观点：企业级市场召唤一个“真正移动”的时代
编者按 ： 彼得·瓦格纳（Peter Wagner）和马丁·吉尔斯（Martin Giles）都是风险投资公司Wing Venture Capital 的合伙人。
移动设备、云计算和大数据显现出来的优势地位，对人们的生活和工作带来了深刻的影响。但令人遗憾的是，很多在智能手机和平板电脑上运行的企业级应用不能充分发挥这一革命性转型的作用。甚至标榜自己是“移动为先”的某些服务，往往也不能推出新奇的功能来提高生产力和利润。
现在，企业级应用市场的规模达到 1000 亿美元，要想主导这个市场，就必须是做到“真正的移动”（authentically mobile），即如果我们不充分利用移动生态系统的特有属性的话，各项服务将难以完成，甚至不可能完成。
名副其实的真正移动企业级应用数量还很少。但是，一些从事客户关系管理业务的公司（如 Clari 和 Base CRM）和提供人力资源服务的创业公司（如 Yoi），他们的服务体现出了移动真实性的一些特点，这预示着移动行业的未来发展趋势。
相对于传统因循守旧的应用，“移动为先”的应用（优先使用移动应用而不是事后再用）必定是一大进步，因为传统方式只是在移动平台上简单模拟台式机的功能。“移动为先”的服务则提供更加优雅和更加直观的用户界面，可以更加充分地利用智能手机和平板电脑一些的独有功能。例如，我们可以通过传感器和轻便的用户输入设备来储存数据，可以对内容和操作方式进行超个性化的设置，同时这些服务的使用时间随意，对用户的吸引力更大。
但是，“移动为先”的服务主要还是优化现在的工作流程，以适应已有的新平台，而没有开创全新的功能。这是要达到真正移动应用（它们才能带来真正的改变）前所要经历的一个中间阶段。下面的表格概述了一些重要的影响因素。
所谓真正的移动应用，就是说，没有移动设备，工作流程将很难进行。与“移动为先”的服务不同，它们更加注重搜集和分析促进创新体验的数据。若要设计出真正的移动应用，光是专注于移动的创业公司孵化器的纸上谈兵还远远不够，因为企业流程和相应的数据超出了移动获得主导权之前的那个时代的范围。
很多工作人员的手机上都安装了消费类应用，这是真正的移动。例如，Uber 就利用了移动的“及时性”特点，并辅以 GPS 技术来追踪人们的位置。如果在台式机上来运行 Uber 之类的应用，简直是太荒谬了——这种模式可以用来判断一种企业级应用是不是真正具有移动的特点。
一些打入企业市场的消费类应用声称自己实现了真正的移动，至少是部分实现了。例如，Dropbox 吸引用户的地方在于移动用户必备的同步属性。但是，它在台式机上使用的效果也很好，因此这就不是真正的移动了。然而，当 Dropbox 用在其他设备上时，它的重要性就大大显现出来了——Dropbox 的数百万用户清楚地看到了这一点。
还有一些真正的移动消费类应用会以全新的方式来改善劳动力。但是，对于创业公司来说，这也是一个绝好的机会，他们可以为“真正的移动”主导的市场提供个性化产品。估值极有可能达到数十亿美元的公司将是面向知识性人才的。相对于那些面向商店、工厂和医院的工作人员的“低等”应用来说，这些“高等”应用的收费更高，市场空间更广。
“真正的移动”趋势目前还处在发展的初级阶段，但 Slack（以团队沟通协作为基础的移动办公平台）却自我标榜为“原生的移动”，此举说明这一领域还是有很大潜力可挖的。就像 Dropbox 一样，Slack 既能在移动设备上运用，也能在台式机上运用，因此，从严格意义上讲，它并不符合“真正的移动”的标准。但是，它的一些核心功能，如“一体化”的高度集成、多样的数据来源和记录系统，只有在移动环境下才能发挥出特殊的作用。Slack 最多不过就是一个多平台交叉应用，越来越接近“真正的移动”。
一般来说，商业通讯就是在多个应用之间交叉进行。Blue Jeans Network（一家获得 Wing Venture Capital 投资的创业公司）已经推出了一种服务，使员工们可以通过移动设备参加多点式、跨平台的视频会议，并可以彼此之间分享视频画面。展望未来，开发商们可能会开发出真正的移动应用，那时，工作人员就可以轻松地把手机上的视频会议画面传输到会议室或台式机上了。
客户关系管理（CRM）也为“真正的移动”大发展做好了准备。Clari 可以通过手机向销售部门主管发送提醒，确保他们在会面前具有客户或潜在客户的最新信息。它还能提醒他们在外奔走时随时更新交易状态，以便可以快速捕捉和分享数据。Base CRM 则包括一项地理位置功能，可以绘制出用户的联系人地图，提供到达那里的一键式导航。
除了这些至少部分体现了移动真实性的应用开发早期例证，整个客户体验管理（Customer Experience Management）——覆盖售前和售后互动两个方面——将成为那些在企业员工和客户之间打造实时、动态联系的产品的沃土。
另一批真正的移动解决方案将出现在 HR（人力资源）领域，它们正在从相互孤立的《呆伯特》（Dilber）式卡通片，转变为一个数据驱动的整体，与重要业务流程紧密结合。新兴的“人力分析”领域（追踪员工互动等事情）看起来特别具有发展前景。
Yoi 已开始着手改善员工管理的成功率，向新入职的员工提供他们在外出活动及在办公室时所需要的信息。更为重要的是，Yoi 还可以实时捕捉和量化员工的数据，并反馈给部门主管，令其迅速介入，解决员工遭遇的烦恼，或是加速员工学习过程。
