Braunberg

Summary Bullets:

  •  If a vendor can possibly tie its messaging to BYOD, it has.
  • Vendors need to be careful though; the game is changing.

One of my takeaways from attending Interop a couple of weeks ago was the pervasiveness of BYOD as an addressable use case in vendor pitches.  At some point, a line from The Godfather Part II came to mind.  Neighborhood crime boss Don Fanucci tells the young godfather (played by Robert De Niro), “You should let me wet my beak a little,” by which he means he wants a piece of the action. It’s a colorful phrase, and it’s exactly the attitude of many technology companies today. Continue reading “Wet Your Beak, or Drown Trying” →

Push To Talk (PTT): Is it Still a Viable Market?

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize
K. Weldon
K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

  • Back in the days before, and for awhile after the Nextel acquisition by Sprint, the U.S. carriers were very excited about PTT as a market opportunity in the SMB and enterprise segments9
  • With AT&T planning a new PTT service rollout, we wonder aloud if the take-up is likely to be significant, and who the users will be

Back in the days before (and for awhile, after) the Nextel acquisition by Sprint, PTT was a hot trend, associated with Nextel’s ruggedized devices, the familiar sound of the “chirp”, and Nextel Direct’s 0.92 second call setup and 0.58 second mouth to ear latency. PTT was in use by SMBs and public safety organizations with near-instant field force communications requirements. It also became a fad among teenagers and “twenty-somethings” as a form of social networking, long before Facebook, but alongside SMS and MMS. Sprint managed to keep some of the original iDEN PTT customers, but mostly on the business side, as the hip factor in the youth market faded in favor of other, more modern ways to keep in touch with friends and communities of interest. Both AT&T and Verizon Wireless also launched PTT services early on, but the original iDEN service was always considered the gold standard. When Sprint first attempted to lure its own PTT base to a CDMA version, it couldn’t keep up with the quality of the original.  Sprint’s Network Vision plans include a better 3G EVDO Rev A version of PTT (along with a lot of other benefits for the existing base, who should be moving from the slow as molasses iDEN network to a faster and more feature-rich technology anyway). However, so much of Sprint’s base has already defected that the fact that Sprint will be sunsetting iDEN altogether in 2013 does not ensure loyalty via an upgrade to Sprint’s latest QChat version.

Continue reading “Push To Talk (PTT): Is it Still a Viable Market?” →

Mobile Operating System Choice

by , posted in Mobilize
A. Braunberg
A. Braunberg

Summary Bullets:

  • Nobody ever got fired for buying BlackBerrys. Embrace device diversity but incentivize best practices

Anyone old enough to remember the phrase: “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM equipment”? If uttered by an IBM sales person it could be considered classic fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD). But it was based on an industry axiom at the time: IBM hardware was the known quantity and the safe purchase. For a long time, nobody got fired for buying BlackBerry either, but the ‘consumerization of IT’ has thrown those old assumptions out the window and organizations are back to really taking a hard look at the features of each mobile OS and trying to keep the FUD at bay. I sat in a panel at Interop last week that basically asked the question: is it safe to hitch your wagon to any one mobile OS, BlackBerry or otherwise? Continue reading “Mobile Operating System Choice” →

Live from CTIA: New Solutions and Simplified Development for M2M

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize

K. Weldon
K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

  • CTIA Wireless reinforces familiar themes, as M2M service providers strive for differentiation, BYOD spawns new solutions, and NFC-enabled mobile commerce inches closer to reality.
  • There are interesting announcements from M2M MVNOs and other members of the ecosystem, as well as from the mobile operators themselves.

CTIA Wireless 2012 in New Orleans is still in progress as I write this, but the first two days provided a good sample of the enterprise mobility and M2M solutions being demonstrated and announced during the show.  AT&T made the first M2M announcement, regarding its new ‘Digital Life’ all-IP wireless home monitoring system, which allows consumers to monitor and manage water, power, thermostats, security cameras, and other home devices using any Web-enabled devices.  There were also a number of other M2M announcements at the show. Continue reading “Live from CTIA: New Solutions and Simplified Development for M2M” →