A “mobile-first” ethos: the catalyst for business transformation
By Lionel Moyal, Managing Director of Intervate, a T-Systems company
26 May 2015
Organisations in every sector and every country are currently grappling with the concepts of ‘digitalisation’ and ‘digital transformation’. While these terms have slightly different connotations for different people, the catalyst for transforming the enterprise should always be the same. That catalyst, simply put, is ‘mobile’.
Embracing a truly mobile-first ethos involves taking a concept that began in developer circles, and applying the mobile-first principles to every aspect of the organisation’s architecture, processes, strategies and vision. It’s about simplifying interfaces and customer engagement channels as far as possible – ruthlessly stripping away anything unnecessary, focusing on intuitiveness, personalisation, and flexibility.
But practically speaking, how can company leaders go about doing this? At Intervate, we believe the starting point is to analyse every process, every transaction, every product and service, and every customer touchpoint. Start thinking of users (employees, partners etc) as a kind of ‘internal customer’: how can you make every aspect of their working lives as mobile and as simple as the best consumer apps out there?
Start applying these mobile-first principles to the inner-workings of the organisation, as well as every touchpoint you have with outsiders. Think about suppliers and partners, customers and potential customers, and other key stakeholders. Not only will employee productivity and engagement improve, but this new way of thinking will lead to ideas for new products or services, new markets to enter, and better ways to delight customers. Larger and more complex organisations, and particularly those with longer histories, often have a great deal of legacy infrastructure. In a mobile-first world, these services need to be exposed to users – both internal and external – in new ways.
Mobile apps have risen to the fore as the ideal way to consume content. The Johannesburg Roads Agency, for example, has shown the benefits of exposing parts of its core operations to the general public – via a handy mobile app called ‘Find and Fix’. Citizens can use the app to report the nature and location of road faults – which is then automatically fed into the JRA’s workflow systems, where maintenance crews are scheduled and dispatched.
By wrapping this service into an app, the JRA has fundamentally changed the way faults are logged – as it now leverages the network of millions of citizens travelling around the city’s road networks. It is able to be far more approachable and engaging than was previously possible. But the principle of ‘mobile-first’ can do more than just improve processes, productivity and customer engagement. In the case of Cool Touch (a local start-up in the facilities maintenance company), they were able to pivot their entire business model. Cool Touch moved from being a simple cleaning and maintenance business, to developing Snap!, an app that allows employees and facilities managers to instantly report any issues.
The faults are geo-tagged, augmented with photos and descriptions, and then managed centrally by Snap! – who converts this information into actionable and tracked service requests. Cool Touch has moved from a basic service model, to being the lynchpin of an information exchange.
So with very little investment, Cool Touch has created a rapidly scalable new digital business model. With mobile as the starting point, organisations start to see the natural fit with other aspects of modern enterprise technology – notably the likes of Cloud-hosted applications, service-oriented architecture, security and rights management, and ‘bring your own device’. In the future, we will continue to see users applying positive pressure on enterprises. As the gap widens between the mobile experiences of our personal lives, versus those of the workplaces, organisations will be forced to transform.
In fact, sometimes the best way to spur innovation is for users to experience frustration with their technology interactions in the workplace. Users today are becoming less forgiving of inflexible systems, poor interfaces, and endless policies and rules. Fortunately, with South Africa’s rising smartphone penetration and falling mobile data costs, the landscape is primed for mobile-first services. Against this backdrop, it’s clear that the organisations that listen to their users, and that think ‘mobile-first’, will have the advantage in the future.
T-Systems in South Africa:
Head of Marketing & Communications
Lebohang Thokoane
Lebohang.Thokoane@t-systems.co.za
+27(11)266-0266 (Phone)
+27(78)803-0634 (Mobile)
About Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies with around 151 million mobile customers, 30 million fixed-network lines and more than 17 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2014). The Group provides fixed network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in more than 50 countries and has approximately 228,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 62.7 billion in the 2014 financial year – more than 60 percent of it outside Germany.
About T-Systems
Deutsche Telekom considers the European business customer segment a strategic growth area. Deutsche Telekom offers small, medium-sized and multinational companies ICT solutions for an increasingly complex digital world. In addition to services from the cloud, the range of services is centred around M2M and security solutions, complementary mobile communications and fixed network products, and solutions for virtual collaboration and IT platforms, all of which forms the basis for our customers’ digital business models.
With approximately 47,800 employees worldwide, T-Systems generated revenue of around EUR 8,6 billion in the 2014 financial year.
Since the inception of T-Systems in South Africa in 1997, the company has cemented its position as one of the most successful T-Systems companies outside of Europe. A leading ICT outsourcing service provider locally, T-Systems offers end-to-end ICT solutions in both the ICT Operations and Systems Integration markets. Their extensive portfolio of services covers the vertical, horizontal, IT and TC space. T-Systems South Africa’s head office is located in Midrand with another major office in Cape Town, and 20 further representative offices in locations throughout southern Africa.
About Intervate
Intervate, a T-Systems business unit in South Africa, is a specialist provider of Enterprise Information Management (EIM) and process automation solutions that improve productivity and collaboration, reduce costs and increase legal compliancy. We have over 14 years’ experience in delivering solutions to enterprise customers in both government and private sectors. Our technical expertise is supported by an understanding of the strategic drivers and challenges relating to EIM. This enables us to provide our customers with professional guidance regarding the best practices proven to deliver successful projects and business benefits.
