CIC CREATIVE INTELLECT CONSULTING LTD

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1 CIC CREATIVE INTELLECT CONSULTING LTD BRIEFING NOTE Achieving Mobie App Deveopment Success with Hybrid Coud BY CIC ANALYSTS What makes a successfu mobie app? Successfu mobie app deveopment requires the right support network, design approach, and tooing and processes arsena. However, there are certain key eements that make a successfu mobie app. User experience is critica and goes beyond purey focusing on the visua interface. It must: Meet users needs and deiver services that everage the convenience of mobie Deiver services securey and support secure and authorised interactions Prioritise high performance and usabiity Adapt to the user s behaviour Keep the app simpe, accessibe and offer easy navigation Seamessy incorporate reevant data hed in other systems Adapt content and capabiities to mobie and for different types of devices CIC ANALYSTS Cive Howard, Principa Anayst; Boa Rotibi, Research Director. Creative Inteect Consuting is an anayst research, advisory and consuting firm focused on software deveopment, deivery and ifecyce management across the Software and IT spectrum aong with their impact on, and aignment with, business. Read more about our services and reports at Forward distribution is forbidden without written consent. If you wish to forward distribute pease contact boa@creativeinteectuk.com Creative Inteect Consuting Ltd June 2016 Page 1

2 New processes that support mobie apps require new technica capabiities. Understanding how an app is performing in the hands of the user and how they are interacting with it is critica to being abe to address either technica probems or usabiity issues. It aso heps to identify when new capabiities are required. Anaytics data captured from app usage wi provide the necessary insight to do this. Being responsive to such insights requires rapid deveopment and the abiity to quicky depoy app updates to a fragmented production environment. For exampe, different eements of the app back-end may reside in different IT infrastructures whie the app itsef may be depoyed to a third party cataogue such as the Appe App Store or Googe Pay. Automating the testing and depoyment processes through a DevOps methodoogy supported by the appropriate toos and services wi enabe deveopment teams to deiver new apps and app updates quicky. A of these technoogies, products and services serve to hep organisations focus their efforts on what wi differentiate their appication from the competition. Success is not merey deivering the right features but deivering them in the right way. Whie technoogy is crucia to enabing a mobie app it is not the desired outcome of the business. In short, to deveop and deiver successfu mobie apps, the foowing take-away points appy: Mobie evoution and maturity sees increased attention for the deveopment of apps targeting empoyees and business to business suppy chain productivity Usabiity, security, speed, performance and integration are paramount Secure by design no matter the appication from proof of concept to fu operationa reease Have in pace the right integrated tooing and processes support with scaabe deveopment services and unified cross-patform capabiities Coud speeds deveopment and enabes rapid scaing so a hybrid coud strategy offers the most effective engagement mode Bridge the od with the new through Appication Programming Interfaces (APIs) Be smart with the deveopment skisets that you have User experience infuences and impacts brand oyaty and app expectations are more broady infuenced Creative Inteect Consuting Ltd June 2016 Page 2

