Smartphones, Tablets and All Things Mobile

I was recently asked "What's the one hot technology to watch in 2011?" and my response was immediate: Mobile devices without a doubt.

The explosion of new form factors for mobile computing is staggering to behold. Smartphones and tablets are changing the face of information technology.  New devices are released monthly and highly anticipated by users.  Owners of mobile devices fanatically scour the app stores for good deals on the highest rated apps.  Services ranging from Netflix access, to CRM software, to electronic medical records (EMR) are revolutionizing how and more importantly WHERE we access and interact with our digital lives.  When combined with cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) the possibilities are staggering.

Smartphones have been a challenge for the enterprise for several years now. Starting with the Blackberry and then moving through Windows Mobile, Apple ios and now Google Android, end-users are demanding mobile access to corporate resources with their personal equipment and businesses are being forced to support them. It's not just rank and file information workers either, executives have bought in to the productivity gains to be had by delivering high-quality mobile products on the smartphone platform. And most everyone agrees... mobile is just plain fun.

Regarding tablets, some consider them just a larger form factor smartphone, but they're only partly right. Many consider them mainly entertainment devices, but that's only the start. Tablet computers (iPad and now Android and maybe Microsoft Windows 8 and the Playbook) are a new type of device with many of the capabilities of a full desktop or notebook computer, but that run an embedded "system on a chip." This category of device is changing how operating systems are developed and delivered. Trying to understand how having a single-chip appliance with all of the capabilities of a desktop computer will change information technology is going to be a full time occupation for R&D analysts for the next several years.

Mobile technologies are the place to watch this year. They're rapidly maturing after being in the marketplace for several years now. Businesses are in the process of determining how they can harness their capabilities and as we see new products come to market that take full advantage of the mobility that we've been granted by them there's going to be a massive change in how people interact with their information technology systems.

For a taste of how "hot" mobile is check out the articles linked here:
1. This cnet article mentions that almost 20 BILLION apps have been downloaded from the Apple and Google marketplaces. Apple developers alone have made over $4.5 billion since the release of the Apple App Store in 2008.
2. Susan Fogerty at TechTarget wrote a great article about the surging popularity of tablets today. According to their research, tablets lead even smartphones as the mobile technology of choice for 2011. Both technologies far outstrip traditional notebook computers in their survey.
3. Gartner analyzes tablet use in the enterprise in the final link. Gartner says that tablets are neither "better laptops" nor "better smartphones" but will compliment and enhance both.

Keep your eyes on mobile technologies in 2011 and 2012 and you won't be disappointed.

Links:

• http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20069658-17/study-app-downloads-to-hit-ne...
• http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/news/2240036570/Tablet-growth-i...
• http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1618814

If I were Microsoft I would put Skype in...

Microsoft's acquisition of Skype has a lot of people scratching their heads.  It also has a lot of people thinking about Microsoft product integrations, feature enhancements, revenue opportunities for new advertising, and what to do with Skype's user base.

Well, *IF* I were Microsoft here are a few of the things I would do with Skype:

