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If youíre in the mobile data business in any kind of business development or sales position, you know that you need to set priorities to be successful. There are plenty of potential customers that have lots of questions about these technologies, and they all want you to educate them.
Talking to people like this is one of the most enjoyable parts of our work. After all, geeks love to explore ways to solve problems with cool technologies.
But like everyone in the mobile data business, we have a business to run, and only so many hours in a day.
With the right questions, you can usually get a good idea within the first few minutes if a business prospect is ready for a mobile data solution.
The fact is, mobile data solutions donít sell themselves - it takes work, and it takes time. Sometimes a lot of both.
Why? There are at least three good reasons:
Valuable, but Not Urgent: For most businesses with a mobile workforce of any size, it's usually pretty easy to show a fast payback on a good mobile data solution. However, the demand for mobile data is somewhat elastic - no one is going out of business this week if they don't trade in their clipboards for a mobile data solution. Most businesses already have a variety of IT projects on their plates, including cleaning up systems that have been neglected during the past few years. Mobile data is just one more item on the list.
Fear of 'Strategic Commitment': The variety of options in mobile data, and the pace of technical progress, is almost overwhelming even for those who most of their time trying to keep up with it. Most mobile data solutions require a real commitment in terms of cost and effort, and a lot of people are fearful of making a bad decision and going down the wrong road.
Configuration and Customization: It's amazing how different are the requirements of businesses even in the same market. In fact, itís usually more useful to characterize business requirements by information patterns rather then to try to draw conclusions about the specific information needs by market. We almost never see that a "vanilla" solution works for a business without significant configuration and customization.
These and other hurdles must be recognized and addressed as part of the mobile data sales cycle.
So how does one identify the "low hanging fruit"? We've found that indicators tend to fall into three groups: 1) Information factors, 2) Business factors, and 3) Technology factors.
Wireless devices and networks and software are pretty cool technologies, but letís face it, not many mobile data systems are sold because of coolness.
Fundamentally, businesses invest in mobile data systems because some piece of information increases in value if it can be moved from one place to another more quickly.
So, the first thing to understand is the nature of the information the business is trying to move around.
Information Model: Naturally, business people tend to carry their prior IT experiences into their mobile expectations. Some approach it from a browsing perspective: they imagine logging into a website from their handheld, and navigating through information. Others approach it from a file sharing perspective: they imagine transferring office documents between their handhelds and PCs. Others see it more like an email model: sending data messages back and forth. The best information models, of course, properly balance the real information requirements of the business with the unique limitations and opportunities of mobile devices and networks. Prospects that fully understand this are usually good candidates for mobile data.
Quantity of Information: One of the first areas to explore with a prospect is the quantity of information that is being handled on the device. As usual, less is better. For example, a handheld application that uses more than 5 or 6 screens for data entry will usually be too cumbersome to be accepted by the field. The size of data messages that travel over the air has a direct impact on the cost, speed and reliability of message delivery.
Onboard Data: How much information resides on the device for, say, product lists, service codes or contact lists? How often does it change, and what are the logistics of updating this data on the devices in the field? As always, simpler is better.
Structure of Information: Is the information highly structured and well defined, or is it variable and contextual in nature? You like to hear that the data is already highly structured (for example, most meter reading applications), and that structure will be transferred into the mobile arena.
Security: There seems to be a myth that information security should be absolute, and free. The reality, of course, is that security is a relative thing, and can be costly in terms of information logistics and overhead. There are number of ways to address the different aspects of mobile security, but itís safe to say that those prospects in which security is a major factor will almost always require longer sales cycles.
OK, letís say the information requirements seem to make sense for a mobile data solution.
Our next line of questioning helps find out if the business is really in a position to move ahead reasonably quickly.
Readiness: Obviously, a customer that is just beginning to explore their options will have a longer education cycle than one that has done some homework. However, sometimes a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. When a prospect is charging down the wrong path, it can take quite a bit of education to bring them back towards a solution that will work better for them.
Focus of App: Todayís mobile devices can be used for everything from email to web surfing to contact list management, but our experience is the more focused a customer is on the one function they want, the more quickly they tend to move ahead. For example, when you hear something like ìI want your app to turn this handheld into a dedicated field service solution, and Iíd even like you to hide all of the other core functionsî, you know this customer is probably a strong candidate for mobile data.
Number of Decision Makers: If you are talking to one or two people who are in a position to make decisions, youíre probably in good shape. After that, the sales cycle seems to go up exponentially with the number of decision makers. If there are 5 or 6 'cooks in the kitchen', they will probably never agree on a solution.
Size of Field Force: This one is pretty obvious: the larger the field force, the better the payback on an investment in mobile data, because the fixed part of the initial investment (like devices, custom software, integration and training) can be amortized over more users.
Involvement of IT Department: You may get a surprising number of calls from someone in an operations or technology role that wants to try to implement a mobile data solution without involving the IT department. This almost never works ñ the IT people hold the keys to the important business information, and besides are usually in a position to approve or veto any significant investment in a new information technology.
OK, letís say the information requirements make sense, and the business seems prepared to move ahead successfully with a mobile data solution.
Most prospects have some preconceived notions about the wireless technologies they want to use, often because of previous experiences with conventional cellphones, pagers or PDAs.
The next line of questioning usually tries to determine if these technology preferences are a good match for their requirements. If so, the customer may be ready to move ahead, but if not, a significant period of education may still lie ahead.
There's a bewildering array of mobile data devices and networks from which to choose, and every one of them has distinct pros and cons. The factors that seem to matter most often are:
User Interface: Displays can vary from a few short lines of black and white text to full color VGAs, and data entry methods range from numeric keypads to touchscreens to full QWERTY. More isn't always better - in a mobile world, it's important to find the optimum balance between UI and cost, portability and durability.
Durability: Speaking of durability, this seems often underrated as a factor. There are wide variations in the real-world durability of mobile devices.
Overall Costs: All wireless technologies are rapidly becoming more cost effective, but you have to shop wisely. Networks are steadily marching down the cost per byte curve, at each step enabling new applications for mobile data. Devices range from 'last year's giveaways' to some high-end PDAs can cost more than a desktop PCs.
Coverage and Building Penetration: Coverage on all major networks continues to improve, but there are still significant differences in their ability to penetrate buildings and reliably 'deliver the payload' of information.
Latency: Narrowband, asynchronous networks are generally designed to optimize building penetration and error handling at the expense of bandwidth and speed, while broadband, synchronous networks are designed for the opposite.
Battery Life: Mobile devices can have battery life ranging from a few hours, like some large color PDAs, to well over a week, like some mobile devices of paging origin.
Peripheral Requirements: Some business applications require peripheral activities like signature capture, bar code reading or portable printing. Some mobile devices interface well with peripheral devices, and some don't.
Like most people in the mobile data business, we love to chat and share the benefits of our experiences, but at the end of the day there's a business to run. This newsletter discusses the ways to identify the prospects that are serious candidates for a mobile data solution.
However, even good candidates for a mobile data solution need to overcome some common hurdles before they will make the decision to move forward. Weíll discuss how to address these hurdles in an upcoming newsletter.
Written by:
Kim Spitznagel
President
Outr.Net, Inc.
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