The Yankee Group says that companies with between 100 and 1,000 employees represent an enormous opportunity for the wireless industry. Nevertheless, few customized wireless solutions are available today for this high-potential mid-market customer segment.
In accordance with Yankee Group’s new survey , focused on the unique needs of the mid-market enterprise customer, Mobile network operators (MNOs) are not well positioned to act as strategic partners for mid-market companies during the evaluation and deployment of advanced wireless enterprise services.
This survey, which encompassed a wide range of IT and communications technologies and services also reveals that Basic wireless data services such as mobile e-mail and GPRS connectivity already are in wide use within this customer segment, but there are few plans to increase penetration of these services significantly within the organizations. Public-access WLAN is one exception to this, where usage is anticipated to triple in the next 2 years.
The Yankee Group report suggests that Mid-market employees upgrade mobile phones frequently. They also have higher than average ownership of portable computing equipment, including laptops and personal digital assistants (PDAs). And that These trends will enable new wireless technologies, such as 3G and PWLAN, to penetrate the existing wireless data user base quickly, which appears as a significant opportunity for technology and service providers to create dependency on these new technologies at an early stage.
Other findings include the perception of high costs is the most significant inhibitor of wireless data deployment among mid-market companies. Justifying the business case for this technology is a secondary concern and that among U.K. MNOs, Vodafone and Orange are perceived as the leading brands for business communications services. T-Mobile leads in Germany, Vodafone in Spain and Orange in France (see Exhibit 1).
To obtain this insight from a wireless services perspective, the Company has solicited input from senior telecommunications and IT managers at 523 European enterprises.
Source: Yankee group
2004-09-28
Em Foco – Pessoa