BCO6185 Mobile And Executive Computing

Introduction:

Mobile business solutions are one of the most widely used applications of technology in most of the organizations throughout the world. Employees can make use of such technologies to work even when they physically not present in their workplace or when they are travelling. Similarly, such a technology can also help the customers to do online shopping round the clock from anywhere, anytime like in ecommerce companies like Amazon and eBay. Mobilization is the future of companies, their customers as well as for any other sphere of work. In today’s world, consumers especially the young generation is the main target audience for ecommerce giants like amazon and eBay, who are greatly affecting the global business. These consumers are technology friendly and believe in mobility in business.

The report will explain the different requirements, cost factors, technologies as well as other aspects such as success factors that are necessary for successful implementation of a mobile business solution within the management. Its advantages, risk factors and other factors that has to be analyzed before implementing a mobile business solution. Different technologies and enablers are also needed for the implementation of the mobile technology within the management, which will be evaluated and explained in the upcoming paragraphs. By the end of the report, the reader will have a clear insight on how the management can have a workplace that uses mobility within its operational tasks.

Discussion:

Technologies:

There are different technologies that can be used to implement a mobile solution in the working of the management. For instance, Swisscom headquartered in Switzerland, which is one of the largest companies in the telecommunications sector in the world, has more than 4200 hotspots spread all across the country. It has a network coverage of nearly 100% with internet speeds up to 300 Mbps from more than 600 roaming partners located all across Switzerland (Walke, Witschi and Reiner 2013). The organization uses advanced networking techniques like virtual private networks (VPN) as well as other cloud-based solutions. This in turn gives the flexibility to the employees to work from anywhere with any given amount of data. The interesting factor is that all of it comes at a very subsidized tariff, which further attracts even more number of customers all across Switzerland. VPN also helps in remote access services, irrespective of the location of the employees (Aijaz, Aghvami and Amani 2013).

A virtual private network connection is nothing but an extension of a network, which is private, and it includes the link across shared as well as public networks, like the internet. VPN connections help the companies to share data between two computers in an end-to-end encrypted fashion, through a secure private network (Hawilo et al. 2014).

Fingent’s business platform application can offer a one-stop solution to the management in providing a mobile business strategy. It implements the widely known technologies from Microsoft, Android, IOS, SAP as well as technologies from open sources, easily available in the open market.

1. Microsoft technologies:Technologies like dot net, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft dynamics as well as SharePoint development through which customized applications as needed by the management can be developed to incorporate a mobile business solution (Enterprise applications with the Microsoft advantage, 2018).
2. IOS technologies:IOS technologies such as CSS, Objective-C, HTML 5, Web Services, Phone Gap, JavaScript, XML as well as JSON are incorporated by Fingent’s business application (Andrade et al. 2015).
3. Android technologies:Android SDK, JavaScript, Corona, CSS, Phone gap and XML are used for android platforms especially for android smart phones and tablets.
4. SAP technologies:SAP experts focus on developing customized organization friendly applications that make use of SAP IT infrastructure, using technologies like SAP solution manager, mobility for SAP, SAP ABAP etc.
5. Open source technologies:Content management systems at enterprise level as well as ERP and CRM Solutions are available in the open market for implementation.

Platforms:

Some of the other important platforms that can be used for the proper implementation of the above-discussed technologies are cellphones, laptops, mobile marketing techniques as well as GPS devices (Baden-Fuller and Haefliger 2013). Some of these components are explained below with their advantages:

1. Mobile phones or cellphones:They help in keeping the employees connected to each other as well as with the customers of the company from anywhere, anytime even when the employees are in vacation.
2. Laptops:can offer instant access to all important applications like web browsers, software’s that perform important accounting task as well as database maintenance programs. This again enables the employees to work remotely (Spencer 2016).
3. Mobile online marketing:This is one of the most important platforms of implementing mobile solutions, which is done through advertisements, which in turn help the companies to track customer behaviors and send them new offers and promotional messages, thereby improving sales and customer satisfaction. Customers respond to online surveys and shop online from Amazon, eBay, once they get to see advertisements posted on social media (Laudon and Traver 2013). 
4. GPS devices:It is affordable platform for mobile communication for employees of companies that require extensive travelling. Real-time traffic conditions as well as voice directions can be obtained from these GPS devices (Michael and Clarke 2013). They are usually helpful for an entrepreneur or a sales man who needs to travel a lot for business purpose. It helps in locating places, which are physically hard to find or locate.

