The difference between a mobile or wireless implementation that’s overflowing with ROI benefits, and one that’s DOA shortly after the pilot project, often boils down to the dance of words between IT and “the suits.”

Have you and your IT group ever meet with executives and managers to present a good case for deploying a particular mobile application? But your comments are met with the dazed, glazed, slack-jaw expressions which tell you that comprehension, like Elvis, has left the building.

How about the flip side? You spend an hour with a department head who’s explaining why “we have to go wireless.” But when the meeting is over, you only have a vague idea of what the person wants the application to do.

What you want - and what I intend to help you achieve - is to get you, your staff and business managers on the same page when it comes to developing and then pursuing ROI objectives.

I believe there are four main strategic business functions within most organizations that mobile and wireless can impact. 1) Communicating more effectively with customers. 2) Enhancing service and support. 3) Communicating more effectively with prospects. 4) Improving internal communications and business operations.

If business execs ask and answer the right questions about each of these functions, they can determine if there’s an ROI-driven business case for the technology. You, in turn, will better be able to guide your developers and/or vendors to implement the best application.

I’ll tackle the first strategic area today.

Assemble a few department managers and key executives, say marketing, sales, R & D and the CFO. The initial question is what’s the average monthly, annual or lifetime value of the customer (reseller, donor) relationship?

Assume a relationship is worth $100,000 a year. A potential mobile app’s total cost of ownership is $1000 a year per customer, and it will increase retention by two years, or increases average customer spending by 10% ($10,000). That’s respectable ROI. Conversely, an app costing $50,000 annually per customer for the same results probably qualifies as a dog. Put it to sleep. Now.

These numbers are hypothetical, exaggerated and unimportant. What’s important is the Q & A (question and analysis) process by which executives approve or reject ideas, and how the approved ideas get translated into measurable objectives.

Let’s follow this $100,000 customer down the ROI path a bit.

For a mobile or wireless app to make sense in this first strategic area, it has to help you keep customers longer, get them to spend more, or get customers to refer a lot of new $100K customers. If the app doesn’t achieve one or more of these objectives at a level to generate a healthy ROI, find another strategic area where the app makes sense, determine if there are intangible benefits that justify the cost, or find another app.

If we push content to customers the week they typically place orders and offer a 2-for-1 special price, by how much might we increase each sale? At trade shows, each sales reps averages eight referrals from customers per day and generate $x in sales. How much more will we generate if reps distribute mobile games that produce 30 referrals per customer?

It takes three sales visits and four weeks to convince a customer to buy, complete the paperwork and place the order. What if we stuff every piece of paperwork, brochure, catalog, form, etc. on a mobile device so the customer sees and approves everything they need in one meeting?

To help generate good questions, present six or seven key things that the technology can do to achieve the three main objectives I’ve outlined.

Through intense “what if” Q &A, highlight cost-cutting, revenue-generating benefits the technology can potentially produce. Also ask managers to describe in detail how employees do what they do and how the various business processes work. Many managers don’t understand enough about how their own businesses operate, and this inhibits their ability to maximize the technology’s potential benefits.

Begin by asking the group if many of your customers use mobile devices with digital imaging, text messaging and relatively high data storage capabilities. If so, what’s the financial benefit of giving them mobile access to their data create by your CRM app and stored on a separate secure server?

How does enabling mobile access by customers reduce operating costs by eliminating time purchasing staff spend on the phone with them clarifying illegible faxed orders? Can you increase the size or the number of customer orders by giving them mobile access to catalogs and order forms? Or just give them mobile devices with the already loaded with these items.

Wireless carriers use applications to push games and ring tones to consumers. It’s possible that similar applications can enable marketing, customer service, account execs and others to push content to your customers (with their permission of course) that increases customer retention or launches word of mouth campaigns. How can this benefit your business?

Shifting the discussion, what are the potential financial benefits for giving your mobile sales reps and retail clerks mobile access to key business data? Will it change the way employees work so they increase customers’ loyalty? If they carry mobile devices that send SMS messages and beam documents to other devices, can workers drive campaigns to increase referral leads generated by customer?

If your facilities have WiFi deployed, how can it change the way customers do business with you through the info they access, or what employees in that environment are able to access for customers? By tracking the impact of customers’ in-store activities, can wirelessly communicating this data improve other business processes (i.e. warehousing, shipping, marketing)? Can government or non-profit organizations using the technology to act more like commercial businesses improve constituent relationships?

Where during the sales process can your rep’s mobile access to data eliminate a step, negate the need to distribute printed material, speed up a decision? Can you alter the way salespeople sell by giving them wireless access to data, news sources and other resources they can’t get currently?

By focusing executives and managers on answering specific questions about the potential impact the technology can have on these business operations, and then having them quantify what the impact means in dollars and cents, you start to build a business case. The desired impact on business operations defines what they want the technology to do. The possible financial impact becomes everyone’s ROI objectives. You then will have clear guidance on what specific products and services you need to build or buy. 

It’s important to get managers to understand that ROI not only comes from saving time and cutting materials production. When you give employees a wireless channel to internal and internal information and resources, you change how they work. You also open new opportunities that come from a new way of communicating. As managers start to realize this, they should become more effective at letting you know what they need.

Mobile and wireless applications can be grouped into two broad categories. Those that push content to customers, prospects, and other external audiences, or enable these audiences to access data and content you make available. The other category is comprised of apps you provide to and for your organization’s employees and resources.