1. Skype + InTune = A powerful driver to help InTune push in to small and medium sized businesses with multiple locations and centralized support teams or that work with an external partner for support.  Imagine just clicking an icon next to the time in your system tray and clicking "chat with support" or "call support" and having an instant Skype conversation with the support team... regardless of whether you were in your main office, working from home, or in a hotel room half way across the world!
2. Skype + Lync = Compete with Google Voice/Talk as a consumer voicemail solution and you could partner with Verizon, T-Mobile (anyone but Sprint) to provide their voicemail services.  Offer plans and special deals for small businesses to allow their mobile devices to "upgrade" and fully integrate with a hosted Lync service.  You're pulling an Apple here... get the consumers and have them drive the technology in to the business.
3. Skype + Lync = Run virtual "pbx" companies like Grasshopper, Ring Central, Voice Nation out of business by doing the same thing but offering integrated Skype.  If you add on on-site VoIP phones you can then compete with 8x8, Vocalocity and a dozen other hosted VoIP providers.  Skype provides the vital outside-line capability that Lync lacks to compete in these spaces now.
4. Skype + Sharepoint the Microsoft Partner Network = virtual partner teams.  Microsoft makes use of "virtual teams" right now... this is Microsoft employees scattered across multiple teams with different goals and concentrations to do a particular project together.  Do the same thing with partners.  Push Microsoft's infrastructure out to Partners and engage them together with a combination of technologies to enable instant, powerful collaboration across a wide geography, across multiple partners and internal Microsoft teams.
5. Skype + CRM + Lync + Outlook = a leg up over Salesforce.com.  Imagine not only having all your CRM data but being able to click a contact in CRM, hit the Skype button to instantly connect to them and then have a note made in CRM for the date/time for that contact.  All of this without an expensive onsite VoIP phone system.
6. Skype + Outlook = more easy recurring revenue.  Bundle Skype with every Outlook client sold and call it Outlook Everywhere (not to be confused with Outlook Anywhere!) and, wait for it... give it away for free (not Office though).  Enable people to natively connect to others that have Outlook Everywhere.  Here's where the money comes in... if they want to dial out of Skype there's a "Buy Points" button RIGHT IN OUTLOOK and instantly charges their card and shows their remaining personal (or corporate if they're set up that way) Skype credits.  You still get the revenue from selling Office licenses and you could make two versions... one supported by ads in Outlook Everywhere and a corporate one that comes with Office and no ads.
7. Skype + Live Meeting = make them a single product with a "lite" version that lets you attend Live Meetings, use the base Skype features but not host meetings.  Maybe you could use a reduced set of Live Meeting features with just one person at a time.  Allow in-app purchases for single-session upgrades to host larger meetings.  You just pay $3.99 (or whatever) and then your Live Meeting Lite becomes a full Live Meeting and you can host a full meeting for up to 10 users.  Scale it up for larger numbers.  They could still purchase subscriptions for unlimited use as well... perhaps also from within the application itself!
8. Skype + Bing Videos = record Skype video calls straight to Bing Video and then share them either with a small group or with the world!  Have a family reunion on Skype and save it for posterity.  Have a business video conference and instantly archive it for reference later.
9. Skype + Android/iPhone = a Microsoft foothold on competing devices through application software their owners already use.  Do it slowly and unobtrusively and without splattering the Microsoft logo across everything.  Start with "enhancing" Skype mobile with integration to a free mobile LiveMeeting/Lync/InTune client.  Depending on the product synergies you can either target consumers or businesses.  Consumers get a "free" video conferencing client that gives them a powerful voicemail system in Lync.  Marry it with presence features and make it a "social" version of Skype that works well cross-platform with Windows Phone.  For businesses, give them a way to manage those Android/iPhone devices with an InTune client and instant access to their support desk with full remote viewing of the mobile device for support.
10. Skype + Microsoft = lots of product synergies.  This marriage makes lots of sense... if the products are intelligently, no... cleverly integrated.  If Microsoft does it right they can keep the recurring revenue that Skype generates now... everyone loves recurring revenue and subscriptions... they can add features to their enterprise and especially SMB products... and they can become a name to reckon with in the consumer space once again.  No longer is Microsoft just for businesses.

What would you do with Skype, if you were Microsoft?

A Taste of the Cloud

For those who don't know what's possible with mobile computing and cloud services I thought I'd do a little analysis of which core business functions you can provide to highly mobile people.

If you are in and out of the office but need to have full access to everything regardless of where you are, now is a good time for you. Here are some of the top services companies use and examples of how you can take them on the road:

1. E-mail - open up your Microsoft Outlook program sitting in the office, at Starbucks, on the road in a hotel over their wifi.  It works the same no matter where you are.  Just use it the way you always have.  Simple.  Easy.  Powerful.
2. Mobile - get your e-mail on your phone.  Get your calendar and contacts too.  It's all synchronized over the internet with your corporate e-mail system.  Lose your phone? Securely wipe its memory remotely, get another one and resync.  All of your data is right back on the new phone in minutes.  Access your apps from your phone too if they're compatible - and more of them are every day.
3. CRM - much like e-mail, you can access it from anywhere.  Some CRM apps are 100% web based, but others are increasingly designed to work over the internet with their central servers hosted in the cloud.
4. ERP - if it's web-enabled it's easy to access your ERP from anywhere, and many of them are now.  Even those that aren't web-enabled are easy to set up for remote access with technology like Remote Desktop Services that is included with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and later.  You click an icon on your desktop, are prompted for your logon, and the app pops up just like it does in the office.  You can even print to a local printer if you like without fighting device drivers.

