Service Orientation in the Enterprise

A new trend gaining momentum in recent years is companies´ use of mobile devices as an integral part of their IT infrastructure for both employees and customers. Although similar to early Web-based products, mobile services have technical and physical limitations. However, they also enjoy the advantage of location independence, whereas existing PC-based solutions can offer, at best, a nomadic context. Corporate employees as well as consumers can clearly perform tasks more efficiently when stationary, but they can execute a growing number of functions with acceptable or even superior efficiency using mobile devices. This capability usually evolves in a three-stage process. In the first stage, a given task cannot be performed using a general-purpose mobile device, although the desire exists and dedicated single-purpose mobile devices are available. In the second stage, general-purpose mobile devices start providing the ability to perform the task in mobile contexts, but this choice remains secondary to a stationary solution. In the third stage, users prefer to carry out the task with a mobile device even if a stationary option is available.