The Evolution of Mobility - B2B B2C B2I

I have spent the last 14 years working on enterprise mobility projects, researching and writing about them.  In the year 2000, mobility was used mostly in warehouses, grocery stores, utilities and in field service roles.  We sold mobile development projects to businesses so they could take advantage of mobile apps customized for internal use.  That was the age of B2B (business-to-business) mobility.

With the introduction of Palms and iPaqs, mobile app developers started pondering personal productivity apps for handhelds.  Calendars, notes, planners and mobile forms were developed as part of what was to become "PIMs" (personal information managers).  That evolved with wireless connectivity and broadband Internet access to the mobile consumer apps we all know today.  That is the age of B2C (business-to-consumer) mobility.

Today, with the introduction of "Code Halo" strategies and "mass personalization" the era of B2I (business-to-individuals) mobility is introduced.  This is the era when companies collect "Code Halo" data and maintain massive amounts of information about each consumer that they can use to provide an instant and personalized mobile user experience for each person.

You land at an airport and must connect to another flight.  You open your Delta airline app and it knows you.  It knows your location and itinerary.  It tells you the connecting gate, estimated time to get from your gate to the connecting gate and shares the flight status with you.  All of these conveniences are due to the fact it knows you, and the data in the app is personalized.  The days of generic websites and generic mobile apps will soon be gone.

We have grown to expect more from our website and mobile app experiences.  I would be so annoyed if when I opened my Delta app it asked who I was, what flight number I wanted to look up, and what airport map did I want to review.

Download the free Code Halo app for iPads here - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/code-halos/id752380930?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4.

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.