Now is the time to invest in the future of your business

We are entering very tough economic times; 2009 will possibly be the toughest year for British businesses since the 1930’s.

To survive in these conditions, it is increasingly important for businesses to be strong, fit and innovative. Recently, the government has announced a series of packages to encourage both the consumer and businesses to return to their normal spending profiles. Businesses must respond by investing in their future. The government also announced additional funding to stimulate British businesses, especially in the hard hit construction sector, by bringing forward their own construction based projects.

Times are hard and I am sure a considerable number of businesses are considering restructuring and cut backs in spending, including an investment freeze policy. This is potentially a high risk strategy as the reality could be that without investment your business becomes uncompetitive and potentially not fit enough or strong enough to survive in 2009.

Cost-saving strategies are equally important, as a relaxed approach to running our businesses will not work in the current economic climate; good business discipline is a necessity. It is important to ensure that your employee’s are delivering 100% and are focussed on their jobs and where necessary give extra training to maximise the effectiveness of your workforce and, if necessary, re-structuring to maximise performance and efficiency.

Key investment in solutions which deliver significant business benefits and an immediate return on expenditure must be considered. These investments must be made in order to survive the next 18 months of the global financial crisis.

This strategy was proven in the Asian Financial crisis of 1997, when Donald Tsang (the then Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, now the Chief Executive) implemented a public spend programme to stimulate business. Mr Tsang has recently met with Gordon Brown and other G20 leaders to encourage them to adopt this proven method.

We must all strive to be the best at what we do and ALL businesses could do better and more importantly must do better. After all, if you were given a warning that a hurricane was heading your way and you had time to build a shelter, you would not just hide under your table.

A good example of how businesses with mobile fieldworkers can invest in innovation, that brings a significant and immediate return on investment, is through the deployment of Enterprise Mobility Solutions. TBS conducted a survey amongst the businesses who attended Mobilise Your Workforce (November 2008) which revealed a potential £155 million* in financial savings per year for the businesses who had not deployed an Enterprise Mobility Solution. This is an indication of possible savings in just one small presentation suite - imagine what we could save throughout the UK!

*The survey was based upon a conservative 15% improvement in productivity in deploying an Enterprise Mobility solution to businesses with field based workforces. Enterprise Mobility Solutions normally deliver in the region of 25 to 50%.. The survey canvassed businesses that had not deployed a mobile solution and asked a set of baseline questions including the number of field workers and the financial costs associated in completing a single job.

Experts from the public and private sector assemble to map out the future of secure mobile payments

On the 21st November 2008: In a jointly hosted event by The Mobile Data Association (MDA) and the Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network (DCKTN) the future success of secure mobile payments has been mapped out. The event highlighted an urgent need to help educate end users, to simplify the payments process and a call for collaboration between handset manufactures, mobile operators and the banking sector. The next phase will see the MDA set out a mobile payments security blueprint in the form of a white paper later in 2008.

The success of the operator lead initiative Payforit, which is primarily used for payment of downloadable content, has been a catalyst for other mobile payment applications and services in the UK. Payforit will continue to play an important role in the mobile industry, but the MDA’s focus is on a much wider framework that encompasses near-field communications, messaging-based payments and securing services beyond WAP sessions.

The workshop represents a first step in an industry initiative which brought together government, in the form of the DCKTN, the Metropolitan Police Authority and private sector business leaders from mobile operators, aggregators, application developers, security specialists and the banking and finance sector.

The headline issues discussed were:

A need for security and application developers to be able to overcome device complexity, interoperability and certification issues, seen as one of the biggest blockers to establishing a recognised standard for secure mobile payments

Fraud and malicious attacks on the mobile device and user data. Payment enabled mobile phones must not become a digital and physical crime driver

Consumers play an essential part of the success of mobile payments, if the experience is poor adoption will be low

To improve the consumer experience, a key driver will be the creation of a standard application framework. This will help to create a consistent and simple experience which will ultimately stimulate demand

The mobile industry must learn from the experiences of the financial and banking industry, many mistakes and challenges have been overcome in the past three years from e-banking

What is a mobile payment? A clear definition is required which solidifies and delineates a mobile payment. Without this, regulation and control becomes very difficult

Steve Reynolds, Chairman, The Mobile Data Association, summarised the learning from the day: “Electronic payment transactions have been with us for some time and most people are now comfortable with purchasing and paying for goods or services over the Internet. We are now entering the era of payments via the mobile phone, laptop computers and other handheld devices connected by wireless means. As with all emerging and new technologies, there are potential risks from scams and unscrupulous activities. However, the mobile industry has learnt its lessons from past experiences and as a result we are taking no chances with mobile payments, ensuring that the users of this type of technology will be well protected.”

Philip Hargrave, CEO of the Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network said “We are delighted to have partnered with the Mobile Data Association to host this important workshop. Mobile payments and the security surrounding them are the next battle ground for the mobile industry. The event successfully brought together representatives from the mobile operator, equipment supplier, banking, payment and policing sectors. Across these groups the potential of mobile digital payment technology was clear, and the issues involved in ensuring that the highest standards of security are employed to safeguard both the payments made and the people making them are paramount. There was a real buzz of excitement about what could be achieved, coupled with a determination to ensure that the additional issues surrounding the security of wireless devices was addressed.”

