Jul 12, 2004 12:00 PM,

MOBILE E-MAIL IS DEAD

by Bob Egan

During the most recent economic downturn, enterprises have focused intensely on cost-cutting and expense reduction to weather the storm. Price erosion, increased competition in stagnant markets and relentless scrutiny of corporate performance metrics by investors, among other factors, has intensified cost-control efforts. Against this backdrop, corporate leaders must seek out and capitalize on strategies that will improve enterprise performance. E-mail is not one of them. E-mail is a tool. E-mail is a necessary evil.

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Perhaps one of the most fascinating observations that can be made about investments by corporate leaders in IT is that knowledge that is realized in the data centers begets a certain anxiety that in turn drives new investments. I am not suggesting ignorance is bliss, but I am suggesting the key to mobile market growth is delivering solutions to companies that reduce the information-to-decision-to-action cycle. This is not about e-mail.

Clearly, IT managers must reconcile the business case for wireless mobility against the technology and application solution risk. Shortening the knowing/doing gap is the key to gaining market advantage through just-in-time information management. And while e-mail should be considered as part of an enterprise wireless mobility initiative, it is likely not the reason to make the investment for most companies. It is about business applications.

Mobile operators don't seem to have a clue about how to sell to the enterprise. They are focused on rebuilding their balance sheets, personnel downsizing and consumer science experiments with features like push-to-talk and ringtones. Oh yes, I almost forgot: These risk-takers also have managed to get sub-100 kb/s wireless data networks up and running with 1xRTT and EDGE. Of course, these offerings are asking CIOs to turn the pages back on their remote access initiatives and speeds to the days of dial-up. Against this backdrop, the lead application driven by the mobile operators for most enterprise is what? You guessed it: mobile e-mail.

On the one side, carriers are trying to stave off collapse in ARPU by arming investing in wireless data networks. On the other, CIOs and IT managers are looking for solutions to accelerate their businesses. To me, that means mobilizing apps that are specific to growing corporate revenue and helping companies work at capacity by generating more dollars per employee per hour without making new investments. One thing you can count on is that is not about e-mail. So let's just kill off mobile e-mail and get everyone focused on mobilizing business.