The Mobile Tsunami Threatens the Competitive Positioning of the Enterprise

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1 The Mobile Tsunami Threatens the Competitive Positioning of the Enterprise Abstract: This white paper zooms in on the threat of increasing costs of app-development faced by Enterprises and offers a vision on how to best counter it. Movilizer GmbH Jan Vermeesch jan.vermeesch@movilizer.com 1 8

2 Table of Contents 1 Introduction Challenge Description Countering challenges introduced by the Mobile Tsunami Infrastructure Requirements Development Integration Capabilities Scalability Future Readiness Conclusions About the Author

3 1 Introduction Enterprises see their business model under pressure because of the increased importance of mobility and the need to further optimize their operations with enterprise mobile apps. Internal IT departments are challenged more than before because at the same time they see the complexity of the mobile landscape increasing, they are under pressure to reduce the time to market of new applications, features and functionality and the perception of the business that apps are inexpensive and simple forces them to deliver at the lowest possible costs quickly whilst they are facing increasing investments in tools, skills and capabilities to cater all the different flavors in the mobility market out there. This paper comments on the most common solutions adopted in the market today and the limitations these choices bring along. Last but not least it provides with a list of criteria that must be met moving forward if CIO s want to safeguard their enterprise s position in the market and tap into the opportunity of mobile rather than being put under pressure by it. 2 Challenge Description Contrary to past times, IT departments in companies are bombarded with questions from the business to expose information and business processes on mobile devices. This is a logical side effect from the consumerization of IT because of which most company employees have gotten access to a wide variance of powerful mobile devices. These devices are so easy to use, and the apps that come with them or can easily be downloaded provide such low barrier to entry, that often company employees are much further in accessing their private data on these devices than their IT departments allow them to tap into companyresources with it. As a result they see the potential themselves and start pushing for gaining mobile access to data and business processes from those own devices. This Mobile Tsunami is impacting companies across the board today. So IT is faced with a challenge: How to accommodate these requests, which will improve the company s effectiveness quickly enough and in a cost-effective manner, whilst exposing the range of backend systems on the range of devices used whilst dealing with growth and added complexity? These IT departments start out most of the time by responding in an opportunistic way. Creating a solution for the customers that is standing first in line. These solutions come in a wide variety of sorts; a mobile website, a specific app for resolving the issue at hand on a specific type of 3 8

4 device you name it. Analyst research shows this is the phase in which 47% of company s find themselves today. We call it the phase of Opportunistic Mobility. But that is only the beginning. With the consumerization of IT, internal policies standardizing on certain types of devices or operating systems are no longer acceptable. An employee will demand options and asks for choice and even employees who do not receive company-devices, will bring their own into the work space because they see benefits in how they can organize and do their work more effectively. This is overall a good trend for the company s performance and management is probably the first layer within the company to push IT to abandon or overcome the restrictions that were put in place years ago. So whilst a first group of early movers was satisfied receiving an app on 1 device, the 2 nd group requesting an app might ask for it supporting another device, operating system, screen format etc. And more likely than not, with adjusted functionality due to lessons learned and newly gained insights. This triggers a spiraling series of requests to the IT department which they will push through to their software vendors. But this doesn t take away the result and soon they find themselves under increased pressure to invest in additional resources, knowledge, skills and tools as multiple, different apps and approaches make their way onto the shop floor. And they need to move fast. Because business and their customers expect it to be available. And as they experience the early benefits, they want more, they want it better, they want it aligned and they want it NOW because if they do, they can improve their operations, their customer service and gain a competitive advantage. Indeed, supporting your business in front of your customers by providing self-service apps or apps that allow them to do business with you in an easier way, is today already a prerequisite that many customers use in their selection of who to buy what from. So this is why the Mobile Tsunami is a threat to the Enterprise s positioning. Because it forces its IT efforts to increase and to make choices and consequently often a huge investment upfront. IT departments soon realize that it can t keep responding to business requests in an ad-hoc manner but that they need to move to a more strategic approach to mobilize their software and business models. But they need to do it properly and scalable. And probably, during the learning-curve towards this point, they have already created a legacy they will need to support or migrate moving forward. They soon realize that this strategic approach needs to answer many questions. Designing an ergonomic mobile app requires different insights and approach to development. The user experience is prevalent for success and adoption. They need new skills so existing resources need to be retrained, but can they abandon capacity in their traditional teams? Will it not reduce their capability to support their backend systems? Can these existing resources adopt the new tools rapidly enough to produce results in line with business expectations? What does it mean for their overall IT architecture? How will they keep their developments in synch with new platforms, devices and their capabilities? 4 8

