Mobile apps are quickly becoming the primary manner by which consumers interact with the Internet. In fact, there will be more mobile devices than people on Earth by the end of 2012, according to a recent Cisco report entitled Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast.
As a result, enterprises worldwide are quickly gearing-up to offer their workforce and customers access to all their products and services from the convenience of their mobile devices. In fact, enterprise mobility services has almost overnight become one of the fastest growing IT market segments, growing to nearly a $17 billion market by 2015, according to the recent Forester Research report.
Nestle's used Capgemini's professional technology services company, Sogeti, to create a free app that keeps its customers abreast of its news, announcements, presentations, and events.
While many enterprises are hiring mobile IT staff to roll-their-own apps and analytics, an increasing number of CIOs are choosing to outsource their entire mobility solution efforts to professional organizations specializing in providing not only the apps, but also the infrastructure and cloud computing resources necessary to mobilize their user base. For instance, Capgemini and its professional technology arm Sogeti have just announced a new Mobile Solutions Global Service Line.
"We are creating an across-the-board service line which consolidates all our worldwide efforts, pooling our global know-how to support each vertical market with either on-premises or with cloud-based resources," said Fernando Alvarez, Mobile Solutions Global Service Line Leader, Capgemini.
Capgemini is already a $12 billion consulting, outsourcing, and technology services supplier, with high-caliber mobility customers like Nestles and Coca Cola, but the newest incarnation of its Enterprise Mobility Orchestrator platform aims to bring mobility-as-a-service to medium and small enterprises too, offering both app development and the cloud-based delivery mechanisms to support them.
"We typically host the apps we develop for our customers on our cloud-based service centers, while they test the waters," said Alvarez. "Then when they decide they like our app, we offer to bring delivery mechanisms on-premises or to continue hosting them on our cloud computers for a monthly fee."
Focusing on centralizing support for mobility apps that untethers the enterprise workforce and its customers, Capgemini will also maintain country-by-country "Centers of Excellence" that focus on the idiosyncratic needs of each region.