Success Factors:

The success of implementation of mobile business solution in the management operations is greatly dependent on some of the factors. These factors should be taken into consideration before implementing the mobile business solution. They are:

1. Deciding the department for implementation:

The area/department of the management, which is most likely to receive the maximum benefit, and on an immediate basis, should be identified first. It is the “test group”. The mobile technology should be first incorporated in that area/department. For example, the sales department of any company involves a lot of travelling especially the sales representatives. Based on the feedbacks from the sales department, the management can consider applying it in its other departments as well. Such a systematic approach will ensure quicker and better results (Cochrane 2014).

2. Ensuring ease of use: 

The mobile devices should be user friendly and the user interface should be easy to use and understand. This is the most important success factor because many a times, employees or even customers who are not technically perceptive, find it difficult to perform business tasks or respond to business situations using mobile business solutions. That is when they prefer traditional business model, which again leads to the failure of mobile solutions. Training should be provided to the employees prior to implementing any new mobile technologies so that the employees do not get a sudden surprise from the management administrators, about a technology that they are not even aware of. This can also be a problem for the end users or the customers as well. Due to which many customers across the world still belive in offline retail stores which again is a failure for mobility in ecommerce. Many customers are still not computer literate and are not frequent users of laptops and mobile devices due to which the ecommerce business do not reach them (Falk and Leist 2014).

3. Use of universally accepted mobile technology:

A technology that can be used for all the mobile devices such as the laptops, cellphones, CCTV cameras as well as GPS devices should be used within the management to eliminate ambiguity within operational tasks and to ensure that all the employees have a transparence in performing tasks and understanding each other. For example, the management should either decide to give all its employees apple MacBook’s, which make use of the IOS, or else it, should only give them android smart phones/tables which make use of android technologies (Collins et al. 2015).

4. Setting passwords on all mobile devices: 

Most of the mobile devices like laptops, cellphone as well as GPS devices store sensible information like an employee’s real-time location, important and confidential documents, tax files and financial statements etc. Therefore, they should be protected with passwords and security codes to prevent tax frauds, etc. (Polla, Martinelli and Sgandurra 2013).

Enablers:

Some of the most important enablers are driving the mobile business solutions in today’s world. They are wireless networks, standardization and software infrastructure.

1. Wireless networks:

Network technologies such as local area networks (LAN), Wide area networks (WAN) as well as Metropolitan area, networks (MAN) are used to deploy mobile solutions wherein, employees and customers from different geographical locations can get involved in business tasks with ease (Palattella et al. 2016).

2. Standardization: 

Application developers should keep in mind the universal nature of any programming language that they use in developing the mobile solution for the management.

3. Software infrastructure:

Microsoft’s new technologies of .NET Framework as well as micro edition of Java 2 have equipped the developers with the necessary tools in order to develop the mobile solutions that it needs (Fuggetta and Nitto 2014).

Cost factors:

The different cost factors involved in incorporating a mobile solution within the management can be listed below as:

1. Cost of application designing: 

Factors such as functionality, features and scope of the application depending upon its frequency of usage within the management will determine the cost of the developing the application. In addition, the kind of platform (iOS, Windows, Android as well as Blackberry) and the device in which it is to be incorporated (laptops, GPS devices) determine the cost of a particular application designing (Dalmasso et al. 2013).

2. Cost of purchasing mobility devices:

The management has to bear the expenses of purchasing laptops and other devices for their employees. Typically, laptops for enterprise users ranges from 1500-2000 Australian dollar.

