Now is the time to invest in the future of your business

We are entering very tough economic times; 2009 will possibly be the toughest year for British businesses since the 1930’s.

To survive in these conditions, it is increasingly important for businesses to be strong, fit and innovative. Recently, the government has announced a series of packages to encourage both the consumer and businesses to return to their normal spending profiles. Businesses must respond by investing in their future. The government also announced additional funding to stimulate British businesses, especially in the hard hit construction sector, by bringing forward their own construction based projects.

Times are hard and I am sure a considerable number of businesses are considering restructuring and cut backs in spending, including an investment freeze policy. This is potentially a high risk strategy as the reality could be that without investment your business becomes uncompetitive and potentially not fit enough or strong enough to survive in 2009.

Cost-saving strategies are equally important, as a relaxed approach to running our businesses will not work in the current economic climate; good business discipline is a necessity. It is important to ensure that your employee’s are delivering 100% and are focussed on their jobs and where necessary give extra training to maximise the effectiveness of your workforce and, if necessary, re-structuring to maximise performance and efficiency.

Key investment in solutions which deliver significant business benefits and an immediate return on expenditure must be considered. These investments must be made in order to survive the next 18 months of the global financial crisis.

This strategy was proven in the Asian Financial crisis of 1997, when Donald Tsang (the then Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, now the Chief Executive) implemented a public spend programme to stimulate business. Mr Tsang has recently met with Gordon Brown and other G20 leaders to encourage them to adopt this proven method.

We must all strive to be the best at what we do and ALL businesses could do better and more importantly must do better. After all, if you were given a warning that a hurricane was heading your way and you had time to build a shelter, you would not just hide under your table.

A good example of how businesses with mobile fieldworkers can invest in innovation, that brings a significant and immediate return on investment, is through the deployment of Enterprise Mobility Solutions. TBS conducted a survey amongst the businesses who attended Mobilise Your Workforce (November 2008) which revealed a potential £155 million* in financial savings per year for the businesses who had not deployed an Enterprise Mobility Solution. This is an indication of possible savings in just one small presentation suite - imagine what we could save throughout the UK!

*The survey was based upon a conservative 15% improvement in productivity in deploying an Enterprise Mobility solution to businesses with field based workforces. Enterprise Mobility Solutions normally deliver in the region of 25 to 50%.. The survey canvassed businesses that had not deployed a mobile solution and asked a set of baseline questions including the number of field workers and the financial costs associated in completing a single job.

Experts from the public and private sector assemble to map out the future of secure mobile payments

On the 21st November 2008: In a jointly hosted event by The Mobile Data Association (MDA) and the Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network (DCKTN) the future success of secure mobile payments has been mapped out. The event highlighted an urgent need to help educate end users, to simplify the payments process and a call for collaboration between handset manufactures, mobile operators and the banking sector. The next phase will see the MDA set out a mobile payments security blueprint in the form of a white paper later in 2008.

The success of the operator lead initiative Payforit, which is primarily used for payment of downloadable content, has been a catalyst for other mobile payment applications and services in the UK. Payforit will continue to play an important role in the mobile industry, but the MDA’s focus is on a much wider framework that encompasses near-field communications, messaging-based payments and securing services beyond WAP sessions.

The workshop represents a first step in an industry initiative which brought together government, in the form of the DCKTN, the Metropolitan Police Authority and private sector business leaders from mobile operators, aggregators, application developers, security specialists and the banking and finance sector.

The headline issues discussed were:

A need for security and application developers to be able to overcome device complexity, interoperability and certification issues, seen as one of the biggest blockers to establishing a recognised standard for secure mobile payments

Fraud and malicious attacks on the mobile device and user data. Payment enabled mobile phones must not become a digital and physical crime driver

Consumers play an essential part of the success of mobile payments, if the experience is poor adoption will be low

To improve the consumer experience, a key driver will be the creation of a standard application framework. This will help to create a consistent and simple experience which will ultimately stimulate demand

The mobile industry must learn from the experiences of the financial and banking industry, many mistakes and challenges have been overcome in the past three years from e-banking

What is a mobile payment? A clear definition is required which solidifies and delineates a mobile payment. Without this, regulation and control becomes very difficult

Steve Reynolds, Chairman, The Mobile Data Association, summarised the learning from the day: “Electronic payment transactions have been with us for some time and most people are now comfortable with purchasing and paying for goods or services over the Internet. We are now entering the era of payments via the mobile phone, laptop computers and other handheld devices connected by wireless means. As with all emerging and new technologies, there are potential risks from scams and unscrupulous activities. However, the mobile industry has learnt its lessons from past experiences and as a result we are taking no chances with mobile payments, ensuring that the users of this type of technology will be well protected.”

Philip Hargrave, CEO of the Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network said “We are delighted to have partnered with the Mobile Data Association to host this important workshop. Mobile payments and the security surrounding them are the next battle ground for the mobile industry. The event successfully brought together representatives from the mobile operator, equipment supplier, banking, payment and policing sectors. Across these groups the potential of mobile digital payment technology was clear, and the issues involved in ensuring that the highest standards of security are employed to safeguard both the payments made and the people making them are paramount. There was a real buzz of excitement about what could be achieved, coupled with a determination to ensure that the additional issues surrounding the security of wireless devices was addressed.”

