Mobility Evolution

Nowadays, crafting and implementing a successful mobile strategy is an imperative for enterprises that are attempting to leverage the rapidly emerging mobile technologies to gain operational efficiencies and retain their competitive edge.  The operative word here is ‘successful’. Fact is that today, the mobility landscape is littered with failure.  Consumers delete more than 70% of the apps they install within 30 days . That is a staggering failure rate. Success in mobility is based on a simple criterion that is not easily achieved. The key metrics for measuring success in mobility is the user adoption rate. If an app is not achieving the anticipated adoption rate within a reasonable period of time after its release then it is failing. An ineffective strategy to revive a failing app is to continue tweaking it in an attempt to ‘fix’ it while the users are busy deleting the app from their mobile devices. It is often more cost-effective to start over and incorporate th...

Enterprise mobility is a tsunami that is about to take over IT in the not too distance future if not already arriving at the shore as we speak. In fact, 2014 has been predicted to be the year of great changes in enterprise mobility . Nothing underscores this assertion more than the recent  Apple-IBM pact to initiate joint efforts and bring about fundamental changes in the way of enterprises approach mobility. So what can IT do to better prepare for this sea change? Here are a few tips: Don't Look at enterprise mobility in isolation:  Many mobility endeavors today focus on delivering device-centric apps. This misses the bigger picture of the interconnectedness mobility and building integrated solutions that involve large-scale technology initiatives of cloud, big data analytics and social networks. Mobility is a strategic initiative: Mobile initiatives spans all lines of business and potentially impact every aspect of the business operation. An overall enterprise mobil...

In mobility, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) presents a pressing challenge for enterprises today. Employees want to use corporate and personal apps within the same mobile device regardless of whether the device belongs to them or is issued by their employers. Having the corporate and personal apps cohabitate within the same smartphone or tablet presents significant security issues as personal apps downloaded from the app store may be malicious and sensitive work-related information may be breached as a result. A prime example of this are the emails with file attachments that contain confidential company information. Once you synchronize your mobile device with the company's email server, another app that you may have unwittingly downloaded from the app store may attempt to hijack your sensitive data and upload it to another nondescript server. As you can imagine, enterprises do not look lightly on this threat which may result in violation of their intellectual property. The key ...

Formulating a consistent approach to mobile app development is the key to achieving success and attaining desired results. In mobility, success more often than not is equated with a high level of user adoption. To achieve a high rate of user adoption, the following three principles/steps can be closely adhered to: Deliver a Minimum Viable Product: Once again, this idea harks back to the motto of this blog site: In mobile, there’s a big premium on creating single-purpose, first-class experiences. (Mark Zuckerberg)  The emphasis is on 'single-purpose' which narrows down the app's focus and makes 'first-class experience' a reality that is within the grasp of the deliverable.  Use Analytics Metrics to Measure Adoption Results:  Using a Mobile Back-end as a Service (MBaaS) vendor to gather analytics data, granular tracking of the user adoption metrics is imperative to finding out what is and is not working when the app is engaged in the field. The analytics data is to...

More than 85% of respondents in a recent Gigaom Research survey are either working with a third-party MMS vendor or are actively considering or are willing to work with one in the future. Only 13.6% said they would never consider outsourcing their MMS services. The remarkable propensity of enterprises to want to outsource MMS is astonishing in and by itself. Cormac Foster of Gigaom Research offers a plausible explanation: How can you outsource a competitive advantage? I made a few phone calls, and the answer is, “because everyone else is doing it wrong.” Enterprise mobility is an absolute mess, so mere competence can put you ahead of the pack. Foster also states: Outsourcing mobility is getting easier as vendors move security off the table. This is because of enhanced security within the newer releases of Android & iOS and commonly used enterprise apps such as MS Office downplays the need to MMS to get involved in mobile security. Here is the link to the Gigaom Rese...

Today, many industries are gravitating toward mobility adoption in a comprehensive fashion. But for some industries, like foodservice, mobility adoption is going to bring about an undeniably fundamental transformation. Here are some key emerging trends as mobility penetrates foodservice in a big way: 1. Mobile Payments: Just imagine being able to order and pay for your food via a mobile device and pick it upon your arrival. Gives 'fast food' a whole new meaning. It is now 'ready food'. Wholesale adoption of mobile ordering and payments by the foodservice industry will undoubtably result in increased revenue stream as consumers will come to expect a significant reduction in prepared food order and pickup time. 2. Digital Restaurants: My now school-aged kids will probably be telling my yet-to-be-born grandkids of a time when waiters and waitresses walked up to the table to take their food orders at a restaurant. This conversation about a quaint practice will take ...

Viral Shah, Mobility Architect & Strategist from Kellogg Company gave an interview at the 2013 Enterprise Mobility Exchange conference in Miami. I was impressed by some of his key enterprise mobility experience take aways: User Adoption Justifies ROI: The emphasis in mobile is not necessarily some quantifiable contribution to bottom-line. User adoption is really the metric to focalize on. User-friendly is now User Delight: In mobile we are seeking the 'User Delight' experience. This is an important distinction because mobile users are highly prone to totally disengage given a less than ideal experience. Take Baby Steps: Enterprise mobility is very complex . An incremental approach to adoption is an imperative element in ensuring a successful outcome. Focus on User Needs: Although this seems like an intuitive concept, more often than not the common approach revolves around providing users what IT thinks or believes users need.  Create a Common UX: A nebulous conc...