Mobile Strategy » enterprise

Making the Most of Mobile Through Partnerships

Jose HC — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:48:42 +0000

I have commented about this same topic before… to some of you personally. Just wrote a little something over at the other site but thought I would paste it here directly:

… the entire mobile banking landscape will succeed only through partnerships. Banks partnering with other service providers… (but to what extreme? And at what cost to the customer?).

A very important partnership is the one between those that provide services to the banks… Enterprise software providers, mobile app developers, system integrators – the best way to break in and go deep in mobile with a bank will be based on your partnerships with others. This is especially true for startups in the mobile space – go out and seek partnerships with providers who already have entrenched relationships with the big banks.

Success for a lot of startups in this space will be dependent on their ability to forge partnerships and alliances as they tackle the big enterprise clients. The mobile ecosystem is no longer straightforward… it is a complex web of relationships, connections, networks and partnerships.

Leverage who you know to get in where you want to get in. Leverage the relationships that others already possess to get your foot in the door.

You can develop a little app and throw it up on any of the application stores… but to break into the enterprise market (especially in finance, healthcare and government) you need to have more than a fun or cute little mobile app. You need to have much, much more than a Twitter account and recent grad pushing out tweets… you need a mobile strategy.Similar Posts:

Is Google Eyeing the Mobile Enterprise with New Management Tools?

Jose HC — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:11:15 +0000

The new tools allow Google Apps Premier and Education Edition administrators to manage enterprise smartphones directly from the Google Apps control panel, without having to deploy additional third-party mobile device management software offered by vendors like Sybase iAnywhere and Good Technology (formerly Visto).IT administrators can lock down and remotely wipe data from lost or stolen mobile devices and establish more complex password administration protocols. Google Apps Premier business customers pay $50 per user per year, while educational institutions receive the service free.

Google Apps supports almost every device on the market today, including RIM BlackBerry with the introduction last year of its Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Servers. However, interestingly, Google has yet to produce enhanced security and mobile management support for RIM BlackBerry or even its own Android phones like the Droid and its recently unveiled Nexus One.

When it comes to entering the enterprise, Google’s moves, so far, appear deliberate and calculated. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported Google plans on launching an online business software store packed with third-party applications that seamlessly integrate with Google Apps, which may replace today’s Google Solutions Marketplace. Google would not confirm the plans, saying only, “We’re constantly working with our partners to deliver more solutions to businesses, but we have nothing to announce at this time.”

The company also remains mum on when it will commit fully to an enterprise Android strategy. A Google spokesperson told Channel Insider, “To date, Android-powered phones have been targeted toward consumers. Future versions of Android will introduce more functionality for IT managers to deploy enterprise devices, which will be of particular interest to our Google Apps customers.”

Google’s silence is not stopping some business-to-business software developers and VARs from supporting Android, however. DataViz, the creator of Documents to Go and RoadSync, is experiencing substantial success in the Android Market, telling Channel Insider that it is close to reaching 500,000 downloads of its introductory version in the Android Marketplace. The company’s software also comes preloaded on RIM BlackBerrys, and supports Symbian-powered phones and iPhone. DataViz also offers an enterprise version of its software, complete with volume licensing. The company has a variety of resellers like CDW and Insight.

Good Technology, a provider of enterprise mobile security and device management software as well as mobile e-mail and collaboration software, recently announced its support for Android. Good faces an uphill battle as its offerings are slowly being challenged with the release of the ActiveSync protocol and bundled versions of mobile device management and security offerings by Microsoft and Google.

Enterprise mobile application and platform provider Antenna Software supports Android as well, and sees the growing pervasiveness of Android in the enterprise as key to its business.

“Overall, we believe very much that device diversity is a wonderful thing—people love choice, and the fact that Google is creating choice is great for the market. We see a good amount of interest and pull for Android from our customers,” says Jim Somers, Antenna’s chief marketing and strategy officer.

