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.