24
Mowbly White Paper: Does Your Enterprise Have A Mobility Strategy? Top 18 misconceptions in enterprise mobility strategy 1

18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Choosing the right mobility strategy is key for enterprises to leverage the latest technology trend and stay competitive. More often enterprise tend to either prolong the decision on mobility strategy or adopt a short sighted approach. The rapid evolution of mobile technology and its proliferation into enterprises is unprecedented, which led to many misconceptions in the mind of enterprise IT. This document clarifies the misconceptions enterprises have in mobility strategy.

Citation preview

Page 1: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Mowbly White Paper: Does YourEnterprise Have A Mobility Strategy?

Top 18 misconceptions in enterprise mobility strategy

1

Page 2: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Introduction

Enterprise Mobility is one of the top strategic technology trends in 2014 for most organizations, Gartner says. What exactly is a strategictechnology? Gartner defnes it as follows,

Gartner defnes a strategic technology as one with the potential for signifcant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factorsthat denote signifcant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or therisk of being late to adopt.

Strategic technology could be an emerging or existing one but defnitely impacts the organization’s long term plans, programs andinitiatives. Enterprise mobility though been around a little while, is still an emerging trend posing great challenges for enterprises tostrategize on it.

At Mowbly, we have been meeting and discussing with CIOs and IT Heads from diferent domains like BFSI, Retail, Logistics,Manufacturing etc. on their enterprise mobility strategy. Interesting patterns emerged during our conversations regarding theimplementation of mobile apps in enterprises. We also observed similar set of challenges and misconceptions across domains whichled to some enterprises focussing more on tactical wins. More often, these tactical wins morph as a mobility strategy veering theenterprises of their mobility vision. This post summarizes the mobility misconceptions we observed in enterprises that potentiallyjeopardize their mobility strategy and at worse, hold them from moving forward at all.

If you see yourself positioned in one or more of the following scenarios listed below, it is a warning sign that either you don’t have anenterprise mobility strategy or have been a pawn of business circumstances. So, do you really have an Enterprise mobility strategy?Read on to fnd and check if you are heading in the right path.

2

Page 3: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

1. Customer facing apps is all that is there

2. Restricting mobility to core business alone

3. Reactive mobility initiatives yielding to business pressure

4. Mobile app landscape refects backend system fragmentation

5. Mobile website is my mobility strategy

6. A Cross platform dev tool framework is the crux of the strategy

7. Delegating mobility strategy to service vendor

8. Wary of security in enterprise mobility

9. Adopting a virtualization solution

10. Assuming mobility does not concern B2B enterprises

11. Citing lack of mass mobile usage inside the enterprise

12. My users are not tech savvy to use mobile apps

13. Squeezing legacy devices into mobility strategy

14. Shying away from investing in a mobility platform

15. Dependency on software application vendors

16. Procrastination due to ongoing backend initiatives

17. Traumatized by a failed mobile initiative

18. Budget constraints holding me back

3

Page 4: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Customer facing apps is all that is there

The frst app that enterprises think of in their enterprise mobility strategy is a customerfacing app, for the very valid reason that it is an additional channel to generaterevenue. Smartphones being the most personal devices, the customer facing app willgive a greater leverage than any other investment enterprises could possibly think of.

Typically the app is built in-house or through service providers and rolled out to usersthrough various marketplaces. Some enterprises tend to focus more on customerapps. This renders their mobility strategy incomplete. A balanced mobility strategymust cover all stakeholders in the enterprise including employees, partners andcustomers. The implementation of the mobility strategy can be phased, but beingcontented with customer apps is not a good sign.

Balanced

mobility strategy must cover all stakeholders a.k.a customers, employees and partners

4

Page 5: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Efective mobility

strategy must focus on apps that providenon tangible benefts apart from core business apps.

Restricting mobility to core business alone

When it comes to internal mobile apps, it is quite natural that enterprises givepriority to the core business apps in their mobility strategy. Core business appsquickly reward enterprises with greater business impact and competitive edge.But if the enterprise mobility strategy is based only on apps that fall into thiscategory, it will prove a short sighted approach. Enterprises must look into otherpossibilities such as fringe apps for business workfows, productivity apps,employee engagement apps etc. that could provide non-tangible benefts likeproductivity gains and improved employee satisfaction.

An efective mobility strategy must aim to leverage the power of smart devices ofthe employees and partners to the enterprise advantage in every possible way. Itis good to start with core business apps, but enterprises must ensure that theinvestment they do in this efort is strategic and enables them to roll out non-corebusiness apps with less overhead in future. Focusing only on core businessmobile apps or difculty in churning out new apps seamlessly means the strategyand investment need a revival.

