Finnish Enterprise Mobility Cluster: Mobility, antennas and... speed?
Enterprise Mobility Cluster survey 2009 was conducted as a part of Tekes VAMOS programme by the programme activator Spinverse Ltd. Responses were received from 117 SMEs who offer wireless solutions or solutions which rely on mobility to other businesses or organisations and they operate in Finland. 91% of respondents were CEO/management level.
Cluster companies are profitable and will grow rapidly in 2010
The average founding year of the respondents was 2001 and the peak of establishing companies was in 2006-2007 after which the rate has stabilised. Their revenues dropped slightly in 2009 to an average of 1,75M€, but they are expected to grow 34% in 2010. The average amount of personnel (18) didn’t decrease in 2009, and it’s expected to grow to 20 in 2010. Companies stayed profitable (average EBIT 5,9%) and the profitability is expected to grow especially among the small companies. Companies throughout the cluster plan to increase their R&D investments in 2010 to an average of 17,2% of the revenue (higher than with rest of the technology industry).
The companies target their offerings on field operations
Most respondents consider mobile/wireless solutions as only a part of their offering. Most companies concentrate on Blue Collar Mobility (46%) and Customer Interaction (43%). Low portion of White Collar Mobility solutions (34%) could be explained by heavy international competition. Most solutions are used in supporting Maintenance and Service (46%) and Transportation and Logistics (45%) customer processes. F&C (14%) and HR (14%) are the most underserved customer processes. Among the served customer industries, Transportation and Logistics (47%) and the Public sector (37%) are most popular. Forest (16%) and Food (16%) industries are the least popular.
Solutions typically consist of productised software
Solutions are typically delivered by the SaaS model (39%), and hardware is most important in a supporting role. Companies offer equally products and services. The solutions are more often productised (71%) than not (63%), but productisation does not correlate with profits.
The solutions rely on widespread technologies
2G&3G technologies are the most popular (77% and 64%), which can be explained by SMS and mobile data enabled services. WLAN (54%) and positioning (45%) stand out but NFC/RFID (23%) is not very popular. Symbian smart phones (42%) and personal computers (41%) are the most popular devices, but the iPhone has a relatively high standing (22%).
Companies increased their solution portfolios during the downturn
Most competition is present in food and transportation and logistics industry providers, but there are no monopolies in any of the customer industries. The companies were not caught by the recession (74%) and instead they increased their solution portfolio in 2009 (71%). High growth is expected within several customer industries in 2010.
R&D activities, international operations and financing
39% of the companies only do R&D along the daily business but 44% have dedicated R&D staff. 44% of companies already have revenue from abroad, and only 10% are not even considering it. Almost all companies are financed by their Finnish founder or employee, and public agencies are the second largest source of funding.
Enterprise Mobility Cluster report