Yoi 就是一个令人感兴趣的例证，证明移动应用可以与数据和云端的力量相结合，用于深入揭示一个原本相当晦涩的过程，提高员工留存率。
其他对真正的移动企业级应用做好准备的领域还包括，支付、旅游管理和数字安全。正如我们在之前指出的，有些真正的移动消费类应用将会进入企业级市场，解决一些公司的实际需要。但创业者们也面临着一个激动人心的机遇，为企业及其客户和员工从零开始开发新产品。在新兴的真正移动应用商店内，大量闲置货架正等待新产品的到来。
Mobile First, But What’s Next?
Editor’s note: Peter Wagner and Martin Giles are partners at Wing Venture Capital.
The ascendance of mobile devices, cloud computing and big data is having a profound impact on the lives of workers. Yet many of the business applications that run on their smartphones and tablets still fail miserably to take full advantage of this revolutionary shift. Even services that tout themselves as “mobile first” often fall short of delivering novel functionality that boosts productivity and profit.
The offerings that will come to dominate the emerging $100 billion market for enterprise applications will be those that are “authentically mobile,” a term we use to describe services that would be extremely difficult or impossible to achieve without taking full advantage of the unique properties of the mobile ecosystem.
Truly authentic mobile business applications are still pretty rare. But services from firms such as Clari and Base CRM in customer-relationship management, and from startups such as Yoi in human resources, have elements of mobile authenticity that make them harbingers of what is to come.
Mobile-first applications, which treat mobile use cases as the priority rather than the afterthought, are certainly an improvement over traditional, “pave-the-goat-paths” ones, which simply mimic desktop functionality on mobile platforms. Mobile-first services have more elegant and intuitive user interfaces, and they take greater advantage of some of the unique properties of smartphones and tablets. These include the ability to gather data via sensors and lightweight user inputs, frequent, in-the-moment, “bite size” usage, and hyper-personalization of content and operation.
But mobile-first services still focus on optimizing existing workflows for the new platform in town rather than creating new-to-the-world functionality. They are an intermediate evolutionary stage on the road toward authentically mobile applications, which are true game-changers. The following table summarizes what makes these so powerful.