5

Page 6: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Reactive mobility initiatives yielding tobusiness pressure

Since recent years, CIOs and IT Heads increasingly are active in business decisions,thanks to the rapid technology growth and adoption in enterprise IT. IT innovation haschanged the way enterprises conduct business and transformed them intosignifcantly more efcient companies. Enterprise IT has progressed from an entitydoing mere execution of business apps to nerve center of business driving innovationthrough apps.

Enterprise mobility is a great opportunity for IT innovation if it is proactively driven bythe IT leaders in the enterprise. In the earlier stages of mobility adoption, businessdemands tend to drive the mobile apps needed for the enterprise. Business invariablywould focus on the revenue points of your enterprise and hence yielding to onlybusiness app needs proves reactive. Enterprise mobility is a wholesome strategytargeting every possible area in enterprise, which means enterprise IT must take thereins in its hands and drive it. Being proactive is the key to greater innovation andsuccessful adoption of enterprise mobility strategy.

Enterprise IT

must be proactive in its mobile apps strategy apart frombuilding apps for business needs to be successful

6

Page 7: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Fragmented app

landscape with multiple apps from multiple vendors does not lead to wholesome mobility

Mobile app landscape refects backend system fragmentation

Enterprises have made substantial investments on multiple software and systemslike ERP, CRM, MIS, BI tools etc. for their core business operations. Some ofthese enterprise software products updated themselves to extend support forsmartphones and tablets as mobile websites and native apps. If an enterprisemobility strategy depends primarily on usage of such apps, it means theenterprise is slipping into a fragmented app environment with serious challenges.

The major challenge is customization support for these mobile apps based on theenterprise needs. Also, enterprise workfows typically need users to access ortransact with more than one enterprise system to complete a task, which is notgoing to be seamless in this case resulting in poor user adoption. Depending onfragmented mobile apps is a serious issue for a wholesome mobility strategy inthe longer run.

7

Page 8: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Mobile website is my mobility strategy

In the last decade, one of the primary investments most enterprises made is webenabling their IT systems. This has created quite a few web apps for businessworkfows in any enterprise. Internal websites became a norm for enterprises toexpose content and functionality to employees and partners. This was an importanttrend in making the enterprise connected to the rest of the world.

It is highly likely an enterprise that is successful in web enabling chooses to go mobileweb only for its mobility strategy. Mobile web apps are achieved by extending theexisting web apps to mobile browsers by updating them to a responsive design.Responsive website is touted as the most cost efective option for quicker roll out ofmobile apps.

Mobile website never can be a long term enterprise mobility strategy for many reasonsand the primary among them is that it is still not an app available on the device, henceuser experience takes a heavy toll. Leveraging native features of the device isinevitable for high user adoption. Indeed, the smarter way is to go for a hybrid appapproach that gives you benefts of both native and responsive website. Gartner saysthat by 2016, more than 50% of enterprise mobile apps deployed will be hybrid. Doesyour enterprise stick to mobile website ideology still? Its time for it to revive themobility goals.

Mobile or

responsive websitecannot be a long term mobility strategy, as leveraging native features is critical for high user adoption

8

Page 9: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Cross platform

SDKs are only development tools and are not adequate for a comprehensive mobility strategy

A Cross platform dev tool framework is the crux of my strategy

Some enterprises adopt hybrid app development approach and use crossplatform SDKs like PhoneGap to build mobile apps. The hybrid app approach isproved to be the most cost efective way to build enterprise mobile apps.

The key point to remember is that enterprise mobility strategy is much more thandeveloping apps. App development is only 15% of the real need, a typicalenterprise mobility strategy involves comprehensive deployment, security,management and monitoring functionality without which the strategy is absolutelynot scalable and this means a need for additional investment on mobility softwareproducts. If your enterprise assumes that adopting a cross platform SDK to solveenterprise mobility, the journey will not take it to the right destination.

9

Page 10: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Delegating mobility strategy to servicevendor

Enterprise mobility being relatively newer than other technologies in enterprise IT, itrequires time and talent to devise and implement a successful enterprise mobilitystrategy. To bridge this gap, enterprises typically engage IT service providers to helpthem embark on a mobility strategy.

