Adoption of Mobile Technology in Business - a Fit-Viability Model - Assignment Example

Executive summary The government is faced with an array of challenges; an aging population which is surviving on resources which are almost obsolete, ever rising demand to curb crime and assure security to the citizens, and a need to improve the efficiency of government and company services. Although it is true that information technology cannot single-handedly be a solution to all these problems, it is also true that the use of it brings reliability and efficient communication between government employees. On the other hand, companies are faced with the ever increasing competition in the market and customers are always looking for the better options between two given companies. The clients are becoming complex to be satisfied with the services offered by companies. For this case, companies are shifting competition ground to use of technology. The circumstances that are outlined above are reason enough to think of using the tablet PC to solve the inefficiencies that are found in these entities. This paper will look at how smart phone and its associated technology can be used to improve the services by government and also leverage the companies to compete better and be above the competition. It is expected that the delivery of government and company services will be greatly improved with the use of tablet PC. Table of Contents Executive summary 1 Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Adoption of mobile technology in business: A fit-viability model 7 Fit-Viability model 8 Task-technology fit 9 Viability 10 Pervasive tablet PC reinforce government and company IT objectives 11 Benefits of mobile computing 11 Strengths and drivers of mobile computing 12 References 15 Introduction The use of tablet PCs has been said to be the next wave in mobile commerce. The use of mobile devices has been seen by many researchers to be the next battle for companies to make sure that this is implemented and make optimal use of it to bring competency in their businesses. The most outstanding feature of use of tablet PCs is the mobility that comes with it. It has been argued that companies and government agencies will always look for ways in which they will increase efficiencies and be able to work on the move. Most applications of mobile devices have been on communication and areas which are related to consumer sectors of businesses. The use of tablet PCs for large commercial and government agencies is still a scare for most businesses and government agencies. Gebaur, & Shaw (2004) argue that the scare can be attributed to the security risks that arise because of the use of mobile devices. There is little trust that can be accorded to the use of tablet PCs. Although there is the notion that the use of mobile devices in business can be met with much success, there is little that has been done to ensure that this is in effect. There is little research that has been done to ensure effective use of tablet PCs, especially tablet PC, in business and government applications. Using tablet PCs have been found to have two impacts to both government and company business operations. The first impact of this is the fact that it increases communication between the management and employees, and among the employees in an organization or in a government agency. With this efficiency, companies can effectively increase their productivity; this will bring information timeliness and communication efficiency. There are studies which have been done by Matskin and Tveit (2001), Lee and Ke (2001), Kannan et al.. (2001) and Baklasubramanian et al. (2002). These researchers dwelt with the impact that short message services has on businesses. Other researchers chose to do research on how to go about in designing good mobile devices and thus add value to business communications (Raisinghani, 2001; Varshney, 2003; Tarasewich et al., 2002; Varshney, & Veter, 2002). There are few studies that have been made on how to adopt the mobile use in business operations and how this will greatly improve the business and government operations. Of all the priorities that are raised that dog the two entities, security outstands in the government and business continuity outstands in the companies. While security for the government has been a priority for long, improving security is still the leading factor and forms a larger part of IT spending for the government. There is also a need, cutting across the two entities of the need to change the IT equipment that are used by staff. Most people feel that the mobility that is seen with the employees today warrants the need to have them use mobile devices. It is at this disposition that the research will be based on mobile devices and their applications in the companies and government use for optimal performance. Government and company workers are found to be mobile most of the time. Of the two, government employees are the most mobile of all workforces. Ranging from maintenance personnel, healthcare workers, and engineers, many government employees are seen to perform their work on the go of late. What is more, with globalizations and Web 2.0 capabilities that have been made possible wit the technologies, most companies now have telecommuting employees. It is therefore becoming a need to have devices that are used on the go being entrenched to company and government auspices. The government and the companies in the private sector have come to appreciate the use of tablet PC as a form of their mobility strategy to achieve more productivity of the employees in these sectors. Forrester research found out that the government has the highest percentage of employees who require mobility strategy. The percentage of these employees, 31%, is higher than that of the private sector. The development of laptops and personal digital assistants has been able to be used when one is in the field or away from home and the workplace. This can only be successful by the help of wireless access service that is WIFI, since it can be available to most of the people due to its availability and it’s also less costly. For WIFI to work effectively, it uses radio waves that send internet signals from the original wireless router to the destined area which is the immediate surrounding area. When the wireless network is not restricted, people who want to use the internet can be able to jump on and access the internet. This has been available in many places of work, school institutions, large organizations, in most of the motels and even the cafeterias. This has been one of the ways as of attracting customers by offering the small service, and also people have been seen to realize the hotspots which has played back those public places big time and a lot of people have been able to appreciate the service since it has been be able to replace the anxiety that lots of people have if they had some transactions to do over the internet. Another wireless network that be used in absence of WIFI is the cellular broadband, this is a kind of technology that uses the modem to connect to the internet ,also there use of the Aircard that still works the same as modem. A lot of people have opted to turn to this option since it’s also cheap and reliable. For the aircard its fit in the card PC of the laptop slot making it possible