Mobile Applications: Solving Enterprise Solutions?

Transcription

1 Mobile Applications: Solving Enterprise Solutions? Sprague Brodie, Jake Shapiro, & Nick Scarchilli EIS Mini Project October 7,

2 Contents Executive Summary... 3 The Mobile Office: A Growing Trend... 3 What are Enterprise Application Services (EAS) Providers?... 4 Ecosystem... 5 Overview... 5 Actors... 6 End User... 6 Business Line Manager... 7 IT Organization... 7 C-Suite and Chief Security Officer rd party App Developers... 8 Strategic Alignment of Actors... 8 Adoption Risk Management... 8 Co-innovation Risk Management Reflections on the Current Ecosystem

3 Executive Summary The Mobile Office: A Growing Trend In the age of the cloud, enterprises are struggling with how to balance the need to push information and content to employees against the need for security. Access to information is more important than ever as interactions between employees, employers, and customers are happening with increasing frequency outside the office. At the heart of this change, solutions are being sought to facilitate these interactions. With pervasive access to mobile devices, individuals are interacting with content directly rather than through traditional content aggregators like Google. Additionally, employees are no longer using corporate mandated devices but instead using the device of their choosing whether it is Android, ios, Blackberry, or Windows Mobile. As use of smart phones and tablets increases, companies are seeking ways to capitalize on this trend while not compromising their content and IT infrastructures and, ideally, preserving their IT budgets. The mobilization of the office represents a fundamental shift in the way employees gain access to and interact with information through use of different IT infrastructures. But will mobile applications provide long term benefits to organizations or are they just another tech fad? How will the average employee benefit from these mobile apps? Will mobile apps represent additional cost for already constrained IT budgets, or will they be a substitute, in a cost efficient manner, for existing services? Understanding not only the technology but also its uses and benefits will underpin the assessment of this trend and predict its broader implications. 3

4 What are Enterprise Application Services (EAS) Providers? EAS encapsulates the shift to mobile applications and adds value to enterprises as they seek to complement, and ideally supplant, current infrastructure. EAS represents the movement away from rigid, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software like Oracle and SAP to more user friendly applications where content can be developed and deployed in a more cost efficient manner through pre-existing templates and software. Instead of having one standardized graphic user interface (GUI) for ERP, users will be able to tailor their experience through shortcuts, buttons, and layout designs to fit their individual needs. This access will extend well beyond traditional to everything from customer resource management (CRM), training, travel and expense (T&E) reporting, and so much more. What makes this trend most interesting is that it is industry agnostic; this shift is occurring not only at small technology companies but also traditional Fortune 100 companies and everywhere in between. EAS represents a way for executive management to utilize the emerging work tendencies of the entry level employees to better accommodate their lives. Just as BlackBerry changed the way that employees interacted with organizations, smart phones and tablets devices are now providing a platform to further expand company/employee and employee/customer interaction in meaningful ways. Imagine a world where you could develop an application that showcases all of your company s products and services in a java enabled interactive experience that customers could click through to gain product details, features, costs, and other pertinent buying information. Now imagine that this tool was not only in the hands of salespersons, but also 4

5 the average employee. Would this generate value for the organization? What about if individuals could take pictures of receipts while out at dinner and scan those into a database which would aggregate based on dates and times, into standard reimbursement forms. Would that free up employees time? Access to was only the beginning as daily nuisances in employees lives are being targeted through EAS. Fully appreciating how these applications might provide value requires an understanding of each actor within the ecosystem and the direction this trend will take. It also necessitates an appreciation of the barriers to adoption, such as security, and how providers may overcome these barriers. From content creation and control to more efficient reporting, EAS could dramatically change the interaction between employees and employers if it is properly implemented. To understand this opportunity, we will start with an examination of the individual actors in the ecosystem. Ecosystem Overview The target ecosystem of enterprise mobile application service providers includes a vast array of stakeholders within and outside the organization. For these service providers to succeed, they must add value or seek to benefit each and every stakeholder. There is a high amount of adoption risk when it comes to mobile services because if each stake holder does not see some value in using mobile application services, then we would expect to see an unsuccessful launch of mobile services within an enterprise. For illustrative purposes, we list all the actors as if we were dealing with a single company. These actors can be 5

6 extrapolated out into the larger industry as parallel positions and people exist at other companies. Figure 1: Enterprise Mobile Application Ecosystem Actors End User The end user is the employee who will ultimately use the mobile applications. These users are typically non-technical employees across all levels of the organization. The typical end user with either have a company issued smart device (phone/tablet ) or their own personal device that they use for work purposes. End users have owned smart devices for a number of years and are familiar with lifestyle enhancing consumer apps, and they would like to see similar apps built within the enterprise. 6

