I just spent some time with Clint Parr, president of Anyware Mobile Solutions. Anyware describes themselves this way: “Anyware Mobile Solutions …has been defining, designing, delivering and supporting mobile solutions since 1997.”
Anyware lists Sprint as a partner and Clint was in town for meetings with Sprint related to our partnership, but I have no role in that relationship and our discussion had nothing to do with it.
No, the reason that Clint and I got together is because we go way back. In fact, back in 1995 at the very beginning of the Internet era, Clint joined the Internet startup that two partners and I had formed. We experienced the front end of that Internet Age wave and now, 11 years later, from two separate positions in the industry, we are experiencing the front end of the Mobility Age wave.
As it is when you get together with old friends, much of our discussion was about our kids’ sports teams and where old friends are now working. But given what we both do, we also talked some about mobility, about the power and the danger.
Clint spends a lot more time with a lot more people who are really building mobility into their businesses than I would even want to, so his observations are pretty keen. I won’t share all of Clint’s brilliance with you (if you want to tap into that, give the Anyware team a call), but I asked him if I could share one of his insights and he said “sure.”
Clint has watched and participated in lots of mobility implementations. Some by big companies. Some by small companies. His observation was that what matters the most is who is driving the implementation. If it’s being driven by a centralized support group, such as IT, then much of the time (maybe 25% or more), the project will fail because the central team is more focused on managing the dangers of mobility than on capturing the power of mobility. If instead the project is driven by the organization that’s really going to use the mobile application, then almost always the project is a success. These groups really know the realities of their environment, they know what can make a big impact in productivity which will guarantee an attractive ROI to continue the funding, and they know what the real users will accept and use.
Of course, you can’t ignore the dangers, but if you fail to really capture the power, then what’s the point.
Makes sense to me, how about you? Any thoughts or feedback?