IT service providers with all good intentions would recommend an approach formobility in your enterprise, but there is a very high probability that the proposedstrategy is constrained by the service provider’s skills and capabilities. Indeed, thereare cases where enterprises that are associated with multiple service vendors fordiferent applications ended up having specifc mobile extensions based on thevendors’ priority. This is a more serious case than the fragmented apps scenario wediscussed in the earlier part of our post.

As the owner of the mobility strategy, the onus squarely lies on enterprise IT team totake a well informed decision on the mobility strategy that suits the enterprise and getthe IT service providers aligned to it. Delegating the enterprise mobility strategy toservice providers might have serious repercussions in the long run.

Outsourcing

strategy usually does not work and more so for mobility

10

Page 11: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

With new

platforms and tools handling security in mobility strategy is not difcult. Non adoption or constrained strategyare more riskier thansecurity itself

Wary of security in enterprise mobility

Many a times the primary concern that surfaces during enterprise mobilitydiscussions is security. Security requirements typically include authorized accessto enterprise apps, access to enterprise data, storage of data in users' devices,enforcing corporate policies etc. With the advent of new platforms and tools,security is no longer a bigger concern as it used be a couple of years before.

If your enterprise mobility strategy is primarily constrained by securityrequirements, it is mandatory that time and again it is reviewed based on theinnovative solutions in this area to leverage the maximum out of your mobilityinvestment. There are instances where enterprises hold themselves fromembarking on a mobility strategy citing security constraints, which will prove to bea greater risk of non-adoption than the security constraint itself.

The pith and core of security is that it is always a moving target, as newtechnologies arrive so are the security threats. Enterprises must understand thisand implement a suitable mobility strategy for them. Non adoption of mobility or afrozen security based strategy are not the right answers for your enterprisemobility strategy.

11

Page 12: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Adopting a virtualization solution

One of the interesting solutions from enterprise desktop computing that made its way into enterprise mobility is virtualization. Virtualization is touted to be a quicker way to provide secure access and space for corporate information in employees’ devices. It provides a secure container on the device that allows access to existing enterprise desktop. There may be other out-of-box enterprise apps like mail, calendar etc. bundled with the container or additional device management apps, depending on the vendor, which would enable you to get onboard faster. Indeed, virtualization comes with a substantial investment.

However the catch here is that virtualization primarily focusses on security and ignoresuser adoption. Success of your enterprise mobility strategy squarely lies in users adopting your apps. Apps that are made for specifc desktop OS cannot provide seamless user experience as their counterpart built for mobile devices. Also, such apps can’t leverage the native features of the device which users expect to have and eventually lead to a reduced usage. If an app doesn’t qualify to be migrated to a smartphone app, say because it is a legacy app, then virtualization could be a solution.

Adopting

virtualization doesn’t make mobility strategy complete.

12

Page 13: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Also, what virtualization fails to answer is the apps part of your enterprise mobilitystrategy. The investment on virtualization can be maximized only if there is an activeroad map of mobile apps. And these roadmap apps aren’t just the existing desktopapps or document management systems but apps that you innovate for your businessworkfows. Designing and developing mobile apps for business workfows spanningmultiple enterprise systems is not an easy ride if the enterprise hasn’t invested in amobility platform.

Hence, virtualization can only be a stopgap solution until you board on a maturemobility strategy. Also, virtualization poses a risk of vendor lock in, which mightparalyze your mobility strategy in longer run.

Exposing

desktop apps on mobile can only be a stopgap solution until you board on a mature mobility strategy.

13

Page 14: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Enterprise mobility

doesn’t mean only customer facing apps and B2B enterprises must embark on a mobilitystrategy

Assuming mobility does not concern B2B enterprises

Enterprises where the core business is based on B2B have a greater tendency torelate enterprise mobility to consumer facing apps. Since B2B scenarios don’tneed customer facing apps, some of these enterprises totally ignore the need for amobility strategy.

The status quo in most of the B2B enterprises is business through emails or pointsolution web apps. Business workfows in B2B scenarios typically span across thevalue chain involving more than one enterprise and the human interface points inthese workfows are perfect candidates for mobility. Enterprise mobility for B2Bcould be a greater leverage with an always on channel across the supply chainenabling quicker decision making and improved collaboration. The benefts of asuch a mobility solution will be manifold compared to the discrete email, sms andweb solutions.

Are you a B2B enterprise and don’t have a mobility strategy yet? May be it’s timeto break the status quo and experience the advantages of enterprise mobility.

14

Page 15: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Citing lack of mass mobile usage inside theenterprise

Another misconception some enterprises have is that enterprise mobility would notreturn on the investment made if there is no large scale usage of mobile devices in theenterprise. B2B enterprises which don’t have feld operations or customer facing appstypically fall into this category.