Colin Whittaker, Head of Security, The Payments Council said: “The event was a timely and welcome initiative to consider the implications of security in relation to the future of mobile payments. The initial discussions and the commonality of views on the issues were especially encouraging. We look forward to working more closely with the participants on addressing and resolving the issues as we develop the Payment Council’s agenda on mobile payments.”


For more information visit http://www.themda.org/

The Mobile Data Association launch their new web site

After months in the planning and design the MDA today has launched its new web site.

The new web site is a unique portal of mobile data industry and provides both MDA members and their potential customers a detailed understanding of mobile data related issues that could impact businesses and consumers in both positive and negative. The new web site will also provide that much needed insight into mobile data trends and new technologies, it will showcase innovation in mobile, share compliance and best practice, facilitate strategic alliances in both the UK and overseas.

To access the new web site go to http://www.themda.org/

Towards the Mobile Olympics of 2012

Three potential mobile centric innovation enablers:

We live in a mobile phone centric world; in the UK we have had more network registered mobile connections than the total population for over two years.

Mobile phones in the UK also outnumber internet broadband connections by a ratio of 3 to 1.

This year, Mobile Internet usage is growing at a rate of 25% and in August over 17 million individual users connected to the mobile web.

The global figures are equally impressive with over 3.4 billion mobile connections in a world population of 6 billion and this figure is still growing significantly.

Towards a personal Olympics

As early as 2010, all new mobile phones will be mobile internet and mobile email ready and will have sophisticated camera functionality as standard. Mobile social networking and sharing rich moments with friends and family, will be a commonplace occurrence. Therefore visitors to the 2012 London Olympics will be recording and sharing their own personal memories of the games. This “of the moment” dynamic view will provide a great opportunity to experience the Olympics in a unique way, by creating for instance “MyGames2012” portal, where visitors can upload and share their Olympic experience in a controlled manner.

The site could include competitions for the best content/pictures/video and our Olympic athletes could also have a Facebook style personal contact area for their fans; ultimately we would have a unique national archive of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Mobile Media coverage
The Beijing Olympics had unprecedented internet media coverage and this included significant coverage for mobile internet devices. Big media organisations such as NBC, and the BBC provided live 24/7 mobile web, mobile alerts and mobile video coverage. In August the MDA saw a 500,000 increase in the number of mobile internet users during the two weeks of the Beijing games.

By 2012, tariff changes and device functionality will ensure Mobile Internet and streaming media will be being used on a regular basis by upward of 40 million Brits. This new wave of mobile consumers will put more emphasis on the need to produce innovative mobile content, from a medal watch for Team GB to action replays of the best action etc.

All of this means that the wireless operators must ensure that their capacity planning factors in the anticipated popularity of the Olympics. The wireless provisioning, in and around the stadiums, will need to encompass GSM based bearers as well as WiFi, WiMax and Bluetooth which can all be used to distribute local event-based content and information.

One significant consideration with media coverage is the cost associated with viewing this content, especially for the foreign visitor. Data roaming costs need to be transparent to the user or at a fixed cost throughout their Olympic experience.

Transport and Ticketing
Mobile phones are currently being used for purchasing small items and trials of mobile payment systems are proving to be successful, although by 2012 not all mobile phones will support the enabling technology known as Near Field Communication’s (NFC).

By 2012 we will be using our NFC enabled mobile phones on the underground and public transport systems of London as an Oyster card replacement. There are significant opportunities to combine mobile internet, GPS location and mapping to provide visitors to the games with travel plans (using public transport), avoiding congested areas, making reservation in hotels and restaurants, tickets for the games and real-time security alerts and warnings.

Examples of mobile content and public transport planning are already happening and the London Borough of Newham recently launched their own mobile portal, which allows their users to find a music gig or a restaurant and then plan a route via the public transport system. This type of application will be developed further to take into account location based services and mobile payments, to deliver a rich but intuitive solution for the Olympic visitor.

To try out the Newham mobile portal simply TEXT Newham to 65101

These are just three possibilities for the Olympics, however the opportunity for a mobile games is potentially limitless.

Your free invitation to Mobilise Your Workforce 8

Here is your personal invitation to hear how Enterprise Mobility is helping business to beat rising fuel costs & stay competitive

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 – hosted at Microsoft UK, Reading.

UK businesses faced with rising fuel costs and increasing competition are being offered the opportunity to see how Enterprise Mobility can help them to stay ahead and prosper, with the return of ‘Mobilise Your Workforce’, the UK’s premiere Enterprise Mobility event. This free event, hosted by TBS Enterprise Mobility, offers an unrivalled combination of best practise advice and expert opinion, and takes place at Microsoft UK in Reading on Tuesday November 12th, 2008.

‘Mobilise Your Workforce 8’ – http://www.mobiliseyourworkforce.co.uk/ is a one day event which will provide attendees with strategic guidance on the role mobile technology can play in a business, through to practical steps and real-world examples of how to make it a commercial reality.