3 Mobie app deveopment maturity and evoution maturity and evoution Organisations find themseves at different stages of maturity in their mobie strategies and deveopment capabiities. When Organisations asked about find themseves the key considerations at different for stages their of mobie deveopment strategy, 94% of respondents of CIC s 2015/2016 Mobie maturity Buid in their versus mobie Buy strategies study cited and Usabiity deveopment and User interface and navigation as top concerns. These were foowed by capabiities. speed and faster oad time, security, convenience and integration as depicted in the tabe beow. Such resuts show that organisations are recognising that is the user experience is paramount. Cruciay, they highight the nuances of user engagement When asked about and the the fact key that considerations it is a baance for between their User interface and navigation 94% usabiity and the user interface on the one hand and the mix of nonfunctiona mobie deveopment requirements strategy, of security, 94% of performance, respondents convenience, of integration and rea-time updates on the other. CIC s 2015/2016 Mobie Buid versus Buy study cited Speed and faster oad time 89% Usabiity and User interface and navigation as top concerns. These were foowed by speed and faster oad time, security, MOST IMPORTANT convenience CONCERNS and integration FOR as Security Organisations are embracing more cross patform deveopment 87% depicted in capabiities such as HTML5 in addition to native technoogies and toos, MOBILE the tabe APP beow. STRATEGY Such resuts show that organisations are recognising that the user experience and a broader suite of toos and appication ife-cyce capabiities. Convenience Usabiity 94% 85% is paramount. Cruciay, they highight the nuances MOBILE APP TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT of user engagement and the fact that it is a baance between usabiity and the user interface on the one Integration NOW User interface and navigation 94% 77% hand and the mix of non-functiona requirements of Android/Java 84% 88% security, performance, convenience, integration and Incorporation HTML5 of rea-time updates, 78% if any 81% rea-time updates Speed on the and other. faster oad time 89% 70% ios/ Object C/Swift 76% 84% Security 87% In environments with more mature mobie strategies, attention is shifting from customer facing apps Convenience to business-to-empoyee 85% and business-to-business. Integration 77% MAIN MOBILE DEVELOPMENT FOCUS Incorporation of rea-time NOW updates, if any 70% Business-to-Consumer (B2C) 78% Android/Java NOW TYPES OF MOBILE APPS BEING DEVELOPED 84% 81% 88% Business-to-Empoyee (B2E) 49% HTML5 NOW 78% 58% 81% Business-to-Business In environments (B2B) with more mature mobie strategies, 54% attention is Mobie commerce 52% 57% ios/ Object C/Swift 76% 64% shifting from customer facing apps to business-to-empoyee Line of Business Process 84% and business-to-business. Windows improvement/productivity (C#, C++ ) 58% 51% 56% 61% Management Dashboard 43% 54% MAIN MOBILE DEVELOPMENT FOCUS Other 13% 14% Suppy Chain Automation 27% 38% NOW Financia 38% 44% Business-to-Consumer As organisations (B2C) begin to grow their 78% app cataogues they 81% are serving an increasing number of ines of business and customer use cases. Workforce support 36% 42% Business-to-Empoyee (B2E) 49% 58% TYPES OF MOBILE APPS BEING DEVELOPED Business-to-Business (B2B) 54% 64% Mobie commerce NOW Line of Business Process improvement/productivity MOST IMPORTANT CONCERNS FOR MOBILE APP STRATEGY Usabiity 94% Windows (C#, C++ ) 51% 56% Organisations Other are embracing more cross patform 13% deveopment capabiities 14% such as HTML5 in addition to native technoogies and toos, and a broader suite of toos and appication ife-cyce capabiities. As organisations begin to grow their app cataogues they are serving MOBILE APP TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT an increasing number of ines of business and customer use cases. 52% 57% 58% 61% Management Dashboard Suppy Chain Automation Financia Workforce support 43% 54% 27% 38% 38% 44% 36% 42% Creative Inteect Consuting Ltd June 2016 Page 3

4 It therefore makes sense to have more integrated tooing, scaabe deveopment services and more unified crosspatform capabiities. These are often found in mobie app deveopment patforms that incorporate integrated deveopment environments (IDEs), back-end services (with integration capabiities) and ife-cyce management features. Coectivey, they address key security and quaity and consistency concerns. Organisations are embracing the coud for mobie app deveopment Despite the perceived negativity of enterprise towards coud the benefits are being recognised and embraced, especiay with respect to mobie. Whie such patforms make great sense for enterprise organisations they aso present chaenges: Patform benefits are ony recognised once an investment has aready been made in apps and the required skis, technoogies, toos and processes There is a concern around proprietary ock-in and that the patform may not serve a requirements in future but that moving away from it wi be costy and time-consuming The patform wi require significant investment in adoption time and upscaing of deveopers There may be integration requirements, especiay with oder custom egacy systems, that the patform cannot hande. Any patform wi need to address these concerns, primariy through the adoption of open standards and open source and demonstrating interoperabiity capabiities. The aternative and increasingy popuar mode is to be abe to bring together technoogies, toos, services and products in a heterogeneous environment in a way that suits the needs of different deveopment teams. Bringing in different components in a fexibe way even if they are suppied by the same vendor aows deveopment teams to continue a rapid deivery cadence by on-boarding different capabiities at different times. 67% of mobie deveopment teams are using coud Over haf of enterprises are aready using coud for deveopment Just as new and innovative start-ups are abe to embrace coud in order to rapidy create apps by bringing together mutipe services the enterprise is doing the same. For exampe, certain common app features such as push notifications, authentication and identity management and backend integration are being incorporated through the use of coud services. CORE COMMON MOBILE APP FEATURES Push notification 83% Server data storage 78% Authentication and Identity Management 77% Backend services Integration 75% Location awareness 75% Loca data storage 74% Anaytics 72% Socia Integration 67% Coud data storage 62% Maps 61% Mobie payment 56% Mobie Ads 48% Other 12% Creative Inteect Consuting Ltd June 2016 Page 4

