Customer Reality, Not Technology, to Shape Business Mobility

June 11th, 2009 by Greg Goldfarb | located in Productivity, SME Trends | trackback

As we kick off the Business Mobility Blog, I wanted to explain its intent, and share a few observations from our recent conversations with customers and prospects.

We started this blog as a resource for those of us who are interested in trends (or at least notable threads) shaping the world of mobile business today. While some of our posts will reflect our Ribbit perspectives, the Business Mobility Blog is not meant to be Ribbit-centric. My team and I will post as much (if not more) on noteworthy or cool things we see happening in the broader market as we will post on Ribbit. As always, your feedback is valuable to us, so please chime in.

Fresh from the Road
I’ve spent the last few months talking with customers across the country and across the world, from Silicon Valley to Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, Houston, and London. Here are a few of the themes I picked up during my travels:

1) There’s been an explosion of technology services — online communities, mobile phone apps, and Web-based software — but how many of these new technology services are proving to be a ”must have” versus a distraction?

Technology is increasingly out pacing corporate customers’ (and human) ability to adopt it. The majority of customers we spoke with are entrenched in ramping adoption of baseline capabilities of services they’ve already purchased.  Notably, a new app adoption program seems to span 6-9 months, while application providers commonly offer major new feature releases every quarter.  Another Case in point: There has been massive trial of free web & mobile applications such as Facebook and Twitter, but arguably little “stickiness” in terms of usage. According to a recent Nielsen study, more than 60% of new Twitter users don’t return to the site a month later. The same can be said for iPhone apps — their numbers grow faster than anyone can count, but only about 1% of downloads result in regular use (even though the majority of these apps are free).

So what does it take for a new app or service to go from “cool” to “critical?” Could it boil down to enabling businesses to do more with the apps and services already in use?

2) The trend toward a distributed workforce continues to blur the lines between work and home life, and drive the business imperative for pervasive mobile access. Consumerization of enterprise technology is particularly relevant to meeting the needs of a mobile workforce, since the same tools people use for business are the same tools they use for their personal communications. Mobile phones are a great example. While 10% to 15% of people in the US have more than one mobile phone, the vast majority of us have just one phone for both business and personal calls. This suggests a big change in how companies will design apps for mobile professionals in the future.

3) Given the acceptance of cloud computing on the desktop, customers increasingly expect simplified solutions and instant productivity benefits. Expectations for PC technology are starting to shape expectations for mobile devices. If I don’t need to manage desktop software for PCs, why should I have to do so for mobile devices? The fact that there is no operating system consistency across mobile phones makes the case for simplification even stronger. As mobile Internet speeds and browser capabilities advance, the next wave of innovation is likely to be all about mobile cloud computing.

Have your own ideas about where these trends are headed? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below, or send a tweet to @ribbitcrm.

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