China’s Mobility MandateCIOs at Chinese organizations say they have a clear mobility strategy in place. But are they really capturing the more impactful business values of mobile technologies and platforms?

An Accenture Research Report

Executive Summary

CIOs at Chinese organizations have high expectations about the potential impact of mobility on their business. Many even say they have a clear mobility strategy in place. However, to capture the tangible business value mobility technologies can enable, such as improving field service, customer service and health and public safety, Chinese enterprises will have to move past basic productivity applications as the center of their mobility strategy.

To measure the state of enterprise mobility in China, Accenture conducted a survey in January 2012 among 238 CIOs at global enterprises, including 24 from Chinese organizations. The results underscore the growing importance of enterprise mobility to CIOs in China and the opportunities that lie ahead for using mobile technologies to drive innovation and business growth.

From our research and experience in architecting and deploying enterprise solutions, we believe Chinese organizations are well positioned to unlock the business opportunities of mobility solutions by embracing three important principles:

a. Translate mobility to business value by focusing on desired business outcomes.

b. Establish a clear mobility framework that is agile enough to adapt quickly against changing market dynamics.

c. Innovate across internal and external ecosystems to gain (or re-establish) market advantage against known and unknown competitors.

Introduction

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Using mobility as an enabler of true business advantage lies in applying technologies such as location-based services, higher bandwidth, and multimedia to dramatically improve core business processes. Mobile service delivery platforms can help organizations drive revenue through better customer engagement via mobile devices. Mobile technologies can also help companies streamline and secure operations through the ability to track orders and capture real-time data.

Integrating mobile service delivery platforms into broader ecosystems such as health, education and banking can help businesses extend their reach into new markets and expand their customer bases into China’s rural areas. Innovative mobile applications are appearing across many industries:

• Intransportationandshipping,anumber of players are rolling out technologies to provide real-time updates about nationwide freight availability and demand information, using GPS and faster networks to improve the accuracy, control and efficiency of fleet tracking.1

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2. Accenture: The Role of Mobile Banking in Facilitating Rural Finances

• Inthebankingsector,thePudongDevelopment Bank has partnered with China Mobile on a mobile remittance service to expand its financial services more deeply into China’s vast rural areas, where more than two-thirds of Internet users access the Web through mobile devices. The partnership helped Pudong’s mobile banking business exceed 6 billion Yuan (nearly US$1 billion) in 2010.2

•Fieldserviceisbeingtransformedwith mobile devices that provide access to scheduling functions, work order requirements and material data sheets, location-based reference documents for environment-specific maintenance, and remote collaboration for expert support. This functionality leads to field service efficiency improvements and, more importantly, increased uptime of capital-intensive equipment.

Preparing for an Enterprise Mobility Boom

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These examples underscore the growing expectations that Chinese organizations have for enterprise mobility. No surprise, then, that all respondents to Accenture’s global mobility survey rank mobility as a high priority. While enterprises across the globe acknowledge the growing impact of mobile capabilities, those in emerging nations such as China are developing mobile strategies faster and with more scale than enterprises in mature markets.

CIOs in emerging markets seem more in tune with the opportunity to extract significant business value out of mobility technologies. In China, 96% of the CIOs surveyed believe mobility will significantly improve customer interactions, and 91% say mobile technologies will help to improve employee engagement. More than eight in ten believe mobility will have a significant impact on the business overall (84%).

Among CIOs in China, improving field service and customer service delivery is a clear priority for mobility initiatives. More than half (58%) cite the need to provide instant data access, capture and processing capabilities to field and customer service personnel. Second on the priority list is driving revenue through customer engagement (33%).

More than half of CIOs in China in the Accenture survey say their top three priorities are already in the execution stage, and nearly one-quarter say they have actually completed deployments of their three top mobile priorities. In addition, 71% said they have also completed streamlining operations by enabling the ability to track orders, assets or inventory from any location.

As Chinese companies’ deployment of mobile technologies increases, so does mobility’s share of IT budgets. Three-quarters of CIOs in China said they plan to spend more than 30% of their discretionary IT budget on mobility in 2012—with half of those respondents planning to devote more than 40% of their budget to mobility. By comparison, more than two-thirds of U.S. companies and about half of U.K. respondents plan to spend less than 20% of their discretionary IT budget on mobility projects in 2012.

Rising Expectations

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CIOs in China are discovering that mobility is no longer a niche capability that can be managed as a project. As mobile technologies and platforms become core elements in a company’s innovation and growth strategy, they will need to be governed by business priorities such as increasing revenue, decreasing costs, or improving uptime and other efficiencies.

By aligning mobility with the overall business strategy, CIOs will be able to help their enterprises harvest tangible value from mobile investments. Here are three ways for CIOs to turn their mobility models into strategic advantage for the business.

a. Translate Mobility to Business ValueCIOs looking to navigate the still-choppy waters of mobility will be well served by tying mobility investments to specific business outcomes. For example, what’s the impact of replacing print catalogues with tablet-based sales kits? Providing sales representatives with a device for showcasing rich media and ensuring they always have the most up-to-date inventory from the home office can have a direct impact on top-line revenues.

b. Increase Your Agility to Innovate FasterEighty-eight percent of CIOs in China in the Accenture global mobility study say their organization has a centralized mobile strategy—far greater than organizations in Mexico (70%), India (59%), the U.S. (58%), and the U.K. (52%). This operating model poses perhaps the greatest

challenge for enterprises looking to create new business models that tap into evolving mobile ecosystems. Mobility initiatives require an enterprise to be agile enough to respond to market shifts and flexible enough to meet changes in customer demands and drive the best business outcomes. For CIOs, remaining agile will require the decoupling of applications from infrastructure and leveraging third-party services wherever possible to improve time to market.

c. Play Leapfrog by Leveraging Existing EcosystemsCompetition in China is coming from many non-traditional players that are taking advantage of consumerization-led innovation driving changes throughout the enterprise space. Established enterprises that are focused on traditional competitors in their industry may be losing influence without even knowing it. In order to leapfrog these upstarts, large enterprises will have to find ways to harness existing ecosystems and incorporate them into business value propositions, while exploiting opportunities to expand globally—something their smaller, newer competitors are not yet prepared to do.

CIOs have an opportunity to get ahead of a rising tide of expectations for mobility that enable business innovation and have a significant impact on business growth. But they will need to act quickly to develop strategies that enable agile execution. Waiting for new entrants or multinationals to lead the way may lead to missed opportunities in a market that is not likely to reward hesitation.

Defining a Mobile Strategy for Competitive Advantage

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About the Authors

Cameron Plummer leads Accenture Mobility Services in China. Throughout his 21-year career, he has worked across industries delivering enterprise solutions and supply chain improvements in Europe, North America and Asia. Cameron has been based in China since 2004.

cameron.plummer@accenture.com

Antti Karjaluoto is a manager in Accenture Research, where he leads the global Mobility research team. He regularly conducts strategic analysis on mobility topics worldwide. Antti has more than 10 years’ experience providing research, business analysis and consulting services in multiple sectors of communications, media and technology.

antti.karjaluoto@accenture.com

Also contributing to this paper were Philippe Roussiere, Tengyue Xu, Alberto Sanz, Sachin Guddad, Lars Kamp, Michele C. Ruane, Hope Tung, Hardy Simes and Mariann Pushker.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 246,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About the Research

The Accenture Mobility CIO survey was conducted in January 2012. A total of 238 CIOs were interviewed, including 24 from Chinese companies. Chinese companies were represented across four sectors: Products, Financial Services, Resources, and Communications, Media and Technology.