The agenda features industry analyst presentations from Deloitte and Quocirca on the current mobile environment, and the role of Software as a Service in the mobile enterprise, plus a panel session on emerging mobile technologies with expert panelists from Vodafone, Motorola, Microsoft, Northgate IS etc.

Each session is supported by real life case studies presented by UK businesses who have used Enterprise Mobility technology to save energy, drive compliance and control costs, and to transform customer service.

To register for a free place at ‘Mobilise Your Workforce 8’, visit the TBS Enterprise Mobility Website at http://www.mobiliseyourworkforce.co.uk/

SmartPhone's and your business

One common dilemma businesses face that have not developed and implemented a mobile strategy, is the covert usage of Smartphone devices within their businesses.

Initially staff have these sexy devices because they look good, but after a while most of their owners will start to ask their business if they can be used to pick up email whilst there are out of the office and synchronise to their desktop PC etc.

If staff are asking for smartphones is a good sign - it shows they are keen to increase their efficiency. Smartphone’s are a great productivity tool – just as long as you have control over them.

I have documented below a simple approach to the problem.

Select a companywide device and usage policy
So before you give the green light, best you work out your longer-term mobile strategy. Otherwise, you’re likely to get covert deployment - Before you know it, they’re all at it and you’ve lost control. In fact, most of the handsets already used by staff are email enabled in some form – but not necessarily the right form.

You must therefore take control by establishing a policy whereby all handsets are approved and managed by your IT department. Having a smartphone strategy from the outset will save you a lot of hassle downstream. You’ll also be creating your first stepping stone on the road to enterprise mobility.

First, you must decide on a common mobile platform. Your employees may well be pushing for Blackberry technology, Windows Mobile or event the IPhone, all are good and will enable your staff to get much more than just mobile email and calendars. Using Smartphone’s, your employees will be able to send and receive emails, view and edit calendars and contacts, , browse the Internet, view maps, use GPS technology, and run industry-specific applications. having a range of devices with different operating systems is the wrong approach, thry the various devices avaialble and pick the one that best fits your business.

Productivity
Smartphone’s will also help increase productivity by speeding decision-making. Indeed research suggests that mobile email makes a huge difference to anyone who receives more than 50 emails a day and spends more than 20% of their time out of the office and will certainly ensure your employees stay in touch with colleagues, customers and vital information away from the office.


Security
One thing you must not overlook when implementing your mobility strategy is security. Each year, around 12,000 mobile phones are found in the back of taxis in London alone, which means you should ensure all data is secure and controlled in the event of a lost or stolen device.

A good way of doing this is to deploy a third party device management and security package. This lets you manage your Mobile devices in much the same way as you manage desktops, laptops, and servers – allowing you to enforce group policy settings, distribute software updates, and wipe data from mobile devices if they get lost or stolen.


Long-term benefits
Enterprise mobility has already made a huge difference to many organisations who have deployed it. The important thing is to plan your long-term mobility strategy, not just your immediate requirement for email and calendars. Think about how else it can help your business in terms of customer relationship management, sales and marketing, service, and trouble-shooting.

Enterprise mobility starts by taking the processes that go on within the four walls of your organisation and mobilising them. In your case this will be email, calendars and contacts, Organisations like mine can then help you develop your strategy further by mobilising other functions within your business - such as CRM, ERP, accounting and so forth. At the end of the day, there’s very little that can’t be mobilised.

Lastly, don’t simply view this as a stop-gap to satisfy those employees who are asking for smartphones. Think of it as the opportunity to make a positive impact on your business in the longer term. If you’re not planning for enterprise mobility, rest assured your competitors are.

MDA latest SMS, MMS, MI figures Jan-May 2008

The Mobile Data Association (MDA), has announced its latest quarterly data report on activity from January - May 2008 for Text Messaging (SMS), Mobile Internet (MI) and Picture and Video Messaging (MMS) and identifies new trends in the way people are increasingly relying on their mobile phones.

General trends:
All three measured metrics continue to grow; SMS has again surpassed expectations with 1.4 billion text messages being sent in the UK every week. SMS has established itself as a true social connecting tool and continues to have mass consumer appeal, at the same time there are signs of SMS being applied in commercial applications which will see the volume continue to rise.

Mobile Internet has seen steady growth in the UK; 16.5 million people accessed the mobile Internet in May 2008. This represents a 25 per cent growth since May 2006, indicating an average 4,500 new users every day.

Picture and video messaging (MMS) is showing excellent and sustained growth, with volumes rising steadily supported by some interesting seasonal peaks. 10 million picture messages are sent every week in the UK and year-on-year growth is at 30 per cent.

The growth can be attributed to a number of factors such as; the increased number of mobile devices with picture and video messaging capabilities and the emphasis placed on ease of sharing images via the mobile networks.

