Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store. Enterprise Mobility in the post BlackBerry era An AppCentral TM ebook

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1 Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store Enterprise Mobility in the post BlackBerry era An AppCentral TM ebook

2 I. Introduction The Enterprise Mobilizes Strap on your seatbelts. The enterprise mobility revolution heralded for almost a decade has finally arrived. Ironically, it took a consumer mind-set to blast through the barriers that enterprises erected to defend against mobile chaos. High-powered knowledge workers fell in love with their iphones, ipads and Android Phones -- and they didn t see why they should leave their favorite new devices at home. The good news: this new generation of app-enabled smartphones and tablets really do deliver on their promises. (In a recent Forrester report, 75% of enterprises said they experienced increased productivity by deploying mobile apps.) The not so good news: because they came into the enterprise in users pockets, these new mobile devices skirted around corporate IT control. So sensitive company data could walk out of the office and be forgotten in any bar or taxi. Clearly, enterprises need a way to harness the power of mobile without compromising on their responsibilities. The app catalyst It s not the shiny, touch-screen devices that are sparking the new era of enterprise mobility. It s the apps. The app store model designed to unleash innovation in gaming, social media and shopping is having the same effect on personal and enterprise productivity. This is the era of the enterprise mobile app. 65% of U.S. and U.K. companies plan to deploy 5 or more mobile apps this year. Kelton Research Jan 2011 What can mobile apps do? Enterprise mobility goes far beyond , contacts and calendars. A pharmaceutical company gave its salesforce a mobile app to find potential prospects a few minutes away from the salesperson s current location. The number of logged sales calls per day doubled and revenues followed suit. Clearly, it pays to empower your mobile workforce with the apps they need to do their jobs better, smarter and faster. this Tweet this 2

3 It s a jungle out there The consumerization of IT and the explosion in mobile devices and apps have created major new challenges for IT departments. The first wave of enterprise mobility the BlackBerry era didn t prepare IT for the chaos to come. With one primary device to worry about and three core apps ( , contacts, calendars), it was easy to take the desktop PC approach to governance: limit choice, lock down the device and own everything. Today, there are thousands of permutations of devices, operating systems, firmware versions and operators not to mention tens of thousands of mobile apps. More to the point, the mobile device doesn t belong to the company any more (if it ever really did). Sales to corporations and governments will account for about 30 to 40 percent of all tablet sales by the end of Mike Abramsky RBC Capital Market, in The New York Times Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store/The Enterprise Mobilizes 3

4 II. BYOD The rise of employee- liable devices Mobile devices are far more intimate than PCs. No matter what your corporate policy, users will treat them like personal devices. And today, more and more devices actually have been selected and bought by the employee. What percentage of smartphone users within your organization would you estimate have acquired and pay for their devices in the following way? 60% 29% 14% 58% 50% Individually liable Average Percentage 40% 30% 20% Corporate-liable subscriptions 10% 0% Corporate- sponsored subscriptions Source: Yankee Group, 2010 Enterprise Mobility IT Decision-Maker Survey, December 2010 (N-205) Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store/II. BYOD 4

5 The rise of employee-liable devices has profound implications for enterprises and IT departments It raises some important questions: Do you want to back up your employees personal data, images and apps to corporate servers? Can you legally lock or wipe an employee s personal device? Do you want to invest resources trying to monitor and manage everything on every user s device? Do you want to dictate which devices and apps every user can use? These kinds of questions point to a new era in enterprise mobility and a new management mindset. One thing is clear: companies can t put the genie back in the bottle. Employee-liable devices will need to co-exist with companyliable devices for the foreseeable future (if not supplant them completely). It s a good thing. There s no reason to fight the Bring Your Own Device trend. Approached properly, it should save the company time, money and a lot of management headaches. But only if the company retains the ability to manage and secure the things that really matter: corporate apps and data. It s increasingly common for people to bring their own devices into the business, and then expect IT to make them work with back-end systems. eweek The new Bring Your Own Device world Company-Liable Devices One platform: BlackBerry , contacts, calendar Knowledge workers only Company can lock & wipe entire device Device-centric management Employee-Liable Devices Many platforms (ios, Android, etc.) Dozens of apps All employees Company responsible for corporate assets, not personal ones Companies can lock and wipe corporate apps and data Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store/II. BYOD 5