Mobile apps provide non tangible benefts like productivity gains, quicker decisionmaking and user satisfaction which cannot be discounted based on the number ofsmartphone users in your enterprise. Indeed, the strategy can be adopting a specifcset of core business users say for example senior management executives andenabling them to be on the latest KPIs of the business and make decisions throughmobile apps.

Bottom line is that enterprise mobility strategy must not depend on the number ofdevices it serves but on the value it generates.

Enterprise

mobility strategy must not depend on the number of devices it serves but on the value it generates

15

Page 16: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Tech savviness of

users is not a barrierfor enterprise mobility. Indeed, mobile apps are the perfect ones for lesstech savvy users

My users are not tech savvy to use mobileapps

Relating tech savviness of enterprise mobile app users to enterprise mobilitystrategy is one of the serious misconceptions some enterprises have. Themisconception roots from the reality that feld level employees in many industriesare semi-professionals.

A key point that these enterprises fail to notice here is that mobile apps are verydiferent from desktop apps in gaining user adoption. Smartphones too soonerbecame the most personal devices of users, which is a refection of simplicity,user friendliness and intuitiveness of the app ecosystem on these devices.Smartphones indeed played a major role in consumerization of IT than any othertechnology you could think of, again a sign of higher user adoption.

If your enterprise mobility strategy is designed with an assumption based on techsavviness of users, you are ignoring a potential user base that could be greatlyleveraged for your advantage. Enterprises hence should adopt mobility strategy astheir primary app delivery mode and build apps that are user friendly and intuitive.

16

Page 17: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Squeezing legacy devices into mobilitystrategy

Enterprises of certain domains say for example, logistics where feld service plays amajor role in the business, might have a substantial investment done in legacy mobiledevices, if they have been in the market for a long while. Typically these enterprises tryto extend their investment on legacy devices to their current enterprise mobilitystrategy along with the smartphones and tablets, which is quite valid from businesspoint of view.

But it happens at times that the seriousness of the constraints these legacy devicesput on your mobility strategy go unnoticed. Implementation of such a dual strategy isdoomed to fail considering the wider spectrum of devices to support with profounddiference in their capabilities. The more ideal way is to manage them as separatestrategies and eventually phase out the legacy devices support.

Hence, it makes a greater sense to decouple the legacy devices from mainstreammobility strategy to ensure success in long run.

Mobility

strategy that treat legacy devices andsmartphones alike is doomed to fail

17

Page 18: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Mobility strategy

that doesn’t invest on a mobility platform cannot be efective and may fail in long run

Shying away from investing in a mobility platform

Enterprise mobility is much more than just building apps. The ecosystem of enterprise mobility involves multiple stakeholders - developers, IT admin and end users. A proper implementation of enterprise mobility should ensure greater adoption of all these stakeholders. Typical requirement of the users are,

• Developers need a robust and fexible environment to build and test apps for a variety of devices.

• IT admin needs complete freedom and control on the mobility deployment and seamless deployment of mobile apps coupled with security and management.

• End users like seamless consumption of apps, greater app experience and a non-intrusive security.

Going by the traditional way of building point based solutions will not addressthese requirements and hence is a sure path to failure of your strategy. The rightapproach is to choose a Mobile Application Development Platform (MADP) thatofers you a complete system helping you in development, deployment,management and monitoring of your apps. Hence for an efective mobility strategyinvestment in a mobility platform is the key. Have you enterprise done it?

18

Page 19: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Dependency on software applicationvendors

A typical enterprise IT landscape would consist of business software ranging fromlegacy systems to the latest web based solutions. Enterprise mobility strategy wouldneed mobile apps across these software and systems. As explained in theFragmented Apps section earlier in this white paper, enterprises would want toleverage the mobility ofering of these software from their vendors.

However, not every system is capable of being extended to mobile devices and evenin possible cases, the mobility road map of the vendor would not align with yours. Ifyour enterprise has such an IT landscape, which is very common, it is best to refrainfrom depending on the application vendors for your mobility strategy. Rather, ifpossible, your enterprise must demand the vendors for service interfaces for theirapplications which can be used in the mobile apps to integrate back with them.Enterprises might also need to possibly work on parallel systems to extend legacysoftware onto mobility, like building abstraction layers or web enabling them.

Waiting on the application vendors for your enterprise mobility strategy is a bad signand you may not want to be blocked by a couple of software whose vendors have noplans to migrated them to smartphones or tablets.