The mobile OS wars continue to provide sport and plenty of blood-letting for those interested, and the fun is only beginning. Apple and Microsoft are facing a massive threat with the increased adoption of Android and Google Apps. Apple CEO Steve Jobs thinks he knows what Google wants, telling employees recently, “Make no mistake, they want to kill the iPhone.” Jobs continued, using an expletive to describe Google’s “Don’t Be Evil mantra,” which the search giant quietly dropped last spring.

Time will tell, but if Google’s early 2010 moves are any indication, the mobile enterprise is set clearly in the company’s sights.

via channelinsider.com

Google is not going to ignore enterprise mobility. It is too big an opportunity to pass by.

As a Google Apps user I welcome any and all improvements to the Google Solutions Marketplace which is not very user friendly or intuitive. In fact it is the main reason I haven’t really extended my Google Apps beyond the basic stuff.

Posted via web from Mobile Strategy

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Is the iPhone Suddenly Incompatible With Exchange?

Jose HC — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:40:55 +0000

A friend of mine just sent me this link with only one comment: “Love It!” You can imagine he is one of the greatest BlackBerry advocates (and probably one of the smartest ones too).

Infoworld published the following article yesterday – Apple betrays the iPhone’s business hopes:

Fixing a major but unacknowledged bug in the operating system, last week’s iPhone OS 3.1 update has rendered most iPhones and all iPod Touches incompatible with Exchange 2007 servers that require on-device data be encrypted, a standard safeguard used by businesses.

In other words, Apple has fundamentally betrayed its iPhone users and the businesses that have either explicitly or implicitly supported the device.

Check the article for yourself. If you have questions post them here and we can look for answers together.

Just in case you are interested here are two more articles in the series.

Sorry to post and run without any commentary but I am off to a very interesting and exciting meeting which I will tell you about later.Similar Posts:

MyBlackBerry.com Launch

Jose HC — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:10:26 +0000

Last week’s big news for some was the leaked information about the new BlackBerry site (social networking huh?) called MyBlackBerry (at myblackberry.com). When a friend emailed the news to me I was actually somewhat surprised by it. After reading the piece at Berry Review all I could do was scratch my head and wonder how this fits in the mobile and social spaces.

Since we are both mobile and social creatures this could appear to be a good thing. What I am not convinced about is RIM’s attempt of creating a separate social network for BlackBerry users. To me, it almost goes against the notion of social… You call people out from where they are (already engaged in their own social interactions of choice) and you ask them to join you and others where you want them to be. I am of the opinion that you are social where you choose to be social not necessarily where you are told to be.

However, there is still a chance of this working as much as there is a chance of it not working. People may very well choose to be social on MyBlackBerry – mostly because BlackBerry still has enough pull to attract users to this site.

But without yet looking at it (didn’t get an invitation and it doesn’t seem to accept common folk just yet) and with no inside knowledge at all at the moment it truly sounds more like a forum with a ‘social’ facade. A spruced up version of their current forum.

Instead of asking people to come to their site to be social, engaging people where they already participate and are socially active is a better idea.

What about Enterprise Users?

This launch reminds me of the post I wrote a few days ago on the idea of a Personalized Mobile Enterprise Gateway.

I realize (or I think I do) that this is not aimed at Enterprise Mobile users and that it is aimed squarely at the consumer. Enterprise users however, are consumers at the same time, so they may engage depending on their needs and issues (and level of fanaticism).Similar Posts:

Enterprise Mobility – one or many device manufacturers?

Jose HC — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:57:46 +0000

We hear from device manufacturers that the enterprise should stick with one solution. That message makes sense coming from them… They want you to have only one provider. However, a lot of the commentary out there (from research analysts to the end of the long tail) tell us that we should have variety; some have even suggested in the past a la carte services where you charge your internal customers accordingly (a concierge-type deal). With so much noise and so many opinions out there what are you supposed to do?

