At the end of 2011, Solstice Consulting did something radical when it decided to retire all of its other emerging tech service lines—including cloud, social media and others—to focus solely on enterprise mobility. J. Schwan, Founder and President of Solstice, says the firm made the decision because "we think mobile will be as big as the PC revolution and arguably larger than the Internet revolution." Since the move, Solstice has doubled in size and the demand for its services has never been greater, he says. Schwan, along with Kelly Manthey, Mobile Delivery Manager, Solstice Consulting, will discuss how consulting firms of all sizes can use mobile technologies to impact the bottom line as part of their "Winning With Mobile: New Technologies Mean Business" presentation at the Consulting Summit in New York on Oct. 25. Schwan recently sat down with Consulting One on One to talk about the mobile revolution and how it impacts Solstice and its clients.
Consulting: Can you tell me how and why you made the move to focus solely on enterprise mobility?
Schwan: We decided to go this route because we believe this is a revolution. It's a revolution that certainly rivals the PC revolution and is even bigger than the Internet revolution. We're on the antithesis of a huge transformation from one legacy technology to another, and we believe that we're going to see a huge investment in moving enterprise systems onto to these mobile platforms. We want to be at the forefront of that movement. We did a lot of analysis and surveying of existing clients and we were very vigilante about it. So, once we were all on board made the decision, we made it very clear to our clients that we would support the existing contracts we had with them but going forward the only new work we were going to take on was going to relate to the mobile channel. Since we've done that, we've doubled in size and the demand for our services has never been greater. Our clients are very enthusiastic about how we are using mobile and are open to utilizing whatever systems we have when applicable to further their knowledge.
Consulting: How is Solstice Consulting using mobile?
Schwan: We moved all of our entire materials onto tablets. We're utilizing the tablet to change the sales process to make the sales process more interactive. We're using mobile in the delivery of our projects, and we're using mobile in the operations of our business—from time entry and approvals to invoices and financial approvals. Operationally, all of our financial systems have mobile apps in front of them. Everyone at the firm has a tablet and a smart phones and laptop, we haven't completely given up on the laptop just yet. We knew that if we were going this route we'd have to "eat our own dog food," and the first thing we did was look for what we call "mobile moments" internally—things we could do that would help us run our business better.
Consulting: Was any of this a tough sell internally?
Schwan: Internally, it's been outstanding. We're really focused as a firm and all of our people are lining up behind a single goal. That's not to say it was easy. There was a little turmoil internally for sure because there were a lot of service lines that didn't necessarily align with this move. The commitment we made to everyone is that we would cross train them, so that eased a lot of nerves initially. But, that being said, we lost a few people who just didn't want to go this route.
Consulting: Why are you such a believer in mobile?
Schwan: The reason that it's going to be transformational is because these devices are much more intuitive and easy to use then even the PCs of today. The whole concept of touch-based interface means you don't really have to teach people—my two year old learned how to turn on my iPhone just by watching me. This represents a return to simplicity, ease of use and a focus of what really matter. That's the promise that mobile provides. Mobile's much more than tablets and smart phones; it's a whole new form of human, computer interaction where you're not constrained to one physical location. You can't work on a PowerPoint on an iPad today, but you will be able to in the near future. You won't be restrained by this little glowing rectangle. There's this concept of everything being a surface. It could be a wall, a desk or a conference table, but devices will be able to project images out and they will be able to sense the movement of your fingertips. Or, it can project a mobile keyboard that you'll be able to type on. Amazing. I mean we're talking about Minority Report type stuff over the next five years.
For additional information about the Consulting Summit or to register, please visit www.consultingsummit.com.
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