Colin Whittaker, Head of Security, The Payments Council said: “The event was a timely and welcome initiative to consider the implications of security in relation to the future of mobile payments. The initial discussions and the commonality of views on the issues were especially encouraging. We look forward to working more closely with the participants on addressing and resolving the issues as we develop the Payment Council’s agenda on mobile payments.”


For more information visit http://www.themda.org/

The Mobile Data Association launch their new web site

After months in the planning and design the MDA today has launched its new web site.

The new web site is a unique portal of mobile data industry and provides both MDA members and their potential customers a detailed understanding of mobile data related issues that could impact businesses and consumers in both positive and negative. The new web site will also provide that much needed insight into mobile data trends and new technologies, it will showcase innovation in mobile, share compliance and best practice, facilitate strategic alliances in both the UK and overseas.

To access the new web site go to http://www.themda.org/

Towards the Mobile Olympics of 2012

Three potential mobile centric innovation enablers:

We live in a mobile phone centric world; in the UK we have had more network registered mobile connections than the total population for over two years.

Mobile phones in the UK also outnumber internet broadband connections by a ratio of 3 to 1.

This year, Mobile Internet usage is growing at a rate of 25% and in August over 17 million individual users connected to the mobile web.

The global figures are equally impressive with over 3.4 billion mobile connections in a world population of 6 billion and this figure is still growing significantly.

Towards a personal Olympics

As early as 2010, all new mobile phones will be mobile internet and mobile email ready and will have sophisticated camera functionality as standard. Mobile social networking and sharing rich moments with friends and family, will be a commonplace occurrence. Therefore visitors to the 2012 London Olympics will be recording and sharing their own personal memories of the games. This “of the moment” dynamic view will provide a great opportunity to experience the Olympics in a unique way, by creating for instance “MyGames2012” portal, where visitors can upload and share their Olympic experience in a controlled manner.

The site could include competitions for the best content/pictures/video and our Olympic athletes could also have a Facebook style personal contact area for their fans; ultimately we would have a unique national archive of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Mobile Media coverage
The Beijing Olympics had unprecedented internet media coverage and this included significant coverage for mobile internet devices. Big media organisations such as NBC, and the BBC provided live 24/7 mobile web, mobile alerts and mobile video coverage. In August the MDA saw a 500,000 increase in the number of mobile internet users during the two weeks of the Beijing games.

By 2012, tariff changes and device functionality will ensure Mobile Internet and streaming media will be being used on a regular basis by upward of 40 million Brits. This new wave of mobile consumers will put more emphasis on the need to produce innovative mobile content, from a medal watch for Team GB to action replays of the best action etc.

All of this means that the wireless operators must ensure that their capacity planning factors in the anticipated popularity of the Olympics. The wireless provisioning, in and around the stadiums, will need to encompass GSM based bearers as well as WiFi, WiMax and Bluetooth which can all be used to distribute local event-based content and information.

One significant consideration with media coverage is the cost associated with viewing this content, especially for the foreign visitor. Data roaming costs need to be transparent to the user or at a fixed cost throughout their Olympic experience.

Transport and Ticketing
Mobile phones are currently being used for purchasing small items and trials of mobile payment systems are proving to be successful, although by 2012 not all mobile phones will support the enabling technology known as Near Field Communication’s (NFC).

By 2012 we will be using our NFC enabled mobile phones on the underground and public transport systems of London as an Oyster card replacement. There are significant opportunities to combine mobile internet, GPS location and mapping to provide visitors to the games with travel plans (using public transport), avoiding congested areas, making reservation in hotels and restaurants, tickets for the games and real-time security alerts and warnings.

Examples of mobile content and public transport planning are already happening and the London Borough of Newham recently launched their own mobile portal, which allows their users to find a music gig or a restaurant and then plan a route via the public transport system. This type of application will be developed further to take into account location based services and mobile payments, to deliver a rich but intuitive solution for the Olympic visitor.

To try out the Newham mobile portal simply TEXT Newham to 65101

These are just three possibilities for the Olympics, however the opportunity for a mobile games is potentially limitless.

Your free invitation to Mobilise Your Workforce 8

Here is your personal invitation to hear how Enterprise Mobility is helping business to beat rising fuel costs & stay competitive

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 – hosted at Microsoft UK, Reading.

UK businesses faced with rising fuel costs and increasing competition are being offered the opportunity to see how Enterprise Mobility can help them to stay ahead and prosper, with the return of ‘Mobilise Your Workforce’, the UK’s premiere Enterprise Mobility event. This free event, hosted by TBS Enterprise Mobility, offers an unrivalled combination of best practise advice and expert opinion, and takes place at Microsoft UK in Reading on Tuesday November 12th, 2008.

‘Mobilise Your Workforce 8’ – http://www.mobiliseyourworkforce.co.uk/ is a one day event which will provide attendees with strategic guidance on the role mobile technology can play in a business, through to practical steps and real-world examples of how to make it a commercial reality.

The agenda features industry analyst presentations from Deloitte and Quocirca on the current mobile environment, and the role of Software as a Service in the mobile enterprise, plus a panel session on emerging mobile technologies with expert panelists from Vodafone, Motorola, Microsoft, Northgate IS etc.

Each session is supported by real life case studies presented by UK businesses who have used Enterprise Mobility technology to save energy, drive compliance and control costs, and to transform customer service.

To register for a free place at ‘Mobilise Your Workforce 8’, visit the TBS Enterprise Mobility Website at http://www.mobiliseyourworkforce.co.uk/