Werner Lindemann, IBM South Africa

Industries and operations were transformed by the Web, just not in ways that people initially imagined. But this is exactly the approach people are taking to mobile.

What we see in our global dealings with clients in multiple industries is that we won’t know how transformative until we figure out how to make the most of what makes mobility unique.

This means taking a step back and saying “let’s just forget the old business processes and consider what’s specific about this new technology”. Then we can get a true picture of the future of mobility.

Mobile equals data that’s available to anyone at anytime.

Mobile provides instant access to data; it makes it possible to combine it instantly with similar data from millions, even billions, of people.

Through mobile, the power of sensors to create a constant stream of updated information is unleashed. Mobile allows data to be relayed by the mobile device we carry, but also from billions of wirelessly enabled machines around us.

Here are some examples of mobile’s transformative possibilities:

The concept of buying will be very different. No longer will we buy something from the stores based on research done on the Web, but on the information we get from the social network.

Using these insights, retailers could automatically court consumers, using information including the price points that work for them based on the market, and their willingness to lower their price to gain consumers as their loyal customers.

Health will be transformed. All of our body parts can be monitored in one fashion or another. It could be something as simple as a pill we swallow, which relays information back to our doctors and specialists as we go about our day after a check-up.

Data is potent, but real-time data, available when and where we need it, and analysed based not on just one person, but millions of other people, is revolutionary data. What possibilities are there for your industry and business?

About the author: Werner Lindemann is global technology service executive at IBM South Africa.