With all the excitement brewing around the convergence of mobile, cloud and social more companies are taking a closer look at the market. Meanwhile, operators and service providers are at the cortex of this storm, yet they are facing unprecedented challenges and the future has never been so uncertain – as areas like cloud and machine to machine (M2M) grow, the role these organizations play and how they monetize these mobile-driven markets is confusing.

Unfortunately, time is of the essence for many operators to capitalize in this arena, and while some are devoting vast resources on developing opportunities that dwarf those already in the crowded market, all are hoping to reclaim their status as titans of the industry. So how can mobile operators innovate vigorously and increase competitive advantage to tap into this market, which is expected to reach more than $173 billion in the next five years?

Take center stage in enterprise mobility by becoming a key player

Many operators are girding themselves for the coming “M2M revolution,” which is expected to ignite aggressive revenue growth and stimulate their networks in the near future. However, rather than simply investing in infrastructure and working closely with device vendors, there is opportunity to be more proactive and strategic. Operators can position themselves also as key players in the enterprise mobility market, and still be able to provide solutions for M2M apps for corporate customers.

A few operators have already ventured in this direction –AT&T in the U.S., and Swisscom in Europe, for example. Surprisingly, despite significant investments poured into the space and demand for enterprise mobility solutions, operators on the whole remain static.

According to our recent Mobile Business Forecast survey of more than 1,000 U.S. and U.K. IT and business decision makers, CIOs and business unit leaders are on average planning to invest almost $1  million in employee and consumer-facing mobility projects in the next 12-18 months. That’s more than double the amount enterprises currently have invested in mobile projects ($422k). On average, U.K. businesses are planning to launch three separate new mobility projects in the next 12 months, while U.S. businesses are planning to launch four in the same period. These findings suggest that operators that enable mobility for their enterprise customers can open up a new, highly lucrative revenue stream through the provisioning of native and web apps, mobile websites and app stores, in addition to boosting revenues associated with the volume of M2M data traffic.

Offer secure enterprise services, and advance as an enterprise mobility provider

Crucially, operators are well positioned to take up the mantle of enterprise mobility provision. They already have hard-won experience in securing mobile networks, which they can now apply to the task of securing enterprise services. They are also already established providers of devices and Internet connectivity to the enterprise via their “business services” divisions. Most of all, they are a trusted resource and partner for their customers in the area of mobile communications.

Operators today have been reluctant to make a play for a share of the enterprise mobility market. Those that have looked at taking on the whole process themselves have been put off by the deep bank of resources required. However, over the next year, expect to see an increasing number of operators stake their claim as enterprise mobility providers. Why? Because a new solution to these issues is taking shape – one which sees operators forming wholesale partnerships with enterprise mobility vendors, and white-labelling those vendors’ solutions for their own corporate customers.

Be a holistic supplier, trusted advisor and expert on integrated enterprise mobility

For these partnerships to thrive, the enterprise mobility solution in question will need to play to operators’ strengths and minimize potential weaknesses. In practice, this means supplying enterprises with a unified mobility suite that manages the entire mobile lifecycle – including the design, building, integration, publishing, running, management, and analysis stages – while providing cross platform and device support. It should focus beyond just an “app platform” – 45 percent of the IT and business decision makers surveyed for the Mobile Business Forecast are currently working on or about to start working on a mobile website for their customers, while 36 percent of respondents said they were doing the same for their employees. Enterprise mobility is more than just about apps; 2012 is the year in which businesses put as much energy into developing mobile websites and hybrid web-apps as they do into developing native apps.  2012 is also the year in which branded enterprise app stores emerge from the shadow of the OEM app stores – and enhance employee productivity and user engagement.          

However, the road to enterprise mobility won’t be easy – there are a number of strict guidelines and criteria that solutions must meet before they are acceptable to the enterprise. For example, solutions that operators resell must meet strict enterprise SLAs and mobile asset management requirements, offer a superlative user experience, have full cloud-hosting capabilities and integrate with back-end systems. In addition, the go-to market must be timely – 45 percent of respondents to the Mobile Business Forecast said that the slow speed at which mobile projects came to fruition was a significant frustration in the implementation of their mobile strategies. Solutions which meet these stringent criteria will unlock the promise of the enterprise for operators because they will allow them to monetize existing relationships and core resources without requiring them to acquire new skills or take on greater financial risk.

$173.9 billion. That’s how much Global Industry Analysts predicted the worldwide enterprise mobility market would be worth by 2017. Right now, one thing about the nature of this opportunity is certain – the operators that move to take advantage of it in the short term will reap the biggest gains in the long term.

When an enterprise decides to launch a new mobile initiative, frequently their first call is to the network operator which supplies its phones and connectivity. By following these steps, operators can make the most of that call. 

Jim Somers is chief marketing and strategy officer of Antenna Software.