The document discusses how mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone are becoming increasingly integral to business processes. It notes that these devices are portable, easy to use, and instantly ready. The growth of cloud services, social media, and mobile internet access fuels the rise of mobile work. Tablets are replacing PCs and notebooks for many knowledge workers due to their simplicity and ability to improve employee motivation. While tablets are technically inferior to PCs, users prefer them because they place the human being at the center and allow for easy, intuitive work processes. The key to their success lies more in improving employee motivation than deeply integrating them into business processes.

1. iPad and iPhone in the
Business Environment
By Jörn Steinhauer
How mobile devices are once again becoming a popular and integral part of
our work processes
Ever since the PC was launched, there has been a strong
desire to achieve mobility with these devices. We soon
saw the arrival of the first “laptops”, followed by the
predecessors to our modern tablets – relatively heavy,
cumbersome and above all, complicated machines. With
its innovative iPhone and iPad, Apple demonstrated that
there can be another way. Light, smart devices with their
own specific operating systems have now taken mobility in
life and work to the next level.
These new-generation devices are effortlessly portable,
easy to handle and last but not least, are instantly “ready
for use”: “switch on and get started” is the new philosophy.
The key drivers of this rapid technological advancement
are mainly internet-based developments; cloud solutions,
social media, faster connections and reduced costs for
mobile data traffic fuel the growth of mobility for users.
Smart web applications adapt “intelligently” to your current
platforms, offering targeted information for your requirements, right now.
Copyright © 2013 Tefen Management Consulting. All rights reserved.
The internet has become omnipresent, available anytime
and anyplace. It offers an integrated and networked view
of information. Cloud services offer permanent data access and synchronize it intelligently on all devices (e.g.
tools such as Evernote and Springpad). The internet is no
longer accessed via computer and browser but is instead,
integrated into our everyday lives. Vehicles, TVs, refrigerators and other commonplace appliances use the internet
as a communication network and offer the user unprecedented possibilities.
It is also important to recognize that there has been a
welcome cultural acceptance of mobile devices for a multitude of applications. The “digital natives”, as we call the
generation under 25, live via the internet. They consider it
a standard communication channel – social structures are
changing with virtual friends becoming just as important as
real ones – and the distinction between the two is becoming increasingly blurred. Over 86% of all people under 25’s
arround the world use the internet on a daily basis and
most of them access it via mobile devices.

