ENTERPRISE MOBILITY ESSENTIAL FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Business conditions are changing rapidly thanks to digital transformation, which an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, “The Nine Elements of Digital Transformation”, defined as the use of technology to radically change the performance or reach of enterprises.
Unstoppable megatrend: Consumer businesses such as Uber and Lyft come to mind, as they harness mobile technologies to manage workforces and service offerings that disrupt traditional taxi companies. Industrial organisations use sensors on production equipment and automate machines or entire work cells — or reduce downtime by adopting condition-based maintenance. And indeed, this industrial internet of things (IIoT) is about to reach new heights as sensor prices have dropped, connectivity has increased and tools such as the IFS IoT Business Connector streamline the process of applying IoT data to operations.
Are industrial companies ready? A new IFS study of 200 industrial executives found mobility represents just as large an opportunity for industrial organisations as it does for Uber.
The enterprise software mobility and digital transformation study suggests that in companies where employees access systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM) or field service management (FSM) from mobile devices, they were more prepared for digital transformation than others.
Respondents who said their enterprise software prepared them well for digital transformation were more than twice as likely to access their software from a mobile device than those who said their software did a poor job of preparing them for digital transformation. There is a relationship between enterprise mobility and readiness for digital transformation.
Moreover, for almost 70% of respondents, increasing mobile access to enterprise software may be an immediate digital transformation opportunity. Only 31% of respondents said they access enterprise software from a mobile device.
Why mobility matters: The transformative potential of enterprise mobility for industrial companies is real. Mobile access to software such as ERP, EAM and FSM can:
Enable accurate and real-time collection of information for more efficient operation and executive decision support.
Improve the customer experience in field service environments.
Increase the productive time of technical staff by allowing them to interact with systems such as EAM or computerised maintenance management systems while in the field or at the machine on the plant floor.
Enable workers and enterprise systems to harness advanced features of mobile devices, including geolocation and cameras.
Improve the amount and quality of information available to those servicing assets or customers, allowing for more efficient service, more first-time fixes in field service environments, more reliable troubleshooting and less downtime in a plant environment.
Induce users to engage with software systems more frequently, increasing the return on investment for enterprise software.
This last benefit, increased engagement with enterprise systems, may be the most significant transformative element of enterprise mobility, said Rick Veague, chief technical officer in North America for IFS.
“Mobile is the most obvious manifestation of digital transformation,” he says. “But when people use enterprise software from a mobile device, it indicates that the system is the lifeblood of the business. Your employees can connect into those core processes and participate even if they are not sitting at their desk. If you cannot do this, you will struggle with anything in digital transformation.”
The authors of the article we quoted earlier cite their own study of 157 executives at 50 companies in this regard. Several of them suggested elements of digital transformation such as worker enablement and process digitisation, sharing Mr Veague’s viewpoint on the importance of connectivity.