Mobility

extensions of appsfrom software app vendors can't be a wholesome mobility strategy and waiting on them puts your enterprise in a risk of late adoption

19

Page 20: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Tying enterprise

mobility strategy to specifc IT initiatives is a constrained approach which will delay mobility adoption and puts enterprise at risk of losing competitive edge

Procrastination due to ongoing backend initiatives

Enterprises always have a need to keep their backend infrastructure, systems and apps up to date. The trigger for updates could be many such as a new product initiative, migrating to latest hardware, software upgrades and so on. Such IT activities are a common story in many enterprises, but some enterprises tie these IT initiatives to their enterprise mobility strategy. The unfortunate result is postponement of enterprise mobility strategy till the IT initiative is completed and running successful.

A proper enterprise mobility strategy must not depend on any specifc IT initiative as the opportunity for mobile apps is across the enterprise. Any delay in enterprisemobility strategy puts your enterprise at a risk of late adoption, a more serious state to be in considering the competitive edge mobility can ofer.

20

Page 21: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Traumatized by a failed mobile initiative

At times a failed mobile initiative in your enterprise could become a barrier foradopting a mobility strategy. The reasons of the failure can be many like inappropriatetiming of rollout, wrong type of app (website or native), poor choice of functionality, novalue add to user etc.

A right mobility strategy would enable you to rebound faster from such a failuresituation. Say, if you had a mobility platform in place as part of your enterprise mobilitystrategy, the impact by the failure of one app will be far lesser and you can alwaysmove on with further apps on the platform. This may not be the case if you mobileinitiative is a point solution based app.

A right mobility

strategy with a mobility platform inplace is essential to rebound faster from failed mobile initiatives

21

Page 22: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

Mobility strategy

is an absolute necessity to be competitive. Enterprise IT is responsible to communicate the possible ROI to management and getthe budget

Budget constraints holding me back

Enterprise mobility as any other IT investment has its own capital expenses and operational costs. The major entry barrier is the expense involved in procuring devices which is mandatory as mobility strategy in an enterprise cannot be based purely on BYOD. The cost of smartphones is drastically falling down and probably a phased purchase of devices could help your enterprise to get onboard with little overhead.

The other costs involved are of the mobility software and operational expenses. A yearly budget of minimum $20K seems a typical requirement to run an active enterprise mobility strategy sans procurement of devices. In most enterprises, thisspending can be a little part of the other expenses incurred like software licensing cost, marketing expenses etc. And mobility is sure to provide returns to the enterprise manifold, if a proper investment is made.

If your enterprise is held back in mobility strategy by budget constraints, it is the responsibility of the enterprise IT to project the return on investment the mobility strategy can ofer to the management. Considering mobility is the top trend starting from 2014, a substantial investment on mobility strategy would help enterprises to be more competitive.

22

Page 23: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

ConclusionEnterprise mobility started gaining ground since recent years and has evolved as a mandatory investment for enterprises in order to leverage the latest technology trend and stay more competitive. Choosing the right mobility strategy is key for enterprises to be successful by delivering rich user experiences to all stakeholders in the strategy. More often enterprise tend to either prolong the decision on mobility strategy or adopt a short sighted approach. The past experiences of enterprise IT in adopting various technologies in the last decade has a greater infuence on their decision on enterprise mobility. The rapid evolution of mobile technology and its proliferation into enterprises is unprecedented, which led to many misconceptions in the mind of enterprise IT. The frst step is for enterprises to clarify these misconceptions and understand the pros and cons of diferent mobility strategies before they conclude on one that suits them.

23

Page 24: 18 misconceptions in Enterprise Mobility

AuthorsSathish Kumar

CoFounder – Chief Architect, Mowbly

Vignesh Swaminathan

Founder – CEO, Mowbly

About Mowbly

Mowbly is new age mobility platform that enables enterprises embark on a wholesome mobility strategy. The platform is trusted bypopular brands in BFSI, Aviation and Manufacturing domains. Mowbly helps enterprises to develop, test, deploy, manage, monitor andanalyze multiple mobile initiatives using a single solution through its cloud based and on premise ofering. With Mowbly, enterprises canachieve a self sustained mobility strategy and extend their existing IT investments seamlessly onto mobility. Mowbly is a unique singlestack mobility solution available in the market that can get your enterprise a higher ROI and greater user adoption.

For more information, please visit www.mowbly.com and connect with Mowbly on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

© 2014 CloudPact Software, All rights reserved.

24