2. Subsequently, PCs and notebooks are subject to the
strongest decrease in demand. Current market studies
show that PCs are losing 35% and notebooks up to 39%
of their market share to tablets. Consumers in the US
are the vanguard of this trend. A market survey by Good
Technology showed that the iPad already makes up 28%
of all newly activated appliances in American companies.
In 50% of the Top 100 Companies, the iPad is already
used for business purposes and 80% of the Top 500
Companies are currently developing or designing mobile
solutions.
At the same time, the percentage of truly motivated employees oscillates around 13%. Anybody at the helm of a
company knows that this has a dramatic influence on its
productivity. According to a Gallup assessment, the overall
damage to the German economy caused by unmotivated
employees amounts to more than 121 billion.
In Europe, 60% of iPad users, use their tablet for business
purposes; 80% for their work-related communication and
40% are even provided with an iPad by their company. In
the USA, these numbers are even higher.
The degree of integration and subsequently the value creation can be advanced even more significantly with mobile
appliances than with bulky, ugly and heavy notebooks.
iPads will not replace “conventional” computers, however,
they can complement them sensibly and – if used appropriately – will improve the quality of work drastically. What
is more, they will improve employee motivation. iPad &
friends are cult objects with an inherently high “must have
factor”. An employee, whose company equips him or her
with such a device, regards it as a deed of respect, as it is
more than just a work appliance – it epitomizes “playing,
fun and excitement”.
Taking into account these numbers and the current sales
success of the new iPad, one question springs to mind:
What edge does the iPad (tablet) have over a PC or notebook?
At first sight, the answer would have to be none; considering purely a technical point of view, these appliances
are clearly inferior to highly sophisticated computers. For
many, the fact that they feature neither keyboard nor ports
and have both limited processor capacity and/or memory,
provides enough reasons to dismiss these devices at first.
However the users, who presumably make a conscious
choice in favor of the iPad/tablet over a traditional device,
contradict this view. In a survey conducted by Nielsen,
29% of the users even said that their iPad has already
replaced their notebook or desktop PC as their main work
appliance.
According to a Forrester survey, the iPad accounts for
65% of all tablet computers used for business purposes in
the USA. It is expected that by 2016, 70 million knowledge
workers in the USA and Europe will be using Apple’s tablet
PC for their day-to-day work, replacing the laptop.
To understand the reasons behind this development, we
have to look at the business processes and the IT that
supports them.
For the past 35 years, IT has played an increasingly
important role in companies. While changeovers involve
additional costs and efforts, IT generally accelerates and
advances processes, thus saving time and often resources. The computer is the key element of many processes
and mankind has more or less adapted to this situation
and its status as the mere “machine operating element”.
Copyright © 2013 Tefen Management Consulting. All rights reserved.
Mobile appliances allow us to place the human being back
in the center of their day-to-day working lives. The beneficial effect on both employees, work quality and customer
service will be tremendous.
This demonstrates why the tablets are so popular. The
answer is simple: it is NOT the technological aspects that
are key, but the human being itself with its desire to create
simple and easy to understand (work) processes. The
results of a variety of surveys confirm this: 78% of the iPad
users claimed that it has simply become INDISPENSABLE
for them, and 53% no longer leave the house without their
iPad.
Hence, the decisive factor for the success of a mobile
solution lies less in its integration into the business process
and more with employees’ motivation.
Sophisticated solutions help achieve a high degree of integration (value creation) into a company’s work processes
and make the human being feel appreciated again. As a
result, we will see an increase in work quality, employee
satisfaction and motivation.
According to Forrester, mobile appliances can improve almost all end-to-end processes, in areas including Human
Resources, Sales and Purchasing. The agenda may also
include issues such as social networking, processing of
information and support of genuinely mobile field employees, e.g. by providing location-based services.

3. When thinking about the potential use of mobile solutions,
it is highly advisable to take the coolness factor out of the
equation. The iPhone and iPad hype alone doesn’t buy
you much or anything at all – except for your employees’
motivation. In the planning phase, it is much better to
concentrate on one business case with a specific ROI for
your company.
As soon as you have found a solution, consider it as a viable step and start working immediately on a ‘2.0’ version,
as the half-life period of applications is decreasing dramatically in the fast moving mobile business. Grab the ball
and run instead of waiting for the perfect shot – however,
keep improving the solutions you developed continually.
This accelerates your journey to success and provides
the employees with new and exciting enhancements that
considerably increase the fun and satisfaction they derive
from an application.
Start by analyzing the potential of the implementation
in the business
Put together potential business and use cases
Select existing apps and processes that should be
“mobilized”, as this is easier than implementing entirely
new scenarios
Integrate stakeholders and focus groups into your
considerations and into the planning process.
They are often closer to the process
Select relevant situations and process elements from
the overall process which lend themselves well to
mobile implementation
Roll out the conceptual, planning and design phases
of the mobile application
Based on the concept, start implementation
After successful tests in a focus group, launch integra tion of the solution into the regular business operations
The technical and training support during regular
business operations helps to avoid the users feeling
left alone or losing interest
Conduct analyses and make improvements during
business operations – and for the assessment, we
recommend starting all over again with step one to
plan the next version
The following steps may be helpful when planning the
implementation of a mobile business solution in your
company:
Jörn Steinhauer, IT Consulting Partner, Tefen Germany
Before equipping the entire company with mobile terminal
equipment and apps, it is advisable to test the solution
under realistic conditions on a smaller scale. Glitches,
which happen all the time, may be an existential threat to a
company-wide rollout.
Copyright © 2013 Tefen Management Consulting. All rights reserved.