5 There is a huge benefit of aowing deveopers to add such capabiities without having to invest the time in coding, testing, depoying or provisioning infrastructure and providing on-going management. Other capabiities that are centra to app deveopment best practice that can aso be provided from the coud; these incude anaytics, security and user feedback. These are compex capabiities to create so by using coud services they can quicky and easiy deiver vaue. Some organisations wi use pubic coud, others wi use a purey private coud environment; for the majority, however, the best soution wi be a combination of the two a hybrid coud environment. Bridging od and new with APIs In order to deiver a modern, feature rich and highy integrated mobie app experience deveopers often need to be abe to program in mutipe anguages using new coud incusive, API enabed architectures. It is no surprise to see deveopers coming from mutipe backgrounds. Interestingy, ony 6% of mobie deveopers have a mobie ony background. Bridging existing IT environments and the new is the main chaenge facing both skis and technoogy. For exampe, making data hed on a mainframe avaiabe to a mobie app requires traditiona and modern ski sets and potentiay mutipe points of integration. Technicay this must be done in a way that is aso secure and meets with any governance, egisative or reguatory compiance. This is where Web Services or Appication Programming Interfaces (API) come in. APIs are a powerfu integration and extensibiity feature that is empowering organisations and software providers aike: enabing them to open access to core appication functionaity and systems services, thereby both easing the burden of and speeding up the process of deveopment. More traditiona deveopers and those with the greatest domain expertise can craft APIs behind which the compex business of egacy systems integration can be simpified and secured. On top of these APIs, which can be depoyed on-premise or in the coud, mobie app deveopers with more modern ski sets can quicky deveop new apps and add new capabiities to existing ones. Such an approach heps IT to make best use of different skis and experience whie at the same time providing a foundation on which apps can be rapidy brought to market. Security is critica. Period. In CIC s 2015/2016 Mobie Buid Versus Buy survey, security was highighted as being absoutey crucia. 87% of respondents cited it as one of their top concerns. Cruciay, security impacts performance, user experience, confidence and your brand. Secure-by-Design must be front of mind at every stage of the deveopment and deivery process, from initia concept through buid to reease, even for simpe app modues and prototypes where speed of deivery is critica. This approach must aso extend to any strategy for providing access to interna services and incorporating externa services through APIs. As an extension to securing access to an organisation s interna systems, there wi be additiona eves of protection required between the app and the API. Providing this through a standards-based approach, such as using OAuth, enabes more rapid deveopment whie using best practice. It aso makes securing and protecting APIs a corner stone requirement of the API economy. Creative Inteect Consuting Ltd June 2016 Page 5

6 Takeaway actions: Better mobie app outcomes drive mobie app success Looking at the more mature mobie app strategies and the supporting deveopment capabiities we see a number of key considerations that a organisations need to be addressing for the outcome of a business successfu mobie app: USER EXPERIENCE SPEED OF DEVELOPMENT CLOUD SECURITY BRIDGING TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGIES ANALYTICS MOBILE APPS The critica differentiator between apps. The competition is not just other apps in the same category but a apps. Is about more than just the visua. Users want apps that are usabe but aso performant, secure and reiabe. Deivering on a of these requires a fu app ifecyce capabiity that covers deveopment, security, testing and management. Products and services that are quick to adopt and scaabe wi enabe faster deveopment. Is vita. Deveopment teams need toos and technoogies that enabe capabiities to be added rapidy; fast integration of egacy systems; quick depoyment into compex infrastructures. Is an important patform that enabes faster deveopment, whether through reducing the time to provision infrastructure or the deivery of pre-buit app capabiities and deveopment services. The right combination of pubic and private coud wi be different depending on technica governance, egisative and reguatory concerns. Is a vita concern for organisations. Speed of deveopment must not come at the expense of securing individua data or vauabe business IP. Security needs to be baked into the deveopment phiosophy. It cannot just be the concern of one individua but of a stakehoders, incuding the business. Are core to the business and new ones that enabe innovation is a chaenge from both a technoogy and skis perspective. Embracing technoogies such as APIs is a great way to utiise od and new skis in the optimum way. Mobie apps often foow a rapid update cadence in response to fast-changing user expectations/business needs. Understanding the user is critica, and having access to the right usage data through anaytics is essentia. Are being driven from mutipe business units whose primary interest in deivering successfu outcomes to business needs. IT eaders must focus on deivering the outcome, not on the technoogy. No onger just about the consumer. B2B and B2E app deveopment is growing fast and wi ead to sizeabe app portfoios supporting myriad mobie patforms. NEW SKILLS Are hard to come by in today s deveoper market, and re-using existing skis more effectivey is critica. Comprehensive app deveopment patforms are an effective way to do this. However, patform adoption has chaenges and being abe to pu in capabiities that drive optimised deveopment processes when required wi be the way forward for many. Creative Inteect Consuting Ltd June 2016 Page 6