Mobile in the Enterprise: Blog Recap

Posted on: October 3, 2009 – Filed under: Philadelphia

The latest Mobile Monday event drew nearly 200 entrepreneurs, wireless mobility executives, and technology professionals to the Union League of Philadelphia.

Stephen Goodman – an influential authority for his work with emerging growth companies and partner at Morgan Lewis — inspired the audience. He noted the possibilities and opportunities that exist when future world-class companies, and a community of professionals to help those companies, gather in the same room. His optimism continued, pointing out as the longest-tenured member of the advisory board for the Wharton Entrepreneurship Program he has never seen a higher quality business plans than over the past year and now is a great time to start a company.

Scott Snyder, Ph.D., author of “The New World of Wireless,” then charmed the audience with his musical skills — playing a recorder on his iPhone using the Ocarina app as an example of application innovation. He then reminded the audience how hard it is to predict the evolution of wireless citing that in 1984 AT&T estimated there would be a total of 1M cell phone users by 2000 when in fact there were 740M.

Snyder urged companies to be innovative and take risks by saying, “the real show is not the technology, but what people do with it.”Snyder conceded that taking risks is not easy, but companies need to embrace the technology and forge ahead. This includes evaluating the ecosystem of your organization consisting of the network, employees, customers, and vendors. He suggested companies to select a group and test 4G capabilities and use the feedback to make changes. He acknowledged that there will be bumps in the road, but this needs to happen to improve the quality of service.

Scott’s words resonated throughout the room as the forum shifted to a panel discussion.

JP Finnell, CEO Mobility Partners, moderated the panel featuring a dynamic array of wireless and mobility experts, including:

·         John Carrow, Carrow Consulting, former CIO of Unisys, former CIO City of Philadelphia
·         Vishy Gopalakrishnan, Director, Industry Solutions, AT&T Mobility
·         Scott Minor, Vice President of Software & Service Solutions, Infologix
·         Alan Scrime, Chief, Spectrum Analysis & Frequency Management Branch, US Army
·         Charles Goodall, Manager, Technology Strategy & Architecture GlaxoSmithKline
·         Fred Wilf, Of Counsel, Morgan Lewis & Bockius

Commenting on Snyder’s remarks as well as the trends they are seeing within their organizations, the panel discussed the following topics:

Sensor Networks
· The panel noted examples of how enterprises are capitalizing on wireless technologies:

Sensors controlling and monitoring the irrigation of vineyards in Napa Valley, CA
The US Army is utilizing sensors to control UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) to fly between Las Vegas, NV and Iraq

State of Corporate Liable
· The general consensus among the audience and panelists was that many companies offer basic mobile devices and do not support smartphones on their systems. However, one panelist noted his company is offering stipends to employees to select their own phone.

· The security of information on employees’ devices is a burning issue. Encrypting information is essential as companies shift toward wireless.

· While certain sectors including healthcare and logistics are innovators in the space of leveraging wireless mobility, many companies operate with a limited thought process. Rather than beginning with the technology, they need to consider how technology can alter and aid business processes.

Looking Forward
· Look for the financial market to be the next up and coming area, specifically in the third world. Current state: 4 billion cell phone users, only 1.6 billion bank accounts. Tremendous opportunity exists.

· Keep a pulse on how youth utilize technology because ultimately it will come upstream.

· Continue asking yourself, “What is it that you will do right now to make something happen tomorrow?”

· As security measures develop and increase, so too will privacy laws.