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The Year of the Mobile Enterprise – 2012

Jose HC — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:52:58 +0000

I have always been excited by massive change. As a high school and undergraduate student I loved to read about historical turning points, revolutions, political upheavals … where things were turned upside down and the system/structure/government that was left in its place was completely different from what had been there before.

It would appear that we can no longer hope for such monumental changes in the mobile space. No longer is mobility something we hope for. No longer is it something we dream about. It is so much a part of our every day lives that we are even taking it for granted.

But is it really that much a part of our lives? I would argue that true mobility (read mobile enablement) has not yet penetrated the enterprise. In many ways mobility has been kept outside of the enterprise fortress. It is the last bastion to be conquered in 2012. The extension of email and calendaring is not true mobile enablement.

In 2012 we will see the enterprise mobility space reshaped. Long dominated by the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution by the end of 2012 the mobile enterprise will look very different than what it does today. Do not think that this monumental change will start on January 1st … it started a few years ago. Palm, Good Technology and Research In Motion all paved the way for what will happen in 2012. As old devices come up for a refresh and the pent-up demand for functionality increases IT departments everywhere will be forced to seriously consider opening the doors to true mobility.

Enterprise mobility is about extending the enterprise to mobile employees where ever they are on a wide variety of devices. This can be done securely and efficiently through the many mobile device management solutions out there (i.e Afaria and the future BES/Ubitexx combo among others). If the enterprise stops only at the device management aspect of it they will completely miss the boat and it can not in good conscience be called ‘enterprise mobility.’ On top of managing the devices you will need to provide access to critical enterprise applications as well as some consumer apps available through the app stores (or all – depending on your security concerns). Speaking of app stores you will also need to decide how will control and to whom you will distribute each mobile app – you can also do this with an internal enterprise mobile application store.

In 2012 the enterprise will truly become mobile. The key term mobile strategy (or mobility strategy) will begin to be identified more and more with your enterprise mobile strategy (roadmap) as much as it has been over the last few years with your approach to your market through the mobile channel.

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Thinking About RIM, its people and its future

Thinking About RIM, its people and its future

Jose HC — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:59:26 +0000

First of all let me tell you something that has been heavily on my mind over the last week or so – RIM is NOT Nortel. I will write more about that later on, but I believe that Research In Motion and its BlackBerry line of products and services has a long life left in them. This is not an obituary. We are just taking a break from mobility to think about our friends and the lives being affected one way or another by the ‘reset’ that RIM is going through right now.

It has been 4 days since Research In Motion announced a large scale reorganization, the retirement of Don Morrison and 2,000 layoffs. The news, however, did not hit home until late Tuesday afternoon when I first got wind of the names of some of those being let go. The folks released are far more senior than I originally anticipated. It definitely hit home because I worked very closely with ‘some’ of those people in my past. If you check LinkedIn you can already see profile changes and people who were previously inactive are much more active now.

Prior to my current role, and before and after my time at RIM, I worked in large-scale reorganizations, layoffs and process re-engineering. One thing I can tell you is that the tension will always be present in this type of situation.

It is inevitable; it is unavoidable. It is part of the process.

I have seen and personally tried all kinds of ‘change management’ techniques and at the end of the day there are always casualties far beyond the actual people that are let go. What RIM is going through right now is painful; very painful. And it is ugly. Very ugly – especially on a personal and human level.

But it was necessary. The market changed. Competition became real. If you are a current employee this may even be impossible for you to understand – but if this is executed correctly RIM will be a stronger company by the end of this current quarter. Believe me when I say that no one at the top took this decision lightly. In fact, I would go out on limb and tell you that even Jim Balsilie and Mike Laziridis lost sleep over this. I have coached executives through this kind of thing before and the ones that suffer the most are those that built the company with their own hands (i.e. founders, entrepreneurs). In my opinion, both Mike and Jim will try their hardest for this not to happen again. It does not feel good and it penetrates to the deepest parts of a founder’s ego. In some ways they may even perceive this as their own personal failure.

