CASE SUMMARY
- This case is about go to mobile technology. The case shows its customers new way that mobility can streamline operations, reduce costs, increase works productivity and enable power of real-time response.
- Decker Outdoor Corporation is the parent company of brands such as UGG Australia, Teva and Simple Shoes.
- USAA is Financial Services company serving members of US military and their families.
- Ryland Homes is a home builder at US.
- Mobile technology is a business models and activities which are based mobile technology where firms need to designed and develop software applications for mobile environments. Customer expect and demand to be able to use a mobile device of their choice to obtain information or perform a transaction anywhere at any time.
- By 2015, there will be one mobile device for every person on earth. More people will use their mobile than PCs to go online. If company wants to stay connected to its customers, it needs some sort of mobile presence. Developing mobile apps or a mobile web site has some special challenges. Mobile apps is different from that on PC. There are special features on mobile devices such as location-based services that give firms potential to interact with customers in meaningful way. Firms need to be able to take advantage of those features while delivering an experience that is appropriate to a small screen.
SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
- Most personal marketing channel available on the market
- Measurable for ROI purposes
- Completely permission-based, with opt-in required for marketing text messages
- Ubiquity of channel - 260 million mobile subscribers nationwide, 3.5 billion worldwide
- Many consumers giving up landlines for mobile
- Sales of smartphones with Internet capability booming
- Many marketers, retailers and publishers recognizing need for mobile presence
- Most powerful loyalty marketing tool
- Ideal comparison-shopping tool for shopping and buying decisions
- Mobile applications market growing by leaps and bounds
- The future of coupling
- The future of search marketing
- Perception problem - always the bridesmaid, never the bride
- User experience with the Internet on mobile not ideal - screen size, keypad and slow network speeds
- Wireless carriers not innovating at faster pace
- Lack of standards across platforms and carriers
- Many mobile marketing service providers not sophisticated in marketing outreach - don't tell, won't sell
- Fate depends on four major carriers - AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel
- Inadequate outreach to advertising agencies and media buyers
OPPORTUNITIES
- Gives legs to other channels - store, online, television, radio, print and billboards
- Mobile is the future - no, the present - of database marketing. Marketers must have mobile loyalty program to complement online and offline
- Benefit from marketing dollars pulled from television, print and radio toward more measurable, ROI-driven media, a.k.a., the Internet and mobile
- Mobile advertising subsidizes content and services for consumers who understand the tradeoff
- More SMS text marketing for marketers and retailers targeting offers and alerts to opted-in consumers in database. Make the short code common
- More quality content on mobile as publishers launch mobile editions. More room for targeted ads
- Mobile coupons - killer app for mobile, along with mobile database marketing
- Mobile marketing jumpstarts mobile commerce sales
THREATS
- Integrity: It may be difficult to maintain the integrity of a database if it is too complex or changes too quickly.
- Open source software: If companies are inclined, they can put their open source applications on hardware that performs better and costs less than SaaS.
- Security: The threat of security remains the topmost concern for service consumers of the internet for the data and applications
QUESTION
1 : What
management, organization and technology issues need to be addressed when
building mobile application?
The introduction of a new information system involves
much more than new hardware and software. A mobile strategy involves much than
selecting mobile devices, operating system and applications. It also includes
changes in business process, changing the way people work, skills, and the way
a firm interacts with its customers. System builders must understand how a
system will affect specific business processes and the organization as a whole.
1.
Management
A.
Decision
to select new mobile application – management should know what benefits to
company and customers are before developing mobile application.
Company name
|
Benefit to company
|
Benefit to customers
|
Decker Corporation
|
·
Streaming process
·
Make company more portable
|
Customer able to look at a product on his or her
mobile and see the same information on that device.
|
USAA
|
·
Increase efficient process.
·
Eliminates the labor and expense of processing paper check.
