The past weeks, I mulled over the oft debated topic of Technology and Business drivers from an Enterprise Mobility context. It is becoming clear that Technology drivers can help position mobility technology offerings as entry criteria in to an Enterprise – However, in-order to sustain growth, it is the business drivers that have historically ruled the roost.

The gap that needs to be bridged effectively is the relevance of Technology in context of a Business – and that arguably mandates some degree of the business domain knowledge.

I see no difference in the case of Enterprise Mobility offerings. Many enterprises are signing up new vendors – even start-ups – but for a reason; which is, to experiment these new mobility offerings, generate proof points, and establish some first-hand experience in mobility case studies.

The tough question that begs an answer is, “whether these new vendors who got into the Enterprise accounts will stay and grow, or will get displaced by larger players who will throw scale, play catch-up on technology and bring business domain knowledge”?

I am of the view that the subject of mobility is tied to the hip much more closely with paradigms such as `Experience’, `Iterative’, `Agile’, `Flexible’, `Innovative’, `Simplistic’, `Atomized’, and `Dynamic’ to name a few.. Smaller firms with Technology prowess, speed and creativity are more suited to operate those paradigms compared to larger firms who are trying to get their arms around it and hence Enterprises should continue to entertain them as much as they do for large firms. That said, smaller firms will need to return the obligation of scaling as needs grow.

Another key characteristic evidenced by Enterprise Mobility business is its local or even hyper-local nature – The new technology players (mobile OSes and middleware) actively promote open community eco-system model with all dominant players promoting their respective community’s growth. Therefore local availability of talent for executing Enterprise Mobility projects is only to be expected..

Furthermore, a lot more democratization of standards and advent of open source have created a new business canvas.

The above characteristics were a missing piece in the erstwhile Enterprise business which also resulted in winner takes all scenarios with mostly vendor-locked solutions.

Enterprise Mobility challenges that thesis and hence disruptive. Enterprises are waking up to this new reality that beckons the opportunity for both users and new suppliers.

Authored by SR Raja