Wireless: What the analysts are saying
AMR Research recently named wireless to the top of its list of ten technologies to watch in 2001.
By on Mar 30, 2001AMR Research recently named wireless to the top of its list of ten technologies to watch in 2001. It predicts that, although in 2000 wireless was mostly on the minds of applications vendors, in 2001 there will be a significant increase in the number of enterprises actually deploying those applications.
AMR forecasts that the real opportunities lie in the B2B market, where wireless can be used to enable business processes and transactions over the Internet. Wireless products are springing up for everything from supply chain management (SCM) and e-commerce to customer relationship management (CRM) and business intelligence. And according to AMR, enterprise application vendors as a whole made a strong commitment to wireless enablement of their applications in 2000.
And if the industry prognosticators are correct, it's an investment that's poised to pay off. Jupiter analysts are predicting that the number of U.S. wireless Web users will grow to 96 million by 2005, and IDC is calling m-commerce: a competitive necessity, not a commerce strategy.
Although many niches within the pharmaceutical industry are prime territory to reap the rewards of wireless, CRM applications are high on the list of many industry experts. IDC contends that as CRM becomes a more integral component of the modern enterprise business strategy, many companies are turning to wireless devices as a means of delivering market-differentiating customer service. It also believes some industries are better positioned to improve their CRM strategies by using wireless devices than others, and ranks the pharmaceutical industry among them.
Mainspring, a strategic consulting firm, recently advised the pharmaceutical industry to embrace wireless handheld strategies for marketing to physicians. It predicts wireless handheld devices are on their way to being as ubiquitous as the stethoscope in the pockets of physicians.
At the same time that the PC-based world seems to be coming up short, handheld devices, both Internet-enabled phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are becoming more common among physicians, said Mark Hernon, Vice President and General Manager of Mainspring's Industrial and Life Sciences practice. With their ease-of-use and minimal disruption to MD workflow, handheld devices are poised to go where the PC never could. Physicians tend to be early adopters of technologies that meet their unique needs, and handheld devices seem to be following the path of pagers and cell phones into the pockets of virtually all doctors.
Several pharmaceutical companies have already set up a large number of partnerships and experiments, said Rob Glik, Manager in Mainspring's Industrial and Life Sciences practice. Ultimately, companies that are aggressively targeting handheld devices may gain both operational and financial rewards.
However, according to IDC, those financial rewards may be difficult to measure. It cautions that although customers may use mobile devices to gather information and initiate transactions, most will be completed through other channels. Therefore, return on investment (ROI) for wireless applications will be difficult to distill from overall revenue.
Almost all of the experts are predicting that before wireless applications can really come into their own, however, a number of hurdles must be overcome, including bandwidth limitations, varied service platforms and a variety of competing service providers.
With Jupiter and AMR both predicting that 3G broadband mobile networks are still a long way off, bandwidth problems seem likely to remain an issue, limiting the complexity of data that can be transmitted and received. And even in Europe, where mobile operators are further ahead on the 3G-adoption curve, the Gartner Group's latest research indicates CIOs are reluctant to pay higher rates for 3G service.
In addition, incompatible transmission standards continue to limit service areas for most mobile phones and PDAs. According to a recent article in MIT's Technology Review, U.S. mobile operators use three competing standards, only one of which is compatible with the leading standard in Europe. And most Asian wireless networks are built to yet another standard.
But analysts advise those tempted to wait for these hurdles to disappear before embarking on a wireless strategy, that a cautious approach may mean being left behind.
We expect that by 2003 every e-business initiative will have some element delivered across a mobile channel, and when m-business takes off a significant minority or organizations risk being left behind, warns Nick Jones, Research Director for Gartner's Mobile Applications Group.
We are advising pharmaceutical companies to adopt active strategies around mobile medicine, said Hernon. Although some companies may delay action until standards are in place and until the eMD's is firmly established, we believe this risk-averse alternative may leave those companies without the capabilities and relationships to succeed. We are encouraging companies to take a disciplined approach to creating a pipeline of initiatives suited to their strengths. It's a familiar approach for pharmaceutical companies, who are accustomed to making big bets and actively managing their risks.