First of all I would like to remind you to be mindful of where the noise is coming from:

Commentators on the consumer side who think and behave like consumers; or from
Research analysts who have never been responsible for managing large deployments and have the luxury (disadvantage?) of seeing this without the realities of your daily stress.

Their comments are still valid and we should always keep our ears open; especially since many trends begin on the consumer side and spill over the enterprise walls.

We understand that it is difficult to filter through all the noise but for the time being there are still some definite advantages to sticking with one solution. For one it is easier and quite likely more affordable to support just one solution. However, since our enterprise users are first consumers it will be difficult to shelter the enterprise from the many trends and the noise (valid or not). Keeping the iPhone out of the enterprise will be an increasingly more difficult task. The force for more than one mobile solution in the enterprise is strong and you may not be able to hold back the tide (even if your life is easier if you manage only one solution). You should be prepared, both for your own personal career aspirations and because you owe it to your employer to provide the best solution combo available. So having said this, our advice to you is:

Have A Testing Schedule: It is wise to regularly include testing of other mobile solutions (and or mobile applications) in your plans. It doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming (leverage both vendors and carriers). This way you are prepared before your users come to you. For a variety of different reasons, most places I have seen do not have a process for reviewing what ‘out there.’
Keep Open Communication: Keep the communication channels with your end users open and flowing! By keeping the conversation moving you will also gain their trust and be seen as an IT shop that actually listens. We have seen instances (and you probably have too) in large enterprises where a ‘shadow mobility group’ uses a completely different solution and it goes unnoticed for quite a while.
Update Your Mobile Policies: There is safety and comfort in rules… By thinking through scenarios before they happen and documenting policies for these scenarios the likelihood of you being surprised by rogue users or rogue devices is significantly lower. (If you don’t have any policies around mobility … you should).
Add Value: Always ask of yourself, your role and your department… are we adding value to the enterprise? Are we helping end users to carry out their roles effectively through the use of mobile technology? Are we providing the tools, resources and applications needed to be productive? (NB: If you don’t ask someone will eventually ask and the answer better be yes…)
Build A Roadmap: Seeing that Mobile Strategy is one of the topics close to our heart we can’t close this post without mentioning the need for you to have one. Coincidentally the above points all fit into a comprehensive mobile strategy. What is your plan? Do you have one? Are you on top of what the carriers and device manufacturers are releasing in the next 6 months or longer? The thought process that you need to put into the development of a mobile strategy will even help you to stay ahead of your end-user’s needs (if you collaborate with and know them). There is nothing better than being able to anticipate their needs before they arise.

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Enterprise Mobility Matters

Jose HC — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:10:36 +0000

I realize that the content around here has been quite sparse over the last few months… and I would like to apologize for that but work has been busy since I began working pretty much full time on all things eHealth (a worthwhile effort… but unfortunately in Ontario not much talk about eHealth and mobility). I must admit from time to time I do suffer from withdrawal; sometimes severely. However, if you are looking for insightful commentary on Enterprise Mobility I suggest you drop by Philippe’s Blog. He’s been quite prolific in his writing lately so you should be able to find something interesting to read down there.

The good news is that some upcoming research will force me to think about enterprise mobility full time again and I will have some good stuff to post over here. I will be wrapping up two papers I started last year as well as putting together some slide decks (stay tuned for my slideshare information) on Enterprise Mobile Strategy.

That’s it for now…Similar Posts:

Mobile Strategy Basics

Jose HC — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:03:11 +0000

**Please note -Visionaries, futurists and extraordinary thinkers need not read this. But if you are like the author… you probably should.**

One of the first steps in drafting your mobile strategy is to determine where you need to be. This may sound basic but I only mention it because many times I have seen people start from the wrong place – where I want to be. Unless you are an extraordinary visionary, futurist and thinker there is a strong likelihood that where YOU want to be will NOT take your organization where it NEEDS to be. It is important to make this distinction because starting off from the wrong place will land you in the wrong spot… and thus your mobile strategy and the plans associated with it will be useless.

