More than a pandemic 'life saver', mobile deployment is a key business strategy for survival in an increasingly digital world.
Let’s imagine that the last two years we've been living with the pandemic has led you to have a remote workforce. Your employees went from offices to being dispersed throughout the country, some of them working with their own equipment. Your IT and support team live day-to-day trying to resolve hundreds of queries and questions, while also needing to be alert to potential critical scenarios, with little or no visibility into the field. In this case, your company has likely experienced several years of digital transformation progress in a matter of months. But taking your business mobility to the next level goes beyond addressing a temporary contingency and involves transforming processes and looking for cost and operational efficiency opportunities.
Throughout 2022, at SOTI, we have been investigating in different markets how this mobile transformation is being experienced in various industries. Some medical practices migrated to telemedicine, some retailers invested hundreds of thousands of logging devices to know in real-time how their inventory is doing, and some carriers and logistics companies analyzed Internet coverage areas considering their delivery routes to make business decisions as important as Internet service.
What a small 15-person law firm, a world-class airline like American Airlines and an international fashion retailer like El Corte Inglés have in common is a need for their teams, their employees and their experts not to spend hours 'idle' dealing with technical problems ranging from being able to upload a file, put in a support case or report a failure to registering a sale, accessing a medical record or having updated versions on their computers and avoiding security breaches. In other words, the priority for companies is for their workers to be able to contribute their knowledge and experience where it is most needed.
If we analyze the time spent on IT issues, globally there are many opportunities for improvement. According to our data, workers in Mexico waste an average of 3.3 hours per employee per week on technical problems. According to our 2021 Mobility Report, companies can lose around $68,000 USD per hour of downtime in a business-critical application. But in addition to the financial savings factor, when we're talking about a device that a doctor uses to admit a patient to the emergency room, it's a matter of saving lives and every minute counts.
For more than 6 out of 10 technology executives in Mexico surveyed for our study, better business intelligence tools are needed to address unexpected future problems and to diagnose obstacles before they occur or become a major problem.
Awareness about the importance of business mobility has increased. SOTI's report found that a vast majority (91%) of executives are more aware of the importance of mobile technologies now compared to before the pandemic and 85% highlighted that employees showed greater commitment by having the necessary solutions at hand.
And while 91% of executives surveyed in Mexico agreed that senior management in their organizations have become more aware of the importance of mobile technology compared to the period before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, only 50.7% said they are working on a contingency plan for future crises, and nearly a third (32%) said their organization is not adapting well to the post-pandemic era through mobile technology. However, the picture is positive compared to the United States and Canada, where 46% and 50.8%, respectively, indicated that their company is not adapting well to the pandemic through mobility.
Mobility: The Fuel for Logistics and E-Commerce
In the recent months, changes in the way we work and consume, coupled with pressure on logistics, transportation and marketing systems, have led hundreds of companies to rethink their operations and investments into technology solutions. In 2022, consumer clamoring for efficiency, experience and safety will continue.
For 66% of consumers, the biggest frustration when shopping online is in the shipping, delivery or return processes. That percentage rises to 71% among millennials, for example. Additionally, Mexican consumers are more demanding compared to other markets. While 66% of consumers in the U.S. and 67% of consumers internationally want to know where their order is at all times, the number rises to 87% for consumers in Mexico. In post-pandemic era, many consumers seek initiative from retailers to efficiently incorporate solutions that allows customers to always have clear insights and updates of the delivery process. By investing in a business-critical mobility solution, organizations can successfully fulfill customers wants, which helps to create trust between the retailer and consumers.
On the security side, 63% admit to feeling nervous about small retailers accessing their personal and payment data. With unwanted situations like cyberattacks and data theft, companies must find advanced technologies solutions like an intelligent diagnostic solution to prevent data breaches, making consumers feel safe that their sensitive data is protected.
The industry, which already knew this but is reaffirming it, knows that time and trust turn into money. So it is not surprising that 64% of executives surveyed in Mexico consider device inactivity a high-level concern. While 8 out of 10 explored options to improve product returns, the same number said they plan to maintain their investments in mobile technologies, wearables and IoT systems over the next 12 months.
By 2022, the sophistication of mobile fleets is expected to generate greater opportunity scenarios. Companies that want to succeed in this scenario will not be able to relegate their strategies and investments to the minimum necessary to survive. Those who decide to jump on the bandwagon of the mobile revolution will discover a space to be conquered in which innovation and technology will be the tool to allow companies to do what they set out to do to drive revenue.