Recommendation: 

There are a number of recommendation that can be suggested to the management in order to implement the mobile business solution. Firstly, it should make use of a technology, which will be friendly to the employees to interpret ad use. They should also be given adequate training prior to using the devices. Secondly it can look forward to cost cutting, therefore consult companies like Fingent’s business solution, which are renowned consultants in providing business solutions at subsidized rates. In addition, it should keep in mind the different success factors like standardization of technology on a common platform without which the implementation of the mobility will be a failure. The management should also first deploy the technology in a department within the management that needs exclusive travelling and hence need features like real time reporting. This will ensure a systematic and smoother approach to the implementation of the technology. Some other recommendations can be listed below

• A mobile-friendly website which can be accessed remotely by employees and customers.
• Social media usage for online digital marketing.
• Email optimization
• Using QR codes for extra security and authentication for data privacy.
• Usage of abbreviated links to specific applications that can be accessed from anywhere and anytime.

Conclusion:

From the above report, it can be concluded that the management can definitely incorporate a mobile business solution within its work operations, which will help in making its operations much easier. For doing so it can make use of the Fingent’s business platform which uses different technologies from Microsoft, SAP, IOS as well as open sources. This will not only help the management to enable its employees work remotely from different geographical locations, but also ensure better customer satisfaction using surveys and other means which can be performed from different locations using mobile devices.

However, the different success factors also has to be kept in mind before incorporating the mobile solution like employee literacy about the technology, ease of use without which it can also lead to negative e results. The different costs associated to the implementation of the mobile technology should also be taken into consideration and an appropriate expenditure planning has to be done. If the solution works out for the company, it will make the tasks of the employees much easier and take the company to newer heights.

References:

Aijaz, A., Aghvami, H. and Amani, M., 2013. A survey on mobile data offloading: technical and business perspectives. IEEE Wireless Communications, 20(2), pp.104-112.

Baden-Fuller, C. and Haefliger, S., 2013. Business models and technological innovation. Long range planning, 46(6), pp.419-426.

Cochrane, T.D., 2014. Critical success factors for transforming pedagogy with mobile Web 2.0. British Journal of Educational Technology, 45(1), pp.65-82.

Collins, D.G., Govan, C., Gupta, A., Keller, C., Kumar, R., Kumar, S., Mohammed, J. and Potter, S., Jasper Technologies Inc, 2015. Connectivity management and diagnostics for cellular data devcies. U.S. Patent Application 14/807,686.

Dalmasso, I., Datta, S.K., Bonnet, C. and Nikaein, N., 2013, July. Survey, comparison and evaluation of cross platform mobile application development tools. In Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), 2013 9th International (pp. 323-328). IEEE.

De Andrade, P.R., Albuquerque, A.B., Frota, O.F., Silveira, R.V. and da Silva, F.A., 2015. Cross platform app: a comparative study. arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.03511.

Enterprise applications with the Microsoft advantage. (2018). Microsoft Technologies. [online] Available at: https://www.fingent.com/microsoft-technology [Accessed 22 Sep. 2018].

Falk, T. and Leist, S., 2014. Effects of mobile solutions for improving business processes.

Fuggetta, A. and Di Nitto, E., 2014, May. Software process. In Proceedings of the on Future of Software Engineering (pp. 1-12). ACM.

Hawilo, H., Shami, A., Mirahmadi, M. and Asal, R., 2014. NFV: state of the art, challenges, and implementation in next generation mobile networks (vEPC). IEEE Network, 28(6), pp.18-26.

La Polla, M., Martinelli, F. and Sgandurra, D., 2013. A survey on security for mobile devices. IEEE communications surveys & tutorials, 15(1), pp.446-471.

Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2013. E-commerce. Pearson.

Michael, K. and Clarke, R., 2013. Location and tracking of mobile devices: Überveillance stalks the streets. Computer Law & Security Review, 29(3), pp.216-228.

Palattella, M.R., Dohler, M., Grieco, A., Rizzo, G., Torsner, J., Engel, T. and Ladid, L., 2016. Internet of things in the 5G era: Enablers, architecture, and business models. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 34(3), pp.510-527.

Spencer, A., 2016. The Computer as a Dynamic Set of Devices (Doctoral dissertation, UCLA).

Walke, T., Witschi, M. and Reiner, M., 2013, March. Case [email protected] Swisscom (Schweiz) AG: iPhone 5 self-service order app and process-workflows. In International Conference on Subject-Oriented Business Process Management (pp. 264-273). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.