As more consumers purchase and use media tablets, such as
the iPad, they are becoming increasingly prevalent in the workplace and
enterprise vendors are responding accordingly.
“The initial use of iPads and tablets by marketers
will be the extension of existing marketing applications, such as campaign
management and marketing resource management (MRM) functionality, to be
supported by the device, either disconnected or connected to the network and
home-based application,” said Kimberly Collins, managing vice president at
Gartner.
“By 2014, 65 percent of major marketing automation
vendors will extend 25 percent of their functionality to the iPad. MRM vendors
will lead this charge with adaption of functionality for reviews and approvals.
Marketing fulfillment vendors are likely to enable access to content via
tablets as well,” Collins added.
The biggest benefit includes the ability of marketers to
work remotely while traveling, enabling them to complete tasks and projects
faster, and in a more timely fashion. They also have fast access to content and
collateral in the field. Cycle times can be greatly reduced, yielding increased
staff productivity and decreasing program/campaign costs. Chief marketing
officers (CMOs) and creative users will have the biggest need for remote
access, followed by campaign managers and designers.
CMOs and senior marketing leaders are the most likely to
move to iPads exclusively for their work over the next couple of years, due to
their visual appeal when meeting with other executives and more-limited
processing requirements. Other personnel will be more likely to buy the tablets
themselves in the short term, and to request support before the tablets become
corporate standards.
Over the next three to five years, next-generation of
iPad and tablet usage by marketers for internal tasks will focus on the
development of existing or new applications to be fully used on the tablet, as
opposed to partial functionality from existing applications used in the office.
New marketing vendors may develop iPad-only applications for internal use by
marketers.
E-commerce organizations are also being lured by the
appeal of tablets and e-readers. E-commerce tablet and e-reader applications
are nascent and evolving quickly, creating a new set of selling options for
organizations. Gartner said that by 2014, 95 percent of e-commerce websites
will have a tablet or e-reader presence. However, 40 percent will fail due to a
lack of customer-understanding of their usage.
“It’s crucial for organizations to understand what type of
buying experience is needed by their users for tablet- and e-reader-based
sales,” said Gene Alvarez, research vice president at Gartner. “They
will need to determine how many devices they will support, as they will be
faced with not only supporting browsers and tablets, but also other mobile
customer touchpoints. As a result, an organization’s analysis of its customer
base, and its usage of various different touchpoints are critical to its
success in the new mobile world.”
By TelecomLead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