6 III. MDM Mobile Device Management: a good start The first attempt to tame the mobile beast, Mobile Device Management (MDM) platforms, grew up out of the era of a single device and a handful of apps. Like the desktop PC management approach it s modelled on, MDM is ideal for a world with a small number of defined end-user devices (like Wintel PCs). And, because it emerged when , calendars and contacts were the only enterprise mobile apps, MDM is optimised for a small app portfolio, in contrast to today s rich app universe. A world with many more apps and many more users has pushed the MDM model to its limits. A mixed bag of functions There s no consensus around the essential components of an MDM solution, but most include features such as device locking & wiping; GPS tracking; device backup; device provisioning and configuration; and asset tracking. Some of these features are an important part of an enterprise mobility strategy. And MDM functions will always be needed, even if the all-in-one, device-centric platforms fade away. It s early days for MDM but the reports from the field are decidedly mixed. Missing what matters The problems that the MDM early adopters have experienced tend to come from the fact that MDM, as its name implies, takes a device-centric view of mobility and a lock-down approach to security. The device control mindset contradicts the ethos of an employee-owned device that bridges personal and professional realms. But the real problem is that MDM tries to manage the entire device (and all the personal content) instead of only managing what matters to the enterprise: corporate apps and data. Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store/III. MDM 6

7 Three Mobility Approaches Recognising the restrictions of full MDM for all, some companies are implementing a tiered approach to mobility: The most sensitive tier companies choose a few phones and tablets to be locked down with full MDM. The second tier mixes company-liable and employee-liable devices and tends to cherry-pick a few basic MDM features like the ones available in ActiveSync. The third tier is the wild west, with 100% employee-liable devices and almost no control of what lives on the device and what leaves the company. The tiered approach can be a useful construct but still leaves some users constrained and limited to a few devices, while others are free to run roughshod over the company governance policy. As enterprises experience the limitations of MDM, a new approach to enterprise mobility has emerged: one that takes an app-centric view instead of a device-centric view. Although it s true that ipads and iphones that are connected to a Microsoft Exchange server can be remotely disabled that s a perilous step to take when an employee owns the device in question. eweek MDM Resistance While some MDM features are recognized as important, the end-to-end MDM platforms have met with strong resistance: Users want liberty They don t want to choose from a limited range of devices and they don t want the company to see, own and wipe their personal apps and data. Administrators want their lives back They don t want to own the device headaches along with the devices. They don t want to be responsible for every user s personal data. And they don t want to deal with users whose personal devices have been completely wiped. Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store/III. MDM 7

8 IV. A new model The birth of Mobile Application Management As employee-liable devices predominate in the enterprise, a new model has emerged to manage what matters while leaving personal content to the user: Mobile Application Management (MAM). An App-Focused Approach Mobile App Management embraces the idea of the employee-liable device and focuses on the corporate apps the things that are actually delivering the productivity (but are also exposing the company to risks). In the MAM model, the device and its personal apps and data are the user s problem. But company apps are managed in a way that s simple and user-friendly, while also being rigorous, automated and scalable. The Three Big Challenges Mobile App Management handles the three main challenges that come with enterprise mobile apps at scale: Mobile App Distribution Making sure the right employees have the right levels of access. Not all employees need to use all your apps. Mobile App Security The ability to limit access to corporate apps and to lock or wipe company apps and data when needed. Mobile App Lifecycle Management The ability to update apps remotely; alert users to new apps, updates; track usage by app and user; and collect feedback for developers and IT. Together, these three critical challenges make up the Mobile Application Management domain. Security fears caused 75% of enterprises to delay rolling out mobile apps at one time or another. Kelton Research, 2011 Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store/IV. A new model 8

9 V. What good looks like The principles of MAM Mobile App Management may vary from company to company, but the core principles don t: Manage & secure what really matters to the company Focus on corporate apps and data and leave the content you don t want or need to know about (and might open you up to liability if you back it up to company servers). Embrace employee-liable devices And manage them together with company-liable devices. Support across mobile platforms Don t just control one device type. Serve apps to iphones, ipads, Android phones and tablets and beyond. Give users a familiar experience Work with users in the way they re already used to working with their own personal apps. Minimize IT burden with a self-service model Why trouble administrators and users with unfamiliar processes. Use the consumer models that they already understand. Embrace users beyond the employee base Exciting solutions emerge as you offer solutions to the enterprise s extended employee, contractor and partner ecosystem. Make it easy for mobile developers They re essential to the enterprise app ecosystem. A complete MAM solution should help developers make their apps enterprise-ready by providing a robust infrastructure for distributing and updating apps in development and production phases. Track the app usage Don t just track device usage: track the apps for managing licenses, improving the app portfolio and optimizing productivity. Just knowing which apps were downloaded is not enough you need to know which apps are really being used. Collect user feedback Keep improving your mobility initiatives by sharing what users use and by collecting their ratings, recommendations and feature requests. A Mobile App Management solution that doesn t follow these principles is probably MDM in disguise. Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store/V. What good looks like 9