·
Keep customers engage.
|
Provide mobile technology to its business process
and provide simpler and more powerful ways for customers to interact with the
company.
|
Ryland Homes
|
·
Able to engage customers
·
Increase sales.
|
Help potential customer to finds its locations,
looks at this products and register with the company.
|
B.
Examine business process
Before firms go to mobile – Management should identify
what the process, tasks and improvement that they want go to mobile that most
affected by tablets or smartphones.
Example:
a)
Focus
on customer engagement field enablement and employee productivity.
b)
Identify
where physical and historical context can drive faster task completion.
C.
Select the right device, software and
application.
Management should decide what is the right device,
software and application that can support their mobile technology business
process. For example what software or application that capable to handle the
customization work requires integrating with the process such as capabilities
for creating, viewing and managing customer information online.
D.
Monitor and control
Develop own apps and apps store – monitor and control.
Manage mobile enterprise access through own in-house IT. Involve security
system.
2.
Organization
The key element, of an organization is its people,
structure and business process.
Redesign business process
|
Redesign job
|
Train employees
|
·
Procedure/ SOP that can drive faster task completion.
·
Redesign processes to skip or accelerate those tasks.
|
Changing the way people work – focus on task
orientation
-
Change the way in which workers interact with core business system.
|
Provide training to staff – helps staff take the
next step in whatever process scenario they are operating in at the time.
-
Need to adopt to new method of process.
|
3.
Technology
Technology is one of many tools that firms can use to
cope with change. To support firms new business process, firms should select
the right technology and application that consists of CRM & SCM.
Company name
|
Technology & Application Used
|
Decker Outdoor Corporation
|
Technology such as touch interfaces, location and
mapping features, alerts texting, cameras and video functionality.
|
USAA
|
Dedicated 100 mobile developers writing apps for
devices using iPhone, iPad, Android OS, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7.
-
Apps able to send geographic information system (GIS) data to a towing
service and display nearby car rental locations.
-
Apps support photo deposits: customer can capture an image of a cheque
with a smartphone & automatically submit to the bank. The money is
instantly deposited in the customer’s account.
-
Apps display loan and credit card balances, shopping service &
auto insurance policy information.
|
Ryland Homes
|
-
jQuery mobile software : to create variation of the site that were
appropriate for different smartphone or tablet models.
-
Focused on features communities, clickable phone numbers and brief
online registration.
|
Question
2 : How
does user requirement definition for mobile application differ from that in traditional
system analysis?
Customer wants to be able to look at product on his or
mobile device and see the same information on that device as that person would
obtain in the store, plus some additional information such as consumers review.
Mobile technology can streamline processes, make the
device more portable and enhance them with capabilities such as touch
interface, location and mapping features, alerts, texting, cameras and video
functionality.
The technology can also create less efficient process
or fail to deliver benefits if the mobile application is not properly designed.
QUESTION
3: Describe
the business process changed by USAA’s mobile application were deployed.
USAA launched its Web in 1997 and went mobile 10 years
later, with about 90% of its interactions with customers taking place on these
two self service channels.
In 2001, USAA handle 183 million customer contacts
through mobile channel alone, and expect the mobile channel will its primary
point of contact with customers in next two years.
USAA has 100 dedicated mobile developer writing apps
for device using iPhone, iPad and Android systems, along with apps Blackberry
and Windows Phone 7.
1.
Accident
report and claims application
-enable customer to snap a photo and submit claim differently from the
site of an accident.
-send geographic information system (GIS) data to a towing service and
display nearby car rental location.
2.
Photo
deposit and application.
-capture an image of a check with a smartphone and automatically submit
to the bank.
-the money is instantly deposited in the customer’s account.
3.
Other
application.
-loan and credit cards balances.
-shopping services.
-homeowners.
-auto insurance policy information.
-home
circle and auto circle buying service.
CONCLUSION
In short, mobile service providers must not hibernate,
ad agencies must open their minds, carriers must collaborate, publishers must
make their inventory mobile, retailers must launch mobile commerce sites and
advertise