to connect to the internet easily and becomes accessible to the user. This has been very helpful since one does not need to remain in the same position but can also be able to move from one geographical are to another as long as the cellular signal is strong and activated to the new area that one moves to . The cellular broad band does not only provide access to the internet on laptops only and notebook computers but also it can be used in cell phones and PDAs. The service offered by the broadband internet depends on how many kilobyte or megabytes that you down load from the internet and the charges will be determined on the amount of work that u download from the internet. The cost can be either increasing the monthly cost or incurring some extra fees for the service provided. Some broadband provides a monthly offer when one loads the modem with the specified amount of money. This saves the user big time, since one can download the any amount of data that is of importance without any restrictions. Other services that are offered and linked to mobile computing is the availability of various websites services where one can be able to access information from this websites in a mobile computer. This way individuals who go to the field are able to access the websites that they want to get some information from, without struggling a lot instead of being loaded so much work of carrying materials with them to the field which is very tiresome and time consuming before they can arrange how to transport the materials and with the big machines that may have the files and the software’s that are need to be installed during the research work. The mobile computing can also manage to get access to the company’s virtual private net work (VPN).this can be done by tunneling through the internet. This way, many organizations have been able to increase its productivity which has been made possible through mobile computing and the personal digital assistance. Communication has been made easier by mobile computing and the evolving technology as information and any kind of data can be transmitted and accessed with ease in any area i.e. in remote locations and other fixed locations. This mobility of mobile computers has transformed many organizations and has been a remedy to the problems facing many businesses. In this research report, we will be able to look at the features of the mobile computing its past present and future trends and the changes that has taken place. Will be also able to give a cellular of networks and discuss the technology of CDPD that provides an easy transfer of information to any network. We also look at how we can be able to improve the mobile computing and how it can be implemented world wide. The existing cellular network architecture has been taken by the mobile telephones where it utilizes the frequencies and making it possible for the users to be connected across the networks. As it is seen, Analogue technology had already started being used in 1980’s. Such examples of these systems are like (NMT900) and 450 Nordic Mobile Telephone and the (AMPS) Advanced Mobile Phone Service. There was another technology that was developed in 1990’s; this was the digital cellular technology that came hand in hand with Global System Mobile (GSM). This technology did so well since it was accepted so well word widely. Still there were other systems that were also created during that time including Digital communication Systems (DCS1800) and the Personal communication systems (PCS1900). Adoption of mobile technology in business: A fit-viability model With the advent of information technology, there is a lot to be desired with mobile applications. The mobile phone technology is proving to be a simple and effective method of managing applications and businesses. The case of National Social and Security Fund in Kenya is an organization in which mobile technology is applied for business operations. Most researchers have come up with models that are used to measure the effectiveness of a mobile business application. This paper will look at the use of Fit-viability model, proposed by Tjan (2001). Fit-Viability model There are two dimensions that are used for measuring whether a technology is fit. These dimensions include fit and the other is viability. The former measures the extent in which the application that is being advocated for measures up to the competence and structure of the organization (Applegate, Mcfarlan, & Mckenney 82). On the other hand, viability will measure the extent of the value that is added by the new application that is measured. It will also measure the requirements of the human resource and capital needs. This is a simple matrix; the fit is in the horizontal axis while viability is in the vertical axis (Liang, & Wei 65). Liang and Wei (2004) came up later and adapted the fit-viability model so that they could come up with a model to be used for mobile commerce applications. Their theory combined together the theory of task/technology fit with the general notion of organizational impact of IT. In this model, viability is used to measure the readiness in which the environment that is in question is ready for the technology that is being advocated for. They also take into consideration the economic costs and the readiness of the users to the adoption of the technology (DelVecchio, & Seeman 64). The infrastructure of the organization is also looked into to measure the readiness for it to adopt the mobile technology (Poon, & Wagner 54). Given the fact that the key features of mobile technology are mobility and the reachability, the feature of fit for these two researchers measure the degree to which the mobile technologies meet the requirements of the task; such as the sensitivity of the device on a given location and the timeliness of a particular service. In the matrix, there are four categories which will help the organizations to come out with the optimal strategy for the application of the mobile technology (Miller 65). There are four alternatives that have been identified which are good, target, restructuring of the organization, and finding the alternative technology. An example is an application with a rate of high on viability and low on fit; this will mean that the organization is ready but the task is not fit for the nature of the mobile technology. The best strategy that will be required here is to look for another technology that will fit the task; it is not advisable to rush into this bandwagon without the need to look into the implications it has. On the other hand, one which has a rating of high on viability but low on fit will mean that there could be a need to restructure the organization before implementing the strategy. Restructuring would improve the prospects of the technology economically. It is evident then, that the mobile applications which have a good task-technology fit (TTF) and also strong organizational viability will act as good targets (Weill, & Vitale 26). Task-technology fit When analyzing the fit dimension, there are different perspectives that should be looked into. These are the technological characteristics, requirements of the task, and individual abilities. In the case of fit-viability model, the model is modified so that it uses more objective assessment of the blend between the technology and the task without