What's a day like in a technology-enabled small business owner's life?  In the following example, John is the owner of Nebraska Widget Company (NWC):
6:00 AM
The alarm on John's phone goes off and first reads (yes, speaks aloud!) him today's weather forecast and then lists his appointments for the day.  He hits the snooze button and it reminds him again in 10 minutes but this time plays some music from his collection so he can listen while getting ready for the day.
8:00 AM
John meets some fellow business owners for breakfast at a networking meeting.  He has a couple leads to share and instead of passing around business cards, he pulls up the contact on his phone, bumps the phone against his friend's phone and the contact is automatically transferred.
8:30 AM
While at the meeting John gets a call from the office.  He needs to approve a contract for a new client that wants to order some widgets and if he waits until he can get to the office he'll lose the contract.  John turns on his tablet computer, brings up his e-mail in Outlook, gives it a minute to sync on-line and then checks for the important e-mail with the contract.  He clicks a link in the e-mail which brings him to a web page where he can review and e-sign the contract.  He does so and the application generates signed PDF copies for both him and the client and delivers it to them by e-mail.  He wirelessly sends the PDF to his portable printer so he can hand a physical copy to his new client later.
10:00 AM
John drives to the new client's office... the one he just signed the contract for.  He has never been to this office, just his sales staff, but he wants to close the deal in person.  He needs directions.  He presses the listen button on his phone and tells it "Navigate to ACME Block Company."  The phone uses his GPS in combination with his e-mail contact list to look up and give him turn-by-turn spoken directions to the client's office.  He signs the deal, shakes hands, never calling the office for help.
12:00 PM Lunch
Since he has been busy all day, John hasn't had a chance to keep up with the news.  There's a big merger going down with one of his clients in Texas.  John is in Nebraska.  He wants to listen to the local news radio show in Texas though.  No problem, he connects his wireless stereo Bluetooth headphones to the phone, starts his world radio app and then selects the right station in Texas.  He listens to the broadcast streamed over the internet while he eats.
1:00 PM
John goes in to the office, docks his tablet computer so it can charge and plugs in his phone so it can too.  He checks in with his admin person and she has already processed the contract he signed, sent the order for processing and submitted it to the billing department.
1:30 PM
Wondering how the new order for widgets is coming along he opens up his corporate dashboard in his internet browser.  The dashboard has several tabs across the top and on the front page lists important and recent items.  The order for his new client is listed at the top of the recent item list.  He clicks the item and the reviews the status page, verifying the right number and type of widgets.  He clicks the "Verified" button and the status changes to show that the order has been verified.  The order is forwarded for payment to the billing department and is processed to his client's credit card within minutes.  The order status then changes to "Shipping".
2:00 PM
John has a sales meeting with his staff.  They sit down, pull up the company dashboard on a projector screen and review their pipeline.  The CRM program they use ties in and all the sales execs record their opportunities and wins in it.  He does a simple sort of open opportunities and identifies some key items for his staff to concentrate on using charts and graphs that are all generated on the fly with live CRM and ERP data.
3:00 PM
An e-mail comes in notifying John that the widget order has been completed, shipped and billed.  A notification has also been sent to the client letting them know the status.  Their e-mail includes a survey to be returned, however.
4:00 PM
John receives another e-mail.  It's the survey results from his client.  In the 3 key areas of responsiveness, value and service the client scored them with top marks.  John clicks a link in the e-mail approving the survey.  The survey is tabulated in the system automatically and pushed live out to the NWC web site where it appears in the "Recent Wins" section on the front page.
5:00 PM
John packs up and heads home to get caught up on some e-mail and review the latest numbers from the billing department.  He opens up his tablet computer out on the deck and connects wirelessly in to the corporate server with a single click.

All of this and more is possible with the right technology and the right partners.