Mobile Delivery

In true fashion, the technology industries have taken all of the meaning out of seemingly descriptive terms such as business intelligence (BI), web-portals and virtually all other terms currently used for non-paper based reporting. Almost every business owner or manager that I know runs their business off of one or two key reports or metrics. If the systems they are buying can provide or simplify the process of getting that information, then the chances of the investment being made are greatly amplified. However, more and more we are seeing a departure from flat file paper type report formats.

We live in an active world. People want to be alerted when critical things happen; they don’t have the time or the patience to go looking. Tomorrow’s applications need to take an active approach to all reporting functions ranging from simple invoicing through crucial activities. I have spoken about some of these in previous posts.

· Don’t print invoices at the point of delivery. Have them delivered electronically to the proper recipients. No paper is lost, it provides an audit trail and it improves the speed of payment. The car rental companies are doing this today; I get my receipt before I leave the rental compound. Imagine doing this in the DSD environment.

· Send email alerts to managers, clients and suppliers on critical events. The airlines do this today when your plane is running late. Dynamic scheduling and dispatch holds the same promise in delivery environments.

· Dashboards, business intelligence etc … single screen views of what is going on in the work environment that clearly mark problems and allow you to drill down on them. Here is the next key: people don’t work at their desks anymore. We need to get that data onto the Blackberry, iPhone and Android devices being carried by mobile users.

· Send alerts and advisories to text message or messenger sites … make it real time, active and actionable.

My generation lives in an e-mail world. Even that is quickly going away and being replaced with TXT and Messenger environments. The key to remaining relevant in a real-time word is getting critical point information in front of the right people as it happens. Dealing with the constant barrage of information will be the next problem. However, today we have to deal with the fact that no one can or will be bothered to run a report or print the paper. If business decision makers run their businesses based on a single report today, what does the next generation of data factor look like? We use paper due to lack of a viable alternative. Today, those alternatives exist and our addictions to paper are being replaced with a more potent and enrapturing electronic alternative. Our kids are already there; that means that business needs to catch up.

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