considering the individual abilities (Delone, & Mclean 62). This means that that fit takes into account only technology and the task requirements. Organizational viability is considered to be having individual factors thus they are not included here. When the fit-viability model is used in mobile commerce, mobility and reachability are considered to be salient features that are used for assessing the fit. Mobile technology is applicable to features which depend on time, location and identity. The fit with the mobile technology would be high if task requirements coincide with the said features (Umble, Haft, & Umble 53). Viability Viability is used to measure the degree in which the organization is ready for the deployment of the technology. There are factors that need to be considered which include the economic feasibility, the infrastructure of the existent technology, and the readiness of the people to embrace the new technology. Worth mentioning is that most organizational factors have been considered as critical when implementing IT. Some of the important ones are described below in sections that follow. The first aspect is economic feasibility of the organization. It is important to make sure the application will have financial returns and also ensure that it can affect transaction costs which will eventually give the organization to be an edge above the competition. The cost benefit analysis is important for many organizations and it has been advocated by many authors. The top management is supposed to give their full support for the application. The system usage and user acceptability could also be used as another factor to measure the success of the system. There are also other factors like information quality, system quality, quality of the service, the intent of the user, satisfaction of the user and the benefit they get from the application (Williamson 53). It has been also argued that information technology infrastructure combines two factors which are space and the Internet. The two parts of the Blueprint are IT infrastructure and business opportunities. The former entail the infrastructure of the information systems and the varying information service that is required. The latter will entail the commerce, communities and the content. Pervasive tablet PC reinforce government and company IT objectives The capability of providing mobile services and channels in any entity is common element in any trend. Using tablet PC will greatly improve the services that are offered by companies and government agencies by a bigger percentage. With tablet PC, employees can answer the call for service while they are on the move. With tablet PC, they can answer urgent e-mails and directions while they are travelling. They will no longer have to travel to the organization to gain access to the computer. What is more, the costs that companies and government agencies incur to meet these expenses will be reduced a great deal. Benefits of mobile computing Another use of the mobile computing is the control of stock information collation. During the stock counting, it’s prior to use a central database that is connected to a central network that can act as the server in sending the information to all other computers on the network. This way there will be no delay in giving the accurate data of the stock and the information will be provided to every client. CDPD network links the data on the mobile computers and the central database. The mobile computers do a very quick verification of the credit cards normally used supermarkets and various shops. When the card is passed through the point of sale terminals, the information is sent to the bank computers for verification at the same time a response is given back after verifying. This is the same thing that happens with the visa cards and ATM’s. With the integrated technology of mobile computers, taxis have been made in away that there is a system gives the details of it whereabouts ,this has made it for the cabs business to thrive so well since it gives some seriousness to the drivers by avoiding them from taking the advantage of using the companies car for their own leisure. The mobile computing can also be used for alerting the user when it’s low on fuel and even how to measure the amount of fuel to be used in a given period of time. Incase of stealing these cars, it can be easier to track them using the track system in them. For the electronic Mail it has been one of the best ways of receiving and sending mails across the network. It’s a future that is used by many businesses and a lot of people worldwide. This helps also friends, relatives and families to connect to each other and keep in touch. Mobile computing has been helpful to a lot of people since they can learn, and gain knowledge over the internet in whatever places they are. Strengths and drivers of mobile computing Mobile computing and wireless communication have been playing an advancing important role our professional and personal lives. For example there are so many people using mobile phones on daily basis for business and personal communications. Also Wi-Fi LANs that are widely used in offices, homes, shopping malls and in educational centers. Thus there are strengths that are driving mobile computing into their growth. They include the following; Advances in wireless networks Despite their flexibility, they have steady increase in wireless data rates which are higher and achievable with broadband wireless technology. They have such applications such as graphics, video and audio that enable them to compete with wired networks. This advantage of mobile networks enable them to enjoy convenience, reduced cost of cabling and speeds of deployment to almost everywhere as compared to wired networks. Social and cultural factors Mobile computing conforms to our inherently mobile lifestyles. Due to our daily movements in business and in employment mobile environment fits in our lives with the need for information and transactions anytime and anywhere. It enhances our social and cultural live in all ways since it facilitates communication. Niche applications Wireless communication is the only option when it comes to space exploration and especially over long distances where wired network is virtually impossible. In some cases where legal regulations restrict some applications, wireless communication works. An example of this is where it is difficult to lay cables in battlefield or in carrying a wired device when chasing a criminal. Special situations This is mostly with satellite communications that makes connection to far–flung and hard to reach areas and also where it is difficult to lay cables in hostile environments. Another example where wireless communication is vital in such situations is in high theft areas where cables are often stolen for sale. Wireless for older buildings Where buildings are too old for installation of cables wireless computing is the best option. This is mostly done to historical buildings, castles and campuses which are too old for cabling. Rapid development in mobile devices such as the wireless handsets that have got attractive features such as digital cameras, powerful laptops and cell phones with internet and data access capabilities is a drive to growth of mobile computing. 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