10 The strategic importance of Mobile Application Management: Yankee Group view So just how important is Mobile Application Management? Analysts at the Yankee Group believe enterprises sharing the vision have a strategic advantage. There s only one approach that can give you happy customers and a competitive advantage. Market leadership Application managment Customer satisfaction Productivity Production Immediate cost saving to strategic application Security managment Cost Efficiency Telecon Expense managment Connectivity managment Mobile device managment Source: Yankee Group, 2010 Enterprise Mobility IT Decision-Maker Survey, December 2010 (N-205) Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store/V. What good looks like 10

11 VI. MAM in action The Enterprise App Store The logical manifestation of the MAM approach is also the simplest: the Enterprise App Store. What it is Just like it sounds, an Enterprise App Store is a mobile app store that s optimized for the scale, security and management challenges of the enterprise environment. While the Enterprise App Store is especially relevant in the era of Bring Your Own Device, it s just as powerful in a world with company-owned devices or a mixed environment. How it works The Enterprise App Store is a self-service catalog just for the apps that the company wants to promote and support. A basic deployment will always include: A MAM server To distribute, secure, update monitor and wipe the company apps. MAM client software A native app in which users can discover and download IT-supported apps. A MAM management console Where administrators load and secure apps, establish policy, monitor usage and manage apps throughout the lifecycle. On top of these components, a comprehensive MAM solution must also include: A Mobile app security & management wrapper A way to encase a mobile app in a wrapper that allows each app to be tracked, managed, locked or wiped individually and remotely. These features provide you with a crucial advantage: Enterprise Scale Flexible deployment options for staff (working on premises, off premises, or both) that s not tied to an MDM or development platform. The Enterprise App Store model is a simple concept that addresses non-trivial challenges. Ideally, it does this across mobile platforms rather than being locked to one. Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store/VI. MAM in action 11

12 The benefits of an Enterprise App Store Just as the app store model ignited the consumer mobile markets, the enterprise app store is doing the same for business and government. It s a simple, easy to deploy solution that lets enterprises: Harness the productivity gains of mobile apps without sacrificing good governance. Support employees who own their own devices as well as company-owned devices. Avoid having to manage the entire device and the associated risk, costs & admin burden. Let users and business heads choose their devices & apps instead of limiting their choice. Distribute approved apps quickly & easily remotely and automatically, using self-service. Secure the apps and data that matter - your company apps and data. Streamline app management throughout the lifecycle. Monitor app usage and collect feedback to improve apps. Young professionals - also known as digital natives - are entering the workforce as fully indoctrinated mobile device multitaskers. Do not expect them to work without a smartphone or similar device at hand. ComputerWeekly.com Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store/VI. MAM in action 12

13 VII. Conclusion Simpler is usually better The mobile revolution took enterprises by surprise No one was prepared for the complexity, device diversity and rapid penetration of employeeowned devices. MDM, the first response to the crisis, took a device-centric view that was almost as complex as the problems it tried to solve. It also exposed the enterprise to all the risks and headaches that come with managing devices and taking responsibility for personal data. Today, the momentum is all behind the Enterprise App Store model partly because it mirrors the proven dynamics of the consumer app store and partly because it lets enterprises focus on the things they really want to manage. While certain MDM functionality will always have a place in enterprise mobility, the most successful players will be the ones who take the app-centric approach. The Enterprise App Store and Mobile App Management are ready for prime time. Mobile App Management & the Enterprise App Store/VII. Conclusion 13

14 VII. Hello About us AppCentral makes it easy for enterprises to distribute, secure and manage the mobile apps that are driving new levels of productivity. We call it Mobile App Management and it s completely changing the way enterprises harness the power of mobile apps. Through a cloud-based, customized app storefront, AppCentral makes mobile apps and data instantly available to authorized members of the extended enterprise - employees, contractors, and ecosystem partners - even on devices beyond enterprise control. By focusing on apps and data, not the device, you exercise both content and brand control, effortlessly updating, tracking, and reporting on content. The company is based in San Francisco and backed by Blue Run Ventures. this Tweet this 14

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