Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news
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All entries are written by Anders Borg, CEO and Consultant of Abiro, that has a long experience in strategic planning, developing embedded and Java software, usability aspects, and the mobile phone industry in general. You can also read the latest Mobile News entries on your phone via wap.abiro.com, and we provide many News Feeds from popular news services. For advertising and contribution queries, please use the feedback form. News feed (local) FeedBurner Feed
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Thursday, November 16, 2006
Who will evangelize mobile e-mail?
Daniel Taylor has a great piece on mobile e-mail, indicating early adopters are the key drivers for mobile enterprise e-mail adoption.
In my worst "why don't they ever get it?" mindset I can though think that the early adopter stage should have been passed at least 5 years ago, as mobile access to Exchange etc has existed for at least 8 years now, so why does it take so long?
In my attempts to convince IT departments over the years (already during 1997, and then via in-house development) about establishing mobile phone access to Exchange I've come to realize IT doesn't necessarily see itself as controlled by user demand. I've heard all kinds of quotes from IT, and one of the most telling one was "We in IT don't need mobile e-mail (read: so you don't need this either)". Oh well...
Of course there's no point expecting operators to do anything about this, as mobile data overall is such a small revenue stream. Instead there has to be a point-to-point relationship between the provider of a solution (RIM, Visto, Microsoft, Good etc) and the customer (the enterprise). That's the way mobile data/information access has to evolve, not just for mobile e-mail.
Another point is that it's of course not early adopters that have the real need. I've spoken to many in sales and sales support about this, that are often traveling worldwide, and once they understand that mobile access is at all possible (that's the first "bump" to overcome) they immediately want this.
Hence enterprises need IT evangelists (formal or informal) so that management, IT and users get aware of the possibilities. Don't assume that IT in itself (not even the IT manager) will evangelize new technology, as that goes partly against their responsibility, to keep the IT equipment and services running 24/7, and in an economical way.
Mobile access has for long been considered a security risk, yet many allow users (at least silently) to redirect emails to Hotmail etc. That sure ain't safer!
So all in all, don't trust operators and IT departments to deliver mobile e-mail on their own accord. They don't have any real incentive. The users, and especially the managers of those users (that have the money), are the drivers. Throw in a technology-knowledgeable and promoting evangelist, and things will start happening.
Mobile Enterprise Weblog: Changing Times for Mobile e-mail
In my worst "why don't they ever get it?" mindset I can though think that the early adopter stage should have been passed at least 5 years ago, as mobile access to Exchange etc has existed for at least 8 years now, so why does it take so long?
In my attempts to convince IT departments over the years (already during 1997, and then via in-house development) about establishing mobile phone access to Exchange I've come to realize IT doesn't necessarily see itself as controlled by user demand. I've heard all kinds of quotes from IT, and one of the most telling one was "We in IT don't need mobile e-mail (read: so you don't need this either)". Oh well...
Of course there's no point expecting operators to do anything about this, as mobile data overall is such a small revenue stream. Instead there has to be a point-to-point relationship between the provider of a solution (RIM, Visto, Microsoft, Good etc) and the customer (the enterprise). That's the way mobile data/information access has to evolve, not just for mobile e-mail.
Another point is that it's of course not early adopters that have the real need. I've spoken to many in sales and sales support about this, that are often traveling worldwide, and once they understand that mobile access is at all possible (that's the first "bump" to overcome) they immediately want this.
Hence enterprises need IT evangelists (formal or informal) so that management, IT and users get aware of the possibilities. Don't assume that IT in itself (not even the IT manager) will evangelize new technology, as that goes partly against their responsibility, to keep the IT equipment and services running 24/7, and in an economical way.
Mobile access has for long been considered a security risk, yet many allow users (at least silently) to redirect emails to Hotmail etc. That sure ain't safer!
So all in all, don't trust operators and IT departments to deliver mobile e-mail on their own accord. They don't have any real incentive. The users, and especially the managers of those users (that have the money), are the drivers. Throw in a technology-knowledgeable and promoting evangelist, and things will start happening.
Mobile Enterprise Weblog: Changing Times for Mobile e-mail
