Last minute feedback for Mobile Business

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

May 14, 2007 [2372 views]

I have had a chance to look through your mobile business case study answers and here are some tips for the exam:

1. When you are asked to name your client, I want you to tell me the name of the company, school, organisation or other entity that you would pitch the idea too. I do not want to hear “any school” or “a shoe shop”.
2. When you are asked to “describe the application” tell me what your system will do. “Wap 2.0” and “presence” are not answers to “describe the application”. Provide sufficient detail to explain the application. “Voting by SMS” is not a sufficiently detailed explanation.
3. Most of you were clear who the end users were but some of you were perhaps too general:”anyone with a car” is too big a group. What? everywhere? And so is “the public”!
4. Think a little harder about the real benefits. What makes this different from how they do something now? Why is it better, more convenient, cheaper, faster? This is an area where some of you will lose marks unless you think harder. Just because it is possible to do something by mobile, does not make it worth doing.
5. A few people are suggesting things that would be much easier to do from a PC. You need to make sure that the mobileness of the benefits is clear. Do I want to do this instantly, down the pub or when travelling? Are you sure?
6. To back up your ideas it is a good idea to be able to point to things that are similar, even if they are in a different industry.
7. Can you explain to someone how this will work? How will the bits of technology fit together? I asked for other technologies that you would use and if you said “the web” I would want you to be able to describe how data from the web site would be integrated with data on the mobile device. A diagram is a good way of summarising this information in your case study,
8. A few of you think you will build this from scratch without partners. I suspect that you will need the help of mobile operators, RFID card manufacturers or web hosting companies. Perhaps you need to send SMS or timed alerts. All of these are likely to involve other companies so find them and know what they would do.
9. Who pays whom for what? This is very important if there is to be a convincing business. Of course your client may just pay to have the system implemented but they will want to see a return in terms of savings or revenue. Will the customer pay? I’m not looking for exact business details but a sense of scale.
10. Privacy and security have been themes throughout the module from tracking to RFID to personal details and fake SMS sending. Make sure that you have thought through these issues.

 

  

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