Seasonal highs include December when new devices are purchased; this resulted in a massive 52 per cent increase or an extra 19 million messages in December 2007 alone. Other seasonal trends which will be monitored this year, following spikes last year, is the use of picture and video messages sent while on holiday, the ‘Wish you were here’ effect. Will this spark the end of the traditional postcard? The MDA will be assessing the figures during July and August this year and will report on them later in the year. (October 2008)

What does the future look like?
The outlook for mobile data usage remains very positive. The moves by mobile operators to offer all inclusive tariffs will stimulate further growth and with predicted lower roaming charges, this will also drive usage. The MDA expects to see SMS growth of around 30% in 2008.

New operator pricing combined with new function-rich, Internet enabled devices such as the iPhone and Nokia N95, are key to driving adoption of mobile Internet access. There are powerful signs all around that mobile Internet access will supersede traditional PC access; a recent US study indicated that iPhone owners were responsible for 1 in 1,000 web page views last month. The MDA predicts that mobile Internet will become a true rival for traditional desktop Internet access, with growth of around 20% being seen in 2009.

In our next report in October 2008, the MDA will report on the rapid growth of mobile data usage driven by ‘dongles’, the 3G GPRS devices used to connect laptops to the Internet via the mobile networks.

Assessing the findings of the MDA’s Q2 report, Rob Bamforth, Principal Analyst at Quocirca, said: “It is well understood and been demonstrated in recent years that the mobile phone has become one of the three most important items people carry – along with keys and a wallet or purse – when heading outside. For business or personal use, it is no longer simply a mobile equivalent of the fixed phone, but a pocketable tool for remote control and connection across several modes of communication.

The access and sharing of snippets of information while on the move has become part of working and personal lives. It started with voice, then expanded to text – which as MDA figures have consistently demonstrated has grown astronomically over time – and now most recently has grown into richer messaging media and mobile access to the Internet. While these are still in their early stages, with some aspects of the technology still evolving, adoption looks set to follow similar paths to other communication and media formats.”

Q2 2008 Statistical findings
The MDA reports are unique as they report historical user data, not estimates or predictions, the figures are aggregated from all UK mobile operators.

The report highlights three key areas of mobile data usage:

Text Messaging (SMS)
Headline: The British love affair with texting continues

Number of person to person text messages sent in the UK:
Per month 6,467,070,000
Per week 1,492,400,769
Per day 212,616,000

Key facts:
25% Growth Quarter on Quarter (Q4 2007-Q2 2008)
30% Growth Year on Year (May 2007 to May 2008)

The growth of text messaging continues to defy expectation. The growth curve is set to continue as new devices promote messaging applications at the centre of their functionality. 1.4 billion text messages are now sent every week in the UK alone.

Steve Reynolds, Chairman of the Mobile Data Association comments: “Text messaging has been without question one of the great success stories of the mobile age both for the industry and consumer. With announcements this month around reduced cost of sending and receiving text messages abroad, this type of mobile operator action will only act to stimulate further growth. In 2008 we are increasingly seeing other applications come into focus for business and consumer use. Mobile e-mail and instant messaging represent new communication mediums but mobile operators need to simplify set-up and access to encourage adoption.”

Picture and Video messaging (MMS)
Headline: Wish you were here, say it with your mobile this summer

Number of person to person MMS messages sent in the UK:
Per month 46,516,405 (During May 2008)
Per week 10,734,555
Per day 1,529,306

Key facts:
MMS has seen a 30% year on year growth
10 million picture messages sent every week in the UK

Steve Reynolds, Chairman of the Mobile Data Association comments:
“Picture and video messaging volumes are gathering real pace. The proliferation of camera enabled devices has been key, but improved and automated settings around MMS set up have made the process simpler for the end user. The mobile phone now goes with us all everywhere; the seasonal trend of sending holiday messages is testament to that.”

Mobile Internet (MI)
Figures relate to number of unique visitors accessing the Internet from their mobile phone during the stated period:

Number of Mobile Internet users
May 2006 13,140,000.00
May 2008 16,425,000.00

Average number of new users per month 136,875 (between May 06 and May 08)
Per week 31,587
Per day 4,500

Key facts:
Mobile Internet usage has grown 25% in the past two years.

Steve Reynolds, Chairman of the Mobile Data Association comments: “There remain a number of challenges that mobile operators need to address to accelerate the growth of Mobile Internet. The MDA is calling for greater price transparency on the costs associated with using the Mobile Internet. The findings of this report suggest a real consumer appetite, but confusion over costs may be holding back growth.

TBS update their web site

TBS has updated their web site this week. Its worth a visit as the web site now has a project zone with video case studies of best practise in enterprise mobility and a members section complete with, white papers, PowerPoint presentations, TaskMaster demos, a Enterprise Mobility blog and a discussion forum.

Take a look http://www.tbsmobility.com/

The mobile phone becomes a necessity

The mobile phone becomes a necessity for ALL the but internet is becoming an increasing challenge.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation survey, published 1st July 2008, suggests that a single person needs to earn £13,400 before tax to afford a basic but acceptable standard of living. The report also states that mobile phone ownership for low income individuals has grown rapidly, indicating that the mobile phone is becoming a necessity, much like the land line telephone. The report budgeted for mobile phones on a pay-as-you-go basis (rather than on a contract basis). It identified that mobile phones are now required for special use – for example, for emergencies in the case of pensioners or in the case of parents, if they needed to be contacted during the day by their children’s schools etc. In 1998 mobile phone ownership for low income individuals was rare compared to today, however the possibility of lower cost ownership is a contributory factor to the rising numbers.