Regardless of your opinion of them – Mike and Jim have worked very hard over the years and have sacrificed much on the personal side as well. How much they sacrificed only those closest to them really know. Bottom line – this is not easy for anyone. It goes to the core of an organization’s heart… and everybody hurts. Everybody.

Unfortunately as humans we sometimes need big shakeups to bring about true change. We need to be shocked out of complacency and comfort zones in order for us to bring up our game.

So far the execution of the ‘changes’ has hit among other areas sales, marketing and product management. Of course, as an outsider I do not have complete visibility into what is going on and I am sure there are other areas being affected. My hope is that these folks are not merely scapegoats but that RIM will truly use this time to refocus and leverage the enormous talent and capacity that is still in house.

I left RIM three years ago and I have only good memories from my time there. Although today my main device at work is the BlackBerry Torch I do have an iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy S at home and my work Playbook is on order (I actually just returned my iPad so I could have a Playbook instead). Despite all of its shortcoming I still consider my Blackberry an invaluable productivity tool for work. But here’s the catch – I only use 3 applications outside of email, contacts and calendaring (LinkedIn, Twitter and Globe and Mail Politics). For anything else I use my wife’s iPhone or my Android device.

So I close this post and this week with RIM in my mind and on my heart. I want to firmly position myself in the corner of those that believe that RIM is NOT dead. If all goes well Research In Motion will be a stronger company by next quarter and will release new products and services that will enable them get back on track.

Do you want to know what RIM’s secret weapon is? Even today the BlackBerry platform differentiates itself from all others through its BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the thousands of implementations. If there is one player that can instantly dominate the Mobile Device Management space in one swoop is RIM. With their acquisition of Ubitexx they should be able to get there relatively soon. Will write a separate post on this early next week.

Of course all the hopes reflected in this post are also predicated on my belief that RIM will refresh its devices with QNX to the point of making them more competitive and that their product design and release cycles will be compressed and enable them to come to market faster.Similar Posts:

Contactless Payments and Barclaycard

Jose HC — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:55:51 +0000

Posted via email from Mobile Strategy

Growth of Android Video

Jose HC — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:22:35 +0000

Just a neat perspective on it. Enjoy.

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Thinking About RIM, its people and its future

The Sometimes Unbelievable Allure of Mobile

Jose HC — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 06:00:33 +0000

The paragraph in quotes below was my first draft introduction to a report we were writing for a client on the sustainability of a specific business model in mobile. Of course I can’t say much about it but I am laughing at myself for what I initially thought was going to be the introduction to a very ‘serious’ report for a private equity-type firm. I was more inspired than what I should have been for such a deliverable… so I took it out.

However, it does make me think about the power, the attraction… the allure of mobile. It is hard to explain but I know you are reading these words right now because it draws you as well.

Like any real geographer will tell you, everything happens in space and geography is about space. Similarly, everything happens in mobile and mobile is about everything. Why? Because mobile is where ever you find yourself. Chances are, you are reading this and your mobile device is very close to you. It is the most intimate and personal of technologies. It is with you wherever you go and knows more about you than most people even tell their spouses. Its portability has made it your most constant companion and I am certain it has helped you get out of a jam more than once.

For these and many other reasons, over the last few years, mobile has become the place to go.
With all of its allure, mobile has not yet come of age. The industry is still in development; still growing. Business models are born and become obsolete almost as quickly as devices come to market and become yesterday’s news.

What is it about mobile?

I know some of you are thinking about the money. And of course that is a very strong pull. But go deeper than that. Are we so drawn to mobile because mobile is us? Is it so personal and intimate that it is an expression (a reflection) of us? A reflection of you. A reflection of me.