7 Business Line Manager The business line managers are typically responsible for the P&L of a business unit and are tasked with improving the profitability and the efficiency of their workers. These individuals could be VPs of marketing, sales, or operations. They typically also have a smartphone, but they are not considered to be tech savvy. They have the authority to make large purchases of enterprise software or to implement new business practices that will benefit their particular business line. IT Organization The IT organization is also an important part of the ecosystem because this group enables the business line managers to implement new software and technology. IT staff are concerned about compatibility with existing systems as well as the technical impediments to implementing a system. IT prefers solutions that are easy to maintain and that do not require frequent calls to the help desk. IT groups may also include application architects who are responsible for building the mobile applications that will be used by end users. C-Suite and Chief Security Officer The C-Suite is concerned with the profitability of the overall company and the internal strategy of the organization going forward. The Chief Information Officers s job is implement a technology strategy that will either maintain or exceed industry benchmarks for productivity and service. The Chief Security Officer, for organizations that have one, is the principal party focused on implementing technology and encouraging employee behavior which minimizes the potential for data leaks. Mobile technology has created a headache for CSOs because each new device that can log onto a network is another 7

8 potential gateway for a nefarious party that can inflict monetary and reputational damage on a company. 3 rd party App Developers The 3 rd party app developers are the complementors in in this relationship. They build and provide the apps which enterprise users demand, and they have the choice of whether to sell through an mobile application store (such as ios or Google Play), or directly to a company to be deployed across thousands of devices. There are numerous hurdles for a small application developer to deploy an application to a large enterprise and a partnership with an Enterprise Mobile Application Service Provider can be beneficial as long as the customization requirements to ensure compatibility are not too onerous. The enterprise mobile application services providers, which have created the system and framework that enables the deployment of native mobile applications across organizations, make the appropriate apps available to the appropriate end users based on the users device type (ios/android) as well as their rank and role within the organization. Strategic Alignment of Actors Adoption Risk Management Figure 2 Leadership Prism Analysis 8

9 Value Vision Value Partners Benefit of Adoption Cost of Adoption Net 3rd Party Developers + Financial (additional markets to sell apps) - Potential for extra customization of sof ++ + Enables adoption of mobile applications and - Additional work to implement and manage IT Department streamlines BYOD management - Increased complexity - + Increased workforce efficiency with adoption Mobile Application of mobile apps Services for the + Inclusion of CIO/CSO in strategic decisions Enterprise CSO/CIO + Appreciated contribution to company - Financial cost + + Increased workforce efficiency with adoption Business Line Manager of mobile apps - Financial cost ++ Company Employee (End User) Viewing the enterprise application ecosystem through the lens of the leadership prism (See Figure 1.), one can see that companies internal IT organizations present the most significant barrier to adoption. For IT organizations, and CIO/CSOs, security is a major concern related to the adoption of mobile applications in the enterprise, however it does not play a large role in the adoption of mobile application services, which help manage the security related to mobile applications. Instead, the barrier for IT organizations adoption is the view that enterprise mobile application services create an increased workload and unnecessary complexity for IT, while providing minimal benefit to them as an organization. + Increased efficiency with adoption of mobile apps ++ In order to combat this perspective, enterprise mobile applications service providers should continue to promote the efficiency benefits of mobile apps to the endusers and business managers, but should increase their efforts to educate IT departments, who play a key role as a decision maker in the adoption chain. Enterprise mobile application service providers can actually make IT department s lives easier by offering a regulated alternative to the chaos of end-users choosing to use personal apps like DropBox in professional settings. Additionally, the service providers should focus their development 9

10 efforts on increasing the usability of their application management software for the IT department s benefit. Co-innovation Risk Management IT organizations and 3rd party developers both must play a role as co-innovators in this ecosystem. For an enterprise mobile application service provider to be successful, valuable enterprise applications must exist that end-users and business line managers believe are valuable to their workforce efficiency. While 3rd party developers are often motivated to develop applications for their own direct financial benefit, IT organizations do not have the same direct motivation. To manage this co-innovation risk, service providers can take a two pronged approach. On the one hand, they should further encourage 3rd party developers to create applications through strategic partnerships in order to ensure a minimum footprint of enterprise mobile applications in the marketplace. In addition, the service providers should educate IT organizations about the availability of application development tools that exist on the market that facilitate the development of in-house mobile apps. Reflections on the Current Ecosystem While some companies are beginning to improve their relationships with IT departments in order to overcome the adoption chain risk, it remains to be seen how successful enterprise mobile application service providers will be in bringing this key decision making stakeholder on board. The good news it that companies have started to partner with 3rd party developers, and the quality and quantity of enterprise mobile 10

11 applications that are available are increasing quickly, thus mitigating co-innovation risk in this ecosystem. 11