As a CFO, I am charged with determining that we are spending our money wisely and efficiently. My counterparts in other companies, who have to make the same determinations, are struggling to determine how to get their arms around calculating ROI for enterprise mobility.
They, like me, have read all the hype about the effects of enterprise mobility. Things like ‘30-40% of organizations deploying more than five applications in 2015 will realize substantial business benefits.’ Sounds great! Now show me.
The ROI of Enterprise Mobility
Working for an enterprise mobility company provides me a unique perspective to help resolve the CFO’s dilemma. I have personally seen how enterprise mobility has positively affected the results of our customers.
As a specific example, one of our customers used enterprise mobility to positively affect their operating cash flow. In the business of providing consulting services, they have been able to capture billable time from remote employees much more quickly. This results in an ability to invoice their customers much more quickly, culminating in a significant improvement to operating cash flow.
That’s a benefit every CFO can appreciate. In this specific case, it was really easy to determine that an acceptable ROI was achieved.
Considering Future Impact
While determining ROI is important, I believe that there is another consideration: vision.
Predictions I read like, “IT organizations will dedicate at least 25% of their software budget to mobile application, development, and management by 2017,” and “Competitive necessity will superseded productivity and efficiency for 50% of mobile enterprise app development in 2015,” make me believe that I have to take a longer view of ROI from a financial perspective.
My competitors are pursuing enterprise mobility. If I don’t get going now; it may create a real dilemma for my company in the future. At that point, it may be about calculating the negative ROI associated with my decision tonot make an enterprise mobility investment today.
It is well documented that Microsoft was late to the party recognizing the potential of the Internet. The saving grace for them was that they had sufficient resources to overcome their tardiness. The question we CFOs have to ask ourselves is, “will my company be able to recover from being too late to address enterprise mobility?”
What will your answer be?