What applications do you have on your phone that are representative of you? Do you carry a Bible on your smartphone? Do you play games? What music do you listen to? Where did you last check in? Do you look at pornography on it? Do you have your family pictures? Are all your passwords to your bank accounts on your device?

If you leave home without it in the morning… do you drive back home even though you will be late for work? (I have done that in the past).

If you die tomorrow, and all that is left of you is that smartphone… what will I learn about you?

I think I am back… I hope I am back!

Jose HC — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:10:14 +0000

For many and varied reasons I have been unable to write. Some of it was time, some of it was money and some it (if you can believe this) was strategic.

Over the last few months writing on this blog took second place to many other things. Yesterday something happened that I believe will give me both the reason and the impetus to begin writing again. After a few weeks of being very close to signing with a reputable research firm as their mobile financial analyst … the door finally closed. What had been a roller coaster ride of emotions (from ‘this is the best job in the world‘ to ‘there is something not right in my gut‘) came to an end in a surprising turn of events spurred by a misunderstanding. I see an Invisible Hand who graciously spared me from something and where a veil was removed and suddenly I could see what I could not see before. It is amazing how that works!

So today I find myself 100% free to write but not about everything that you’d expect me to write about. I am currently engaged with a US Bank in executing a portion of their mobile strategy and I will stay away from talking about certain things. It is not at the level that I am accustomed to but it has been great to see the other side of the fence as I find myself deeply entrenched in IT. The good news is that since I will not be joining the research firm and I will not be writing for clients with a twist – I can now concentrate on writing on things that are of interest to me and I believe will be of much interest to you. Topics related to the engagement of the mobile financial consumer and the entrenchment of brands with such consumers. All fun stuff.

The doors are also opening up on a potential mobile health assignment… which could also be great fun. As you know I have been involved with mobile healthcare, hospital operations and healthcare IT in a big way in the past so to see opportunities opening up for me in that area is greatly encouraging.

The other reason I have been slightly unavailable is because of MSA Management Consulting; a firm I am heavily involved in and which we are building and expanding with a very strong team. A firm focused on generating measurable returns on investment of your current assets.

Expect to see much more over the next few weeks and for this place to once again turn into the hub for mobile strategy discussions.

So there you are… consider yourself updated.

Is HP’s play for Palm about tablets?

Jose HC — Wed, 05 May 2010 21:33:33 +0000

In fact, HP’s (NYSE: HPQ) 1.2 billion play for Palm is shaping up to be more about tablets than smartphones. The smartphone business, which is quickly becoming super saturated with the likes notebook makers such as Dell, Lenovo and Acer, is one both HP and Palm are separately struggling in. But as Technology Business Research points out, the tablet computing space hasn’t been well defined by any single manufacturer or operating system. Could Palm’s WebOS combined with HP’s extensive PC manufacturing expertise give it the leading position?

The scuttlebutt this week has to do with whether HP will drop tablet plans to incorporate Windows 7 and go with the WebOS. IMS Research principal analyst Anna Hunt expects HP to employ WebOS in favor of Windows 7 OS, citing the high cost and potential strain on the processor.

Moreover, Palm’s webOS, despite gaining little traction in the smartphone market, is liked by developers as it offers many similarities to Linux. The platform just didn’t have the volume to woo developers en mass. “If HP can create a compelling tablet offering that people are willing to buy, the barriers to entry for developers might be fairly minimal,” wrote IMS Research analyst Chris Schreck. Moreover, HP has a commanding presence in the enterprise market, which should be attractive to developers.

Jack Gold, founder and principal analyst with J Gold Associates, points out that since tablets are mainly front ends to the Internet, there is a big play for HP to deploy many cloud-based services from which it can generate revenue. I can only imagine the cloud-based services HP can dream up for the enterprise

via fiercemobileit.com

Think enterprise people. This was first and foremost an enterprise move by HP. Consumers are fun and it’s fun to write about and think about pretty things for them… but the big money is in the enterprise. The value add is for the enterprise.