The report also suggests that internet access is only a necessity for children’s educational purposes. The government’s aim, to provide internet access for all, creates somewhat of a dilemma. My concern is that the government target for internet access is becoming an increasingly difficult goal, especially when the number of people living below the poverty line is increasing, and when this number has risen by a further 100,000 children in 2006-2007 to 2.9 million.

Even though the government has long acknowledged the role that technology can play in education and it is imperative that ‘education is for all’ in our modern society, the challenge is of reducing the number of disadvantaged children and adults requires creative solutions from government and the mobile industry. This is where mobile technology can assist, as wireless-enabled PDA’s and smartphones could bridge the gap, bringing low cost Internet access, web browsing, and e-learning applications to ALL. Internet connectivity could be delivered by either public wireless LAN (Government Wireless Cities Programme) or by a subsidised wireless broadband from a cellular network provider.

Mobile industry call to action;
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation report has identified that we, as the mobile industry, need to develop creative mobile internet packages that ensure the government strategy is met and certainly as far as our country’s children are concerned, NONE are disadvantaged.

You and your mobile phone

I am currently working on an article around mobile phone usage, for this I have created a quick questionnaire.

Please could you click the link to help me with the future article.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=MhuZJEHJOoCsHafpj2k4kg_3d_3d


Thanks in advance


Steve

DIY versus Managed Mobility

The majority of enterprise mobility solutions deployed in the UK have been completed with the involvement of a specialist third party organisation, coming into existence as managed solutions. Yet, organisations have the option to keep development in-house, and those companies big enough to employ their own experience IT staff may feel that a DIY approach to enterprise mobility offers the best option. While each approach has merits, they share a number of important considerations.

Key Issues:

Assessing skillsets and managing risk.

It’s important to closely study the capabilities of both in-house teams and third party suppliers when moving towards an enterprise mobility project. The underlying objective should be to minimise risk within the development and rollout process so the solution can be completed on time, on budget and with the support of all the field worker users. It’s therefore vital to discover whether the in-house department or supplier has the necessary technical and project management skills and experience to ensure success.

Scaling a solution.

The size and scope of enterprise mobility solutions continues to grow – just a few years ago many implementations were designed to cover relatively small numbers of users, whereas today it’s common for them to reach many hundreds. Organisations need to consider which approach to project development can help them reach the required number of users to roll-out, and also allow them to scale upwards quickly and effectively as their needs develop.

Support & longevity.

While design and implementation presents a specific set of challenges, ongoing user and technical support requires different skills and can require considerable resource. Thought should be given to how these needs can be successfully provided for field workers to cover all working hours and circumstances. Organisations also need to be sure that even if they have the in-house development skills to produce a successful enterprise mobility solution, that they are equally capable of developing and upgrading it over a number of years. Can they keep it current with business need or will they need a third party supplier to help achieve this?

Consultation and communication.

End user organisations clearly have the best understanding of their own businesses and the processes to which a mobility solution is being applied. Care must be taken in involving users at all levels - the views, experience and knowledge of the field workers themselves is critical in designing a solution that will be not only a functional success, but one which will also find support among its actual user base. Third party organisations can offer project management experience to make this process operate efficiently and ensure conclusions are properly reflected in the design of the solution.

Infrastructure & server strategy.

Whichever development route an organisation decides to take, a key consideration is how the infrastructure will be provided and where the solution will be hosted. Different organisations have different requirements – if a company doesn’t have the IT infrastructure internally, then a managed solution offers a good option. Many organisations maintain a preference to host this kind of technology themselves, not least for security reasons of having the equipment under their own roof. But building an infrastructure from scratch takes capital expenditure and some time to implement. A hosted service can be up and running quickly and can also be scaled easily as well as requirements expand.

Benefits of Software as a Service (SaaS)

Background

Over the last 18 months software as a service SaaS has become more prevalent with major software organisations such as Microsoft offering a rental model for the majority of their software applications which are hosted and managed on third party servers. Software as a Service (SaaS) is the term used for delivering software applications using the Internet or a wide area network as the delivery mechanism. SaaS can be implemented rapidly and removes the need to purchase expensive server infrastructure. The SaaS model is being used to provide a whole host of software applications from email to enterprise mobility solutions.

So what are the benefits ?

Revenue based payments

SaaS is delivered to organisations as a subscription model, usually billed on a per user per month basis for a fixed term of usually 3 years. Billing is on a “pay as you go” basis, that is, businesses only pay for the users who have benefited from the software during each billable month. Naturally this removes large upfront payments and potential annual licence, support and maintenance charges.

