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Designing mobile solutions for mobile workers is difficult because there is a lack of theories and methods. Based on recent literature of systems engineering, business engineering, information systems design, and project/process management, an analysis framework is presented that assesses the design approach of workforce solutions. An exploratory case based in the Netherlands was studied under the framework. The results indicate a need for a design approach that integrates "soft system thinking", collaborative business engineering activities, and process management strategy. The study provides a basis for further research to design mobile workforce solutions.

Designing mobile information services, including mobile Internet services, mobile banking, interactive mobile television, location-based services etc. that capture a mass market has not been easy, and there have been many disappointments over the past years. There are still uncertainties with regard to the kinds of mobile services users want and need. We argue that users wants and needs depend on their context, which means that users should play an important role in the design process of mobile information services, through a structured approach in which developers and users work together. In this paper, we present a group-based approach to include the user early on in the design process in an efficient way. We have applied the group-based approach in three cases, i.e. mobile services for campus visitors, wireless applications for the process industry and services for crisis management. In all cases, involving users early on in the design process enabled the developers to gather useful information for designing mobile information services.

The mobile telecommunications industry is undergoing rapid change, which is increasing the interdependency of firms in the sector. Mobile information and entertainment services will be delivered through inter-organizational networks of firms. This means the problems of service design must be resolved in the context of a complex value network. To shed light on these problems we present a case study of a ringtone service and from this develop guidelines for the design of similar services.

The mobile telecommunications industry needs to develop services for the mobile data market, not only to regain their investments in licenses but also to stay competitive in the future. The current turbulence on markets, politics and technology is generating many uncertainties with regard to, for instance, user needs, dominant technology and the role of different market players. The goal of this paper is to show how to apply the scenario method for coping with these uncertainties in the development of mobile data services. We argue that mobile service providers should pay more and permanent attention to these uncertainties when developing new mobile data services.In 2001 a Dutch consortium (named MOBUS), consisting of representatives of mobile service providers, research institutes, universities, telecommunication suppliers and financial companies, undertook a project with the goal of defining possible new services for the mobile telecommunications industry. To develop a view on the future, a set of four scenarios for the year 2005 was developed. These scenarios were not only made to gain insight into possible new mobile data services but also into how users might use these services and which technologies might be available. An important element of the project was a list of uncertainties produced by the consortium that formed the basis of the scenarios. These uncertainties were evaluated two years later to find out whether these uncertainties are still valid, why they changed and if new uncertainties have come up. Two items were considered to be not uncertain anymore, i.e. mobile services will be multimedia based and mobile payment is available. On the other hand 26 new uncertainties were identified. Therefor all market parties involved in mobile data services development should reconsider uncertainties on a regular basis with different teams of experts.