Posted via web from Mobile Strategy

Five Trends Influencing the CIO Smartphone Agenda

Jose HC — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:54:18 +0000

The good news is that companies are shifting their thinking. They’ve realized that what worked for laptops does not work for smartphones and that they need to develop very different management strategies. Here are the five trends CIOs across the country and across industries are considering as they develop an enterprise mobility plan.

1. The smartphone has become the platform-of-choice for the knowledge worker It’s no longer a question of whether laptops or smartphones are the platform of choice for employees. Technology has advanced hugely in the last 18 months and employees are embracing a pocket-sized device that delivers voice and wireless email with a PC-class browser. Smartphones are the device that an employee never leaves at home, the default ‘go-to’ device. This creates a swath of new, powerful end-points for which the CIO has to manage risk and leverage innovation.

2. The CIO is now a virtual wireless operator When a CIO has 50,000 employees using smartphones, whether they like it or not, they have become a mini service provider. This challenge is further complicated because smartphones are not uniform: there are multiple operating systems and multiple actual operators to be managed. To be effective, CIOs need the same types of tools and technology as a cellular operator. They want technology that lets them work at a network level not a device level and they want to get in front of potential problems by tracking usage and costs in real-time. Finally, like any service provider, they want to minimize helpdesk calls and proactively monitor quality.

3. Data is more important than the device When it comes to phones a device can be replaced but the data is priceless. As a result CIOs are recognizing a need to shift their thinking from device management to data management. Think of it as the “MP3 school” of smartphone management. Employees use their phones like an MP3 player; they use them to access data that is stored somewhere independent of the device. Smartphones have become a broad-ranging gateway for data access, which underscores the need to secure them.

4. IT has been blind-sided by the App Store phenomenon The iTunes App Store topped three billion downloads in January and that’s just for one mobile platform. CIOs know that this explosion of consumer apps has hit or will soon hit their enterprise phones. That has scary implications for security and support. At the same time, they see a silver lining. The app explosion can work in their favor if they can figure out how to leverage it to improve employee productivity. They want to be able to develop their own enterprise App Store with vetted and recommended apps whose delivery and usage can be tracked and managed.

5. Native e-mail has won Whether it’s BES for BlackBerry or ActiveSync for other smartphones, the email battle is over. In the past, IT wrestled with standalone e-mail clients that were device specific, drained battery, and lagged new phone releases by six months because of certification cycles. Just last week, the mobility head of a F200 company told me they were getting out of the business of supporting third party e-mail clients because the native clients had equivalent functionality and far lower support costs. Interestingly, while the rest of enterprise mobility is becoming more and more complicated, the mobile email landscape has simplified dramatically.

via sfgate.com

Just for reading.

Posted via web from Mobile Strategy

Almost Back…

Jose HC — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:39:30 +0000

My apologies to everyone who still visits this site. It has been over a month since any relevant content has been posted here. This message is to let you know that you should not worry, life and posting should be back to some normality next week. I have been pursuing contracts and writing proposals to clients – this has kept me relatively busy and distracted from the Mobile Strategy Blog.

But return we will…

Thank you for your patience!

Holiday Hiatus

Jose HC — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:07:43 +0000

Greetings everyone! You will not see much content here between now and 2010… in fact it will be completely empty. I am currently writing from another city in Ontario where we will be spending the rest of the holidays. My family and I do celebrate Christmas and we enjoy time with loved ones as we celebrate the birth of Jesus and remember what He has done for us! He is not in a manger but in our hearts!

I actually count this humble blog among my many blessings… It is an honour to know that about 400 hundred of you come to the Mobile Strategy Blog on a weekly basis. Perhaps not that many to others, but to me it is quite a crowd! Writing on this blog started as a hobby and continues to be a hobby for me… so any reader outside of family or clients is quite amusing to me.

Thank you for dropping by and I hope to see you back next year!