Third party hosted

Investing in expensive infrastructure is no longer required since SaaS software applications are now third party hosted. As a result there are no capital costs for hardware, licenses, databases or ongoing overheads of either third party or internal IT support staff or software and hardware maintenance and upgrades. Software applications are accessed via a web browser or a mobile device via a wireless network connection keeping your user IT requirements simple and low cost and easily managed.

Predictable costs

SaaS provides agreed pre-defined fixed charges. This enables you to project and predict your annual costs and helps with annual budget provisioning.

Multi-Tenant Efficiency

Some SaaS solutions use secure multi-tenant architecture (for example Microsoft Exchange email SaaS). This means that the cost of all software, infrastructure and expertise is shared by a large number of customers. This multi-tenant architecture offers reduced implementation times and economies of scale making the overall solution more cost effective

Increased Accessibility

Being Internet based, your applications are accessible not only in the office but from home a hotel room or from any of your businesses international locations if you have them.

Flexibility and Scalability

SaaS, provides businesses with a high level of flexibility. Since, the software solution is delivered via the Internet; SaaS completely eliminates installation and setup at the customer’s end. Users can be up and running very quickly. Also as your business grows all you need to do is request your service provider to add more users. Because hosted solutions are designed to scale, initially you could start with 10 users and after 1 month add say another 3,000 users without any issues, thus providing your business with ultimate flexibility.


Availability and Security

SaaS providers are in the business of providing uninterrupted reliable services. Vendors understand that data must be backed up religiously, and information security is a paramount concern. Skilled resources, network redundancies, stand-by power, up-to-date security and intrusion detection are a necessity in providing an enterprise class service.

Tomorrow's Wireless World

I have just been made aware of a new piece of research undertaken by Ofcom entitled Tomorrow's Wireless world.

Background to the report

New technology in cars to help avoid collisions; wireless devices to remind patients to take medication; wireless food content scanners to change the way we shop …these are just some of the new technologies that are highlighted in Ofcom’s 2008 technology research report published today.

Tomorrow’s Wireless World scans the horizon ten to twenty years in the future to discover potentially significant advances and new, innovative technologies which are being developed that could improve healthcare and transport provision.

Wireless devices are now an essential part of our everyday lives. As well as transport and healthcare, wireless communications are essential to defence, education, entertainment, culture and commerce. Wireless communications are so integral to our lives that today there are more mobile subscriptions, at 70 million, than the 60 million UK population.

Ofcom’s role is to ensure the most efficient use of the UK’s radio frequencies – or spectrum – that these services use. Spectrum is a finite resource; Ofcom’s technology research helps it to better understand how this precious resource might be used in the future and allows it to plan how we manage the spectrum to meet these demands

To get your free copy of the report click on the link below.


http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/technology/overview/randd0708/

Mobility and the environment – bridging the gap in local government

Environmental performance across government is firmly on the political, social and media agenda. Local authorities in particular are faced with both the opportunity and the pressure to set an example and act in the pursuit both of long term sustainability, while also being mindful of current issues such as strongly rising fuel costs.

These are a unique set of circumstances, dictating radical change across a very wide range of local authority activities, processes and policies. Yet in some key areas the pace of change has been slow. With reductions in carbon output at the heart of the whole debate, it has surprisingly been the private sector which has moved more quickly in the use of technology to reduce amount of carbon produced by their workers operating on the move.

In local government in general, there are a huge range of job functions and activities to which mobile and flexible working technology could be applied to significantly reduce environmental impact. These range from social services activities, environmental services and building control to home care, parking services and housing – the list is almost endless. What they have in common is the potential to optimise how job schedules are organised and as a result by how much the overall amount of travel undertaken to carry out the jobs can be reduced.

These field workers perform vital roles across the country for local authorities – many of them travel a great deal to perform their duties. The adoption of mobility technology can radically improve efficiency of remote workers out in the field, and as a result eliminate unnecessary journeys, save very large sums in fuel and reduce the amount of paper used in day-to-day activities by a huge amount.

One recent private sector example offers an exact illustration of what can be achieved. By deploying a field mobility solution with fully integrated satellite navigation, one organisation was able to make more efficient use of their workforce and considerably reduce the average miles covered per job, resulting in a staggering saving of 3.6 million miles per annum. This equates to a carbon reduction of 1,159 metric tonnes of carbon per annum, or the equivalent of 26,953 light bulbs being left on for a year.The company was also able to remove 1.5 million pieces of paper from their business annually, equating to a saving of 17.5 trees’ (60 feet high) every year. Previously, the paper was shredded then incinerated resulted in the production of 7.2 metric tonnes of carbon, or the equivalent of 171 light bulbs being left on for a year.

While the use of mobile phones is practically ubiquitous among field workers, effective and efficient use of broader mobile technology is another matter altogether. Yet the environmental and business impact using mobile technology to make improvements can be considerable, and are by no means mutually exclusive objectives.

Using a private sector example illustrates where we are, in general, with the adoption of mobility solutions across local government. For local authorities, the adoption of mobility technology to capitalise on these opportunities – and it’s not just environmental benefits, but performance and service improvements - has been less rapid.