Authentically mobile applications address workflows that have been frustratingly elusive in the absence of mobile devices. Unlike mobile-first ones, they also place much greater emphasis on the collection and analysis of data, which fuel the innovative experiences they deliver. Conceiving them requires far more than just a “mobile for X” startup incubator whiteboard exercise because the business process and data being tapped were simply out of bounds in the pre-mobile world.
Many workers already have consumer applications on their phones that are authentically mobile. Uber, for instance, takes advantage of the “in-the-moment” property of mobile and leverages GPS to track people’s location. It would be ridiculous to think of developing an app such as Uber for the desktop — an acid test that we can usefully pose when assessing whether a business application is authentically mobile.
Some consumer applications with at least a partial claim to mobile authenticity have already crossed over into business markets. An example is Dropbox, whose appeal is grounded in the mobile must-have property of synchronization. It’s pretty useful on the desktop, so it fails the strict acid test for mobile authenticity. Nevertheless, its value soars when it touches other devices — something that is obvious to its millions of users.
Other authentically mobile consumer apps will empower workforces in novel ways. But there is an exciting opportunity for startups to create products specifically for the corporate market with mobile authenticity at their core. The ones most likely to become multi-billion-dollar businesses will be those designed for knowledge workers. Such “carpeted floor” applications can charge higher prices and target larger markets than “linoleum floor” ones aimed at folk in warehouses, factories and hospitals.
It is still early days here, but the popularity of Slack, a workforce-collaboration tool that bills itself as “mobile native,” hints at the opportunity waiting to be tapped. Like Dropbox, Slack is a powerful tool on desktops as well as mobile, so it doesn’t pass our strict acid test. But some of its core properties, such as its “all-in-one place” hyper-integration with varied data sources and systems of record, are particularly valuable in a mobile environment. It can best be characterized as a multi-platform crossover application with an increasingly strong claim to mobile authenticity.
Business communications in general is a place where more crossover applications will emerge. Blue Jeans Network (a Wing portfolio company) already offers a service that makes it possible for employees to conduct multi-point, cross-platform videoconferences and collaborative screen shares from their mobile devices. Looking ahead, vendors may develop authentically mobile applications that make it simple for workers to, say, transfer a video session easily from a phone screen to a conference room or a desktop.
CRM is also ripe for greater mobile authenticity. Clari can send alerts to sales executives via mobile phones to ensure they have the most recent information related to a customer or a prospect before meetings. It can also prompt them to update the status of their deals on the go so that the data is captured and shared promptly. Base CRM includes geolocation functionality that maps users’ leads and contacts, and offers one-touch driving directions to get to them.
Beyond these very early examples that have at least a partial claim to mobile authenticity, the entire universe of Customer Experience Management, spanning both pre- and post-sales interactions, will be fertile ground for products that create vibrant, real-time tethers between a company’s employees and its clients.
Another cluster of authentically mobile solutions will appear in HR, which is being transformed from the disconnected, anecdotal adjunct of various Dilbert cartoons into a data-driven discipline that is tightly integrated with critical business processes. The fledgling field of “people analytics,” which measures things such as employee engagement, looks especially promising.
Yoi sets out to improve success rates in employee onboarding by providing new hires with information they need while on the move, as well as when they are at their desks. Importantly, the application also captures and quantifies data from employees in real time, feeding it back to managers who can step in swiftly to address any pain points or to speed up a learning process.
Yoi is an interesting example of how a mobile application combined with the power of data and the cloud can be used to shed more light on a rather opaque process and to improve employee-retention rates.
Other domains ripe for authentically mobile business applications range from payments to travel management and cybersecurity. As we noted earlier, some authentically mobile consumer apps will migrate into the business arena to address companies’ needs. But there is an exciting opportunity here for entrepreneurs to create new offerings designed from the ground up for companies, their customers and their workers. Plenty of shelf space is waiting to be filled in the emerging, authentically mobile application store.
来源：techcrunch.com
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