There is a term, revolution in military affairs, that when searched brings up many interesting articles that directly relate to enterprise mobility and business transformation. One article in particular found at http://www.defencejournal.com/2000/sept/military.htm and written by Sharjeel Rizwan offers deep insights.Here is one of the article concepts as interpreted by me - mobile technologies permit a direct connection and data exchange between the strategic and the tactical levels of an organization. Many layers of management hierarchy, IT infrastructure and paper based reporting processes can be eliminated and huge savings and speed of data delivery can occur with mobile technologies. These capabilities permit changes in processes, organizations and strategies, which enables agility, speed, productivity increases and efficiency gains.
Let me share a quote from Matt Green, VP of Product Management with Software AG, "Imagine a single activity stream that carries an alert every time a customer calls in with a product issue. For the first time the customer sales rep, the R&D organization, the consulting organization, and the customer support rep can all opt to receive the same notification. The sales rep knows that his customer is having an issue at the same time that R&D reads about it and at the same time that the on-site consultant gets it. The visibility and transparency that this gives allows each participant to work together as a team and to work as a unified team with the customer." That is a great example of shared situational awareness!
How many good ideas from the tactical part of a business never reach the strategic level because of politics, laziness, ego, lack of time, ignorance or they simply get lost in the noise? How many strategic messages get missed or diluted trying to filter through all the layers of management before they reach the tactical teams? With both mobile technologies and the effective use of enterprise social collaboration solutions many of these problems can be resolved.
Here is more from Matt Green, "People used to say that email was collaboration. Then chat became collaboration. Then wiki’s came to the scene as an attempt to work together more efficiently. New social platforms will break the mode entirely in 2013 and dramatically increase how people work together with computers and mobile devices.”
I think of the Pony Express implemented in the United States during the 19th century for mail delivery. The Pony Express had more than 100 stations, 80 riders, and between 400 and 500 horses. It lasted only 18 months but during that time riders covered 650,000 miles and carried 34,753 pieces of mail. This legendary system lasted only 18 months. Why? The telegraph replaced them. If you could instantly send a message across the country, why use expensive horse-based middleware?
How many of our companies are still using horse-based middleware and managing as if we were using horse-based middleware? Real-time communications, real-time visibility, real-time collaboration completely changes the game. Are you playing?
Kevin Benedict,
Head Analyst for SMAC,
Cognizant
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Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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