Recent research carried out by The Mobile Data Association into this precise area found that although many authorities were seeking to pursue additional mobile and flexible working options, there remained some general barriers to success. In particular, getting projects from the pilot phase into full use has provided ongoing difficulties across the UK and as a result there are still relatively few really strong examples of mobility technology in use within local government to the benefit of the environment.

On the other side of the coin, there are just a few very good examples of local government leading the way. The London Borough of Lewisham has been a strong advocate of using mobility technology for environmental and service benefits for a considerable time. By implementing a mobility solution for its building and maintenance craft workers and replacing the previous job allocation and paper-based processes the Council has saved an estimated £6,000 per year in reduced paperwork, and over £5,500 in fuel costs.

In simple terms, instead of going into work every day to collect paper-base job schedules which have to be returned later for processing, the craft workers receive optimised job schedules directly to their handheld PDA and visit each site in the most efficient order. The mobility solution provides the intelligent communication to and from each worker, saving time, unnecessary travel and masses of paper. Their work hasn’t gone unnoticed, when the project became an award-winning example of best practise at the end of 2007 with a Microsoft People Moving Business Award,

In the great scheme of things, this is one of not very many case studies across local government. While research can provide the insight into the reasons why, ultimately there needs to be an acceleration of effort from within local government to adopt what is now proven and affordable technology in order to directly address these headline issues of long term sustainability and immediate fiscal benefit.

Water Meter Management best practice

The use of Enterprise Mobility by Severn Trent Metering Services is possibly the leading example of 'Best Practice' to date on how to maximise the use of technology. Their use of technology not only improves efficiency and productivity, but reduces their carbon emissions , protects lone workers and helps and health and safety compliance.

Enjoy the video

Deloitte Telecommunications predictions for 2008

During a recent conversation with Paul Lee from Deloitte, he informed me of a report they had published. I personally found the report very interesting. Paul has kindly given me permission to publish a link to the report from my blog to give my readers an opportunity to download and read the report for themselves.

ENJOY !

The annual Telecommunications Predictions report explore a number of emerging telecommunications trends that will have a significant impact on businesses now and in the future. The Predictions series has been designed to provide a diverse selection of views and thoughts that challenge, inform and engage industry leaders and executives.
Telecommunications Predictions 2008 Link to: http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/0,1002,cid%253D186522,00.html?WT.mc_id=uk_homeflash_read_telepred08

Machine to machine technology

M2M technology is still emerging technology but what does the future hold ?

M2M is a very broad description of wirelessly connected telemetry technology, it includes anything from vehicle black box tracking systems all the way through to medical equipment, and uses wide area wireless technologies such as GPRS to near field technologies used in mobile payments. Today the majority of organisations will not be considering M2M deployment, unless they are either a transport, healthcare, security, utilities, or retail based business.

According to Berg Insight in 2006 there were 4.1 million wireless M2M units deployed in Europe, with this market set to grow to 24.6 million units by 2011. However the potential market size is huge, if you consider the number of devices that could potentially use this technology. Every car (250 Million in Europe), energy meter (354 million), security alarm system, POS terminals, household appliances and gaming machines, the total number of potential units is huge.

The majority of growth of M2M over the next 5 years will be in the established M2M technologies where cost of the device and the associated operating costs have an acceptable ROI model (vehicle tracking). The key benefits are the ability to use tracking technology to ensure duty of care and improve planning efficiencies through real-time location information. In the UK the Corporate Manslaughter Bill which becomes Law 6th April 2008, this could act as the catalyst for further growth in the vehicle and person tracking market as senior managers deploy this technology to assist in duty of care, safety on the roads and lone worker protection.

The area’s for significant growth such as energy meters, household appliances will not start to grow until new lower cost models are developed...

For example; an energy meter module must cost less than $25 and have an operating cost of around $2.50 per year and must have a low power consumption, such that batteries only require changing once every 5 years once this can be achieved the ROI models will stack up for mass adoption in energy utilities. Possibly the household appliances will be last to adopt


Compared to Mobile Internet and picture messaging M2M has kept a relatively low profile, and is simply down to the fact that this is still very much and emerging technology. The market potential for M2M is phenomenal because, if you think, the world population is 6.6 billion now and, if each individual has 10 machines, you are talking about 66 billion devices that could be mobilised. The key to the success of M2M will be the OEM's producing low cost units and the network operators developing new innovative telemetry tariffs that ensure low operating costs.

Once this happens then M2M will drive a “I want it now” culture, the immediacy of information and the market will be set to explode.

If you would like to know more about the current state of the Cellular M2M service provider markets. Please click on the link below to download a complimentary and well balanced report form Jasper Wireless.

http://www.jasperwireless.com/research_report.php

Packet Data; what you should know

Wasn’t 3G supposed to be ‘broadband’ on your mobile?

There is considerable user confusion in the mobile space over technology terminology. We are as very guilty of creating a raft of wonderful acronyms that mean absolutely nothing to the consumer or business, so it potentially would be very easy to assume that 3G is broadband on your phone. Fact is 3G is a faster than GPRS (another great acronym!) internet based protocol connection available in certain geographic locations such as major cities and conurbations, that can provide data and content to and from a mobile phone to a laptop. The speed of the connection will be between 80Kbps to 128Kbps which comes nowhere close to your home wired broadband connection which is 2Mbs to 8Mbs.

