Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Why Businesses Need to Embrace Mobile Technologies Now

Let me ask you a question? What are you reading this blog post on right now? If this were five years ago, you probably would have said your desktop computer or your laptop. Smartphones were just on the verge of making it mainstream, and tablets wouldn’t really make a dent in the marketplace until 2010. However, today, the times have truly changed, and most people use smartphones and tablets to browse the web, socialize with their friends and make purchases.



In a post written by Kristen Lauria, Vice President of Marketing for IBM Mobile Enterprise, the question of what businesses will need to do to adapt to this market change comes about, and she offers some interesting insight that any business that offers a service or product of any kind can come to appreciate. First and foremost, let’s take a look at the numbers.

  1. According to Forrester Research, mobile commerce should exceed $31 billion by 2016.
  2. In 2020, there will be more than ten billion smart devices in the world.
  3. IT leaders in mobile are twice as likely to experience a ten percent increase in revenue

Given, this information, it’s imperative that businesses consider this new mobile dynamic to leverage their marketing strategies and IT infrastructure around. Otherwise, they could be left in the dust by competitors who better understand the future business climate. How do you become a player in the mobile economy? Here are two key factors:

  • Make sure your IT infrastructure is up to the task: 86% of mobile leaders believe that enlisting the services of an external IT services provider is important to making sure employees have the tools necessary to create the perfect customer experience. That’s because an overextended IT staff won’t have the time nor anticipatory foresight to create apps and integration processes that meet demand before it becomes a necessity. By looking into IT consulting firms, you can find ways to facilitate the IT infrastructure necessary to meet upcoming demand.
  • Marketing Services that Coincide with Mobile Use: Those that are spurring this new growth in mobile use are from the Millenial generation. As they graduate from universities and entry level jobs, they will have deeper pockets, which mean greater revenue potential. Milennials are more social with their purchases and opinions as they are the social networking generation. If they like something, they pin it. If they have a problem with customer service, they tweet about it. Successful businesses will create the same brand experience throughout all mobile platforms and encourage active SM engagement to increase visitors and potential leads.
  • The Right Apps: With 90 percent of mobile users keeping their device within arm’s reach 100 percent of the time these days, your business needs assurance that mobile apps can be deployed instantly and across a range of mobile devices including iOS and Android phones and tablets. IBM can help you do that and was recently recognized by Gartner with a position in the Leaders quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms.   

The new Gartner report places IBM in the Leaders quadrant as measured by completeness of vision and execution ability of IBM Worklight, our mobile application development platform -- a key component of the IBM MobileFirst Platform. According to Gartner, Leaders must not only be good at cross-platform development and deployment, but also have a good vision of the multichannel enterprise, support for standards, a solid understanding of IT requirements, and scalable channels and partnerships to market. Leaders must provide platforms that are easy to purchase, program, deploy and upgrade.
iSOA Group, as a Premier IBM Business Partner is working with clients on their mobile strategies and can help them adapt to this emerging market.


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