5 How will they support business in deploying these apps and how can they satisfy their needs when it comes to security? It is clear that this is a critical time for many enterprises. The cost always comes before the benefit unfortunately. So they must make no mistakes and limit the risk as much as possible. Not an easy task when the market is pushing hard to make a move and do it quickly. And their response will not influence their own, but also will require the involvement of their software vendors and suppliers. How to make them all fall in line and support the chosen strategy? 3 Countering challenges introduced by the Mobile Tsunami So it is important for an Enterprise to consider the correct things when designing its move from opportunistic to strategic mobility. Things that need to be considered are infrastructure requirements, development skills and tools, integration capabilities with backend software, the scalability of the solution, its future readiness and last but not least its sustainability moving forward at an economically viable cost. Let us zoom in on these different elements and describe exactly what is required on each of them for a successful response to today s challenges. 3.1 Infrastructure Requirements Whatever choice a company makes, it is recommended to consider the impact on the architecture of its preferred way forward. The chosen solution should be highly available (as mobility supports often business critical processes), shouldn t be hindered by a high number of users or traffic as the company will move forward in its use of mobile apps an ideally it doesn t push to making additional investments. Of course you need to guarantee end-to-end security for mobility and a safe approach to implement a BYOD policy. All this should drive towards a low TCO and facilitate process innovation. 3.2 Development When it comes to development, several things need to be considered; first of all and most importantly, speed is of the essence. But more likely than not, multiple backend systems will be involved, the vendors or service providers on these systems need to be considered. A company must remain responsive to demand from the business and provide a quick time-to-market. The company s software vendors and/or service providers must be able to support that approach. 5 8

6 Furthermore, the strategy must not only consider the initial development phase, but the full app life-cycle, moving through iterations in which additional functionality, bug-fixes and unlocking new features from the backend are supported. To address this, a company should be able to leverage on their own or their partner s existing development skills and knowledge of application workbenches. This will for sure impact positively speed and scalability of the effort. Last but not least, the development ideally makes an abstraction of the technology of the mobile clients. A company s focus should remain on the processes and how to innovate or improve them. It shouldn t have to worry about the complexities of different operating systems, screen sizes and device-capabilities. 3.3 Integration Capabilities These days, few software systems exist all on their own. More often than not, software will interact with other software. ERP s are complemented with document management systems and/or CRM s, production systems are interacting with planning and sourcing tools, sales force and merchandising tools are communicating with warehousing & transportation systems. It is therefore important that the strategy allows a company to create mash-ups between different backend systems so that they can interact with each other. In an ideal world, these interactions with different backend systems is hidden from the mobile user who is offered a single interface, 1 app, without the need to worry where the information comes from or where his inputs go to. Also, the integration method chosen must cater for any online/offline situation. Too often, mobile solutions are developed from within the assumption that users are always online (mobile websites, web apps, etc.). This is not the case, contrary to a growing popular believe. Situations exist, and will remain to exist, where connectivity is at low bandwidth (GPRS or Edge), where users are not even allowed to keep their connection alive (certain facilities in certain industries) or where the physical locations makes it impossible to get an outside signal (large buildings, basements, etc.). Therefore the impact of all this on the mobile worker, his access to data and his ability to execute his work, must be limited if not avoided in offline situations. An intelligent way to synch data and results from the work executed with the backend should be an integral part of the strategy and solution design selected. 3.4 Scalability It is clear that any mobile solution should be easily scalable across more divisions, more processes, more users and more applications. Once developed, it shouldn t require too complex routines to deploy the application across an often distributed and remote workforce. From a management perspective, adding additional users, extending the app s functionality and adding more, separate apps for different roles and capabilities, should be possible without additional 6 8

7 investments in infrastructure, should be facilitated by the same resources and architecture and never ever should the performance of the solution be impacted, neither at the backend nor at the level of the frontend mobile users. Selecting a strategy that offers such possibilities will allow companies to amortize earlier investments in skills, development and integration so that the business case is strengthened by expanded use. 3.5 Future Readiness This is not yet a mature and stable industry. Multiple standards have developed and established themselves and they keep evolving, not only due to a constant strive for market share, but also because we are only at the beginning of the mobile revolution. More and more capabilities will be added to the platforms and channels, new technology will enable new possibilities and as we increasingly have our digital lives stored in our pockets to carry it with us, mobile users will ask to tap into the new possibilities to interact with information through new devices and wearable technology. Think of connected cars, smart watches and - glasses. These are early days when it comes to wearable peripheral and connected personal devices. Also, the maturing of the internet of things where devices will be able to interact with backend systems and users automatically and in an intelligent way, will drive app development and process optimization. Companies must consider this already today. Because if they don t they might opt for an approach that will soon be dated and that will leave them exposed to competition, with business formulating demands they can no longer answer and if they do by switching strategy and approach, seeing their business burdened by a huge legacy. 4 Conclusions So for a strategy and solution to be sustainable, this all results in the need to separate process logic from technology and focus primarily on the business logic within all backend software in consideration. A company should select a strategy that leaves integration standardized and UIgeneration, security, app-lifecycle management and device-support automated although customizable as much as possible. This will allow it to focus on its business and its business needs, safeguarding if not improve its competitive positioning in the marketplace and protecting its own financial performance structurally long term. 7 8

8 With these challenges in mind, we have developed our Movilizer Enterprise Application Platform so that companies that select our platform can be provided with a long term strategy without having to deal with the complexities of the mobile market today and tomorrow. 5 About the Author Jan Vermeesch - is a strategic marketer and business developer for new, innovative technologies for more than 15 years and has spent many years in global roles to lead efforts bringing new technology to markets and to enable organizations in EMEA, ASIA and the USA to benefit from gains in productivity and efficiency. Since September 2013 he is part of the Movilizer management team and actively contributes in coaching the fast developing company through its next phase of growth. 8 8