Where does HSDPA fit in? Are there alternatives to this technology?

HSDPA is simply a software protocol enhancement to 3G to improve its performance, with the HSDPA you can expect data speeds of up to 4 times that of 3G. An alternative does exist to both 3G and HSDPA this is Wireless LAN (WiFi) and Public Wireless LAN. Like 3G WiFi tends to be available in certain geographic locations, however the locations tend to be where people congregate such as shopping centre’s, hotels, airports, pubs, etc WiFi is more available than HSDPA.

Do consumers really want a replica of the desktop internet experience on their mobiles?

Consumers only use technology if it easy to use, available and cost effective. Replicating the desktop experience is not a practical approach to mobile internet since the screen sizes and wireless data speeds prohibit a rich experience. However mobile content provision on the move does work provided that the content is provisioned take into account the smaller canvasses of mobile devices. There are many examples of this being delivered successfully; the kings of content the BCC have a mobile content version of their news web site and recently introduced video podcasts of BBC Breakfast news Google has a mobile version of there search page. However the majority of internet content as yet to take into account mobile devices thus the experience of mobile internet currently is poor.

Can the handsets cope?

The average pixel resolution of a screen on a 3G mobile device is considerably less than that of a desktop computer, provided the content is rendered to support small screen then handset can cope. Sending large amounts of data that the mobile device need to interpolate to fit on its small screen is a waste of data and processing power.

What’s more important – access speed or access to content?

Content is king. Without content there is no demand. So it matter not a hoot how fast you connect, if there is nothing to connect to speed is irrelevant. Which is the situation that many operators are finding themselves in, they have the 3G networks but other than PC users on data cards there is no driver for users to start consuming large amounts of data bandwidth. Content like streaming TV, video clips, music downloads etc are starting to get things moving and this just proves the point that content is King.

Whatever happened to WAP?

WAP is alive and well and living in most mobile devices. These days no one refers to WAP, but WAP push technology allows you to push rich content to a mobile user. I think the industry learned the lesson and also learnt the good stuff from the WAP protocol suite.

Mobile Learning

Recently the Mobile Data Association were asked for an opinion piece on Mobile Learning. As a result I worked with my fellow director Ed Williams on the following article.

Mobile Learning- does it have a place in a modern education system.

Over the last decade there has been a steady but slow increase in the number of students attaining 5 or more grade A to C GCSC’s, the current target set by the government is 60% by the end of 2008. It is concerning that the result difference between deprived areas and affluent areas are huge 44% in the poorest area’s compared to 66.3% in affluent areas. Whilst improvement in education is important in all regions the government must focus on improving the education process in deprived area’s.

So how can technology help improve our children’s education and compliment our educational system?

Well it already is, in some cases, where children have access to a computer at home they can access a range of educational based web sites and peer to peer messaging systems such as Microsoft Messenger to help them with the challenge of homework. The BBC Bytesize website being probably the best example for technology based education. The use of computers in schools have become pretty much a standard. As a result any child not having access to a computer and broadband at home is significantly disadvantaged.

Government has long acknowledged is the role that technology can play in education. Therefore ensuring ‘education is for all’ becomes an imperative in a modern technology based society. To ensure no one is disadvantaged requires creative solutions from government, to ensure that technology is available to all. Potentially this is where mobile technology can assist, wireless enabled PDA’s and smartphones could bridge the gap bringing low cost Internet access, web browsing, and e-learning applications to ALL. Internet connectivity could be delivered by either public wireless LAN (government wireless cities programme) or by a subsidised wireless broadband from a cellular network provider.


Will mobile technology deliver a favourable e-learning experience?

Children in Britain today have grown up surrounded by technology, and as such this makes them critical of technology that fails to deliver. Most children will have a mobile phone from around the age of 10; they will be familiar with the Internet and video game boxes. This means that if the learning experience is rich, interactive, intuitive, compelling and entertaining, children will be eager to use. This has recently been proved by Nintendo with their potable DS gaming platform, they have developed a range of challenging but entertaining games focused around ‘Brain Training’ these have proven very popular with children and adults.

Harnessing this new wave of entertaining educational approach with wireless technology means we can extend and enhance, perhaps introducing virtual classrooms, collaborative knowledge sharing between students and teachers, between schools and even between countries are easy to set up. All of which makes education cool, exciting but more importantly compelling.

Mobile technology also has other major advantages; mobile data platforms allow learning to happen where schools or teachers are not present. It allows teachers in one school (or country) to remotely tutor others bridging skilled teacher shortages. And it allows us to bring education to the masses quicker than we can build schools or train teachers.
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Mobile data platforms connected to mobile data devices will undoubtedly bring education in line with today’s businesses – where messaging and communications have become king, where global customers and supply chains are becoming the norm and where the ability to collaborate and communicate, anytime anywhere is paramount.

The model for 21st century education still has a long way to develop, but at least the sign posts are becoming clearer.