So this takes us to one of the most basic yet critical questions that your mobile strategy should answer: Where do we need to go? The answer to this question is informed by different factors both internal to your organization and external. Without going into much detail right now and purely off the top of my head (and with no structure for now) I will throw out a few things that should at the very least inform you and your team as you attempt to answer this question:

What is your company’s overall stated vision and mission?
What does your company’s overall 5 year plan aim for?
What about the one year plan?
Is you company hiring? Downsizing? Launching new products?
Can you glean any important themes from your CEO’s latest speeches or communication pieces?
What does your company measure?
What about your competitors? What are they doing?
Your industry… is it expanding? Shrinking?
What about your end users… what have they asked for recently? Any issues?
Are any current or ‘almost certain’ government regulations applicable to you?

I know I am missing things and that I truly should explain why the above information is important to have but for now let’s leave it at that. Unless you want to add something?Similar Posts:

Clinical Care and Mobile Technology

Jose HC — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:45:19 +0000

Just posted on this topic at our sister site Virtuate.

To save you time this is my quick conclusion:

“… mobile devices are still being used by physicians as a personal productivity tool and are not integrated into care giving processes to the extent that real and transformational value have been achieved.”

Which is the case in a lot of organizations… from small to large. Hence the need for a clear and concise mobile strategy.

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Mobile Policies

Jose HC — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:37:58 +0000

Regardless of the name you use, mobile policies are both needed and lacking in the enterprise. Over the last few years many organizations have begun piecing together policies around the use of mobile technologies and the behaviours of users when mobile. In a previous life I have written and spent quite some time thinking about this and my memory was jogged when I received an email earlier today with a link to an article at IT World Canada entitled “Is your mobility policy worth the paper it’s printed on?”

This specific article is centred around the need for training of end users on whatever mobile policies are drafted:

The right way to do things is to accompany a policy rollout with a brief training session, outlining the main components of the policy and what responsibilities the user will have to be concerned about … nothing in the policy should be left to interpretation or chance.

Quite true.

Let us know your thoughts on this topic and if you are able to we would like to hear whether or not you have a mobile policy in place. Our experience tells us that many organizations do not have policies in place to govern mobile technologies and mobile practices and the ones that do have one have not spent an adequate amount of time thinking about it or including the right players.Similar Posts:

On Mobile Context

Jose HC — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:08:14 +0000

Fraser Speirs has a post entitled: There is More Than One Mobile Context which I found after visiting Tom Hume’s blog and this post.

You can read both posts in their entirety but I wanted to bring you these points…

From Fraser:

There is more than one mobile context. Decide which you’re interested in.

Followed by the three types of context (as he sees them):

There is the context in which you’re actually physically moving as you try to use the device. This is a really hard one to nail down, but you need big tap targets and big information display. Most crucially, though, you need to impose a very lightweight mental model on the user since they already have enough on their plate avoiding obstacles. The design of car dashboards and GPS navigation units is a source of inspiration. Twitterrific’s expanded tweet view is a great example of this kind of design.

The second context is interstitial time. Your user is probably standing upright but still, using one hand, probably waiting for something. Again, you have to bear in mind the physical situation – one-handedness, maybe holding a basket of shopping – but the mental model can start to grow in complexity a little. Mobile Mail’s ability to show a couple of lines of preview in the list of emails works really well in this context.

Finally, you have the context of being away from home base with just the iPhone. Your user is “mobile” in the sense that she’s out with just her iPhone, but she might be in a series of meetings, on a train trip or visiting a relative. There will be lots of sitting down time, maybe some opportunities to get something meaningfully complex done.

And then Tom adds a fourth one:

… the mobile as your primary means of getting online, not because you’re away from home, but because it’s yours, it’s nearby, and it’s how you choose to be online in general.

One thing I find interesting is how the coversation in a large part of the blogosphere regarding mobility and usability is almost completely focused on the iPhone. Yet in the enterprise space iPhone penetration numbers are still quite low.Similar Posts: