The mobile paradigm? What is that? It is the understanding that mobile computing devices are not simply personal organizers. It is the recognition that they are actually fully-enabled computers operating within a different paradigm—the mobile paradigm. It is changing the way we work, play, and communicate. It is shattering the chains that bind the information worker to his desk, all the while opening up entirely new dimensions of business capability and productivity.

Once you recognize the value of the mobile paradigm, how do you apply it to your company to take advantage of all this potential? As with most big and important things, you need a plan. You must start with the development of a corporate mobility strategy. This strategy should describe a set of solutions, each of which contains a series of redefined business processes. I warn you now, this will be extremely difficult to define and implement. It will be hard because your organization will have to undergo fundamental change. Remember, though, that if you do it right and if you can make it all the way through, your business will be taken to an unprecedented level of enterprise capability, productivity, and profit.

PROCESS IDENTIFICATION

To develop a mobility strategy, begin by evaluating various processes within your business, and identifying those that could be improved with mobile computing technology.

Keep in mind that business processes are usually designed to be most efficient given a certain set of limitations of capability and productivity. When a technology with a completely new set of capabilities is introduced, business processes may have to be rebuilt around the technology in order to gain any improvements. Thus, if the technology is applied to the existing business process, the result may be very inefficient.

Start by looking at ways that paper is being used. I'm not an advocate for the paperless office, but rather for the digital mobilization of inefficient paper-based processes. Also examine the ways people within your organization use information. Where do they need the information? How do they need the information? When do they need the information? Do not be afraid to think outside the box!

PROCESS EVALUATION

Five factors should be used to evaluate the potential application of mobile computing technology to a specific business process:

Would this enable new capability? Will this technology allow us to do things that simply aren't possible without it? How much is this capability worth? Are there any potential indirect returns from having this capability?

Would this enhance productivity? By introducing this technology, how much more could the existing workforce accomplish with the same amount of resources? Will the gains outweigh the costs of having to learn, manage, and use the system? How will the learning curve of the technology combined with the worker turnover rate affect overall productivity?

Would this increase efficiency? Even if productivity were to increase through the implementation of this technology, will efficiency also increase? Or will new steps be introduced into the business process that could actually lower overall efficiency?

Would this insure greater quality? Will data errors decrease through the elimination of paper-based data re-entry, or will the errors increase due to the limited input options for mobile devices? Will the overall business process simply provide better results?

Would this positively affect profits? Does this technology create new costs? Even if the technology could provide a significant increase in revenue, if the profit potential does not significantly outweigh the associated costs, then you should be very wary of implementing it.