Why ERP Apps Need to Embrace Mobility to Stay Relevant
Now let us look at an alternative scenario. While I wait, I use my mobile device to start where I left off at work using my PC before heading off to my dentist. I could send out few more purchase orders, post few more journals in the financial accounting system, schedule few more store delivery in the supply chain system and perform multitude of others functions that ERP application are designed to perform. I won't be losing my hair and sanity while away from work during working hours. This is just one example of the possibility - more of this later.
This means that the smartphone device that I carry needs to be not just social-smart, which it already is with availability of umpteen number of personal apps, but also business-smart - and within this context ERP-Smart - in the sense that I could pretty much do everything with it that I would otherwise do only by using my corporate PC (desktop or laptop) connected either through corporate LAN or VPN.
The moot question however is whether enterprises should go for mobile ERP apps just because it is technically possible? Here are the reasons why. The biggest factor going in favor of smart phones is convenience of having tethered to one's body all the time, almost. There is increasing evidence that substantial population of smart phone users stay connected 24 x 7 on a given work day and even during weekend and vacations. In the late 80s, the 9-5 work regime changed to flex hours that allowed one to come earlier or later than the usual and go back accordingly. The flexibility of working remotely got added around late 90s with the arrival of laptops and remote connectivity. At about the same time, businesses setup operations in multiple countries thereby requiring employees in these various parts of the world to coordinate their activities. This led to the conference call culture where it became common for coworkers across multiple time zones to call into a virtual conference room to discuss business matters. When Blackberries came in the new millennium it not only allowed workers to make and receive calls but also perform some of their official duties without necessarily having to be in their offices or in front of their computers. The need for instant collaboration via conference calls and emails with geographically distributed coworkers has made the term 'work day' insignificant. Now I could be at the grocery store in the evening while periodically browsing my Blackberry for emails and may even join a conference call. Smart phones are pushing this trend much beyond collaboration by commingling work and personal computing using the same tool and UI such as Facebook and Twitter. This has given rise to new work regime, which for lack of better word could be called Flex-and-Mix (FAM) regime whereby one could be flitting back and forth between work and personal tasks throughout the day. Imagine the increase in productivity that would be unleashed by providing ERP tools to FAM workers.
Despite the arguments in favor of porting ERPs to mobile platform each organization would have to deal with following questions:
1. What are the compelling arguments important for them to port an ERP App on a mobile device?
2. What should be the security setup and cost of managing it?
3. Cost of maintaining the mobile applications
4. Should it be mobile app or mobile web app?
5. What about development cost and ROI?
6. What about operational cost?
This means that the smartphone device that I carry needs to be not just social-smart, which it already is with availability of umpteen number of personal apps, but also business-smart - and within this context ERP-Smart - in the sense that I could pretty much do everything with it that I would otherwise do only by using my corporate PC (desktop or laptop) connected either through corporate LAN or VPN.
The moot question however is whether enterprises should go for mobile ERP apps just because it is technically possible? Here are the reasons why. The biggest factor going in favor of smart phones is convenience of having tethered to one's body all the time, almost. There is increasing evidence that substantial population of smart phone users stay connected 24 x 7 on a given work day and even during weekend and vacations. In the late 80s, the 9-5 work regime changed to flex hours that allowed one to come earlier or later than the usual and go back accordingly. The flexibility of working remotely got added around late 90s with the arrival of laptops and remote connectivity. At about the same time, businesses setup operations in multiple countries thereby requiring employees in these various parts of the world to coordinate their activities. This led to the conference call culture where it became common for coworkers across multiple time zones to call into a virtual conference room to discuss business matters. When Blackberries came in the new millennium it not only allowed workers to make and receive calls but also perform some of their official duties without necessarily having to be in their offices or in front of their computers. The need for instant collaboration via conference calls and emails with geographically distributed coworkers has made the term 'work day' insignificant. Now I could be at the grocery store in the evening while periodically browsing my Blackberry for emails and may even join a conference call. Smart phones are pushing this trend much beyond collaboration by commingling work and personal computing using the same tool and UI such as Facebook and Twitter. This has given rise to new work regime, which for lack of better word could be called Flex-and-Mix (FAM) regime whereby one could be flitting back and forth between work and personal tasks throughout the day. Imagine the increase in productivity that would be unleashed by providing ERP tools to FAM workers.
Despite the arguments in favor of porting ERPs to mobile platform each organization would have to deal with following questions:
1. What are the compelling arguments important for them to port an ERP App on a mobile device?
2. What should be the security setup and cost of managing it?
3. Cost of maintaining the mobile applications
4. Should it be mobile app or mobile web app?
5. What about development cost and ROI?
6. What about operational cost?
