Mobile Applications - Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers - page 488

Connectivity

Intermittent
(dial-up, user activated)

Ubiquitous
(global, always on)

Enabling a dynamic
business model

Extending business
processes with mobility

Extending
web-to-wireless

FIGURE 22.1
The evolution of mobile business models.

to be redesigned to maximize the advantage of mobile enabling. Mobile
applications should not just be utilized to extend business processes onto
handheld or mobile devices. Instead, mobile systems should be tightly
integrated with enterprise systems to streamline processes. Thus, technol-
ogy innovation can be a stepping stone to achieve business process innova-
tion. The ultimate objective of mobility in business can be seen as providing
the power of a desktop computer in the hands of the mobile worker with
the ability to connect to a network or the Internet from virtually anywhere.
However, this may not be required or even feasible in all situations—techni-
cally or economically. Thus, it is important to identify and assess processes
and aspects of processes that would benefit from mobile enabling to make a
sound business case.

22.5 Mobile Web Services
Web Services are the cornerstone toward building a global distributed
information system, in which many individual applications will take part;
building a powerful application whose capability is not limited to local
resources will unavoidably require interacting with other partner appli-
cations through Web Services across the Internet. The strengths of Web