Similar Posts:

• 13 Things To Remember When Integrating Mobility (Or How To Avoid Process Peddlers)
• Collection of tiny mobile apps for your iPhone (or my Personalized Enterprise Gateway)
• Mobile Becomes A Social Media Lifeline
• Twitter’s Mobile Strategy
• Clinical Care and Mobile Technology
• Mobile Advertising and Productivity
• Mobile Strategy and the iPod Touch
• Making Sense of Mobile Application Development

Regardless of whether it is the first time your mobile workers receive a device, or if you are deploying a new application, your people and your processes will never be the same. Mobility changes the way we work; it is transformational and because of this you need to pay very close attention to your processes. If you are not looking (and I mean really looking) at how to best integrate your new technology or application into your existing workflows you will be faced with anything from poor adoption to outright failure.

So what do I mean by process peddlers?

Process peddlers may be vendors, mobile application developers or even the junior resource in that other department on the fourth floor. These process peddlers talk about the importance of process mapping but at the end of the implementation, all they have done is connected a few boxes with some arrows (current and future state workflows) without adding value to the ultimate success of your project. Sadly enough, I have seen them far too many times. In fact I have even worked with them or had to come in and fix their mistakes to try and revive a failing implementation.

In case you don’t get  through the long post here are the two main takeaways:

1. Process peddlers are a waste of resources.
2. Real process integration experts are invaluable to the success of a mobile implementation.

To help you avoid process peddlers, below is a list of key concepts you should look for when you are being pitched to. I also understand that you yourself may be one of those people that talks about process without any idea of what or how to analyze one. This list is also for your benefit. At the very least look for the following:

1. Experience – Real experience with relevant examples of situations where new technologies or new methods were succesfully integrated into existing workflows.
2. Measurement – As they relate their experiences they will mention results. And these results will be explained to you through measurable improvements. You can’t talk about real improvements without knowing the numbers – the indicators (whatever these are for their given examples).
3. Upstream and Downstream – Your process expert will talk and ask questions about what happens upstream and downstream of the specific area being worked on. Your process expert will want to understand how current changes impact and are impacted by what happens before and after.
4. Inputs – This refers to process inputs. What feeds into the process? Actual product? Labor hours? Information/knowledge? Parts? Purchase Orders? It is different from a process trigger and it refers to all inputs into the process.
5. Outputs – What are the process outcomes, outputs and deliverables? Your process expert will make sure that these are not negatively impacted with the new process. Quality and service levels should not suffer but either stay the same or improve.
6. Cycle Times – Is the total time from the beginning to the end of the process. Your process expert will want to understand the cycle time for your given process and will be able to explain to you if it will be shortened by the implementation or not.
7. Capacity – Your process expert will be able to tell you how they measure the capacity of a process and why that is important… and what it could mean to you.
8. Workload – How much work will each individual employee have after the changes. Will it be more or less? If less then you will want to fill it with more value added work. If more, will it be too much? Your process expert will measure the workload and how it is affected by the new technology.
9. Compliance – You do not want to overburden you mobile workers by measuring, controlling and following up on every single action. But compliance is probably important to you. Your process expert will be good at being able to find a few key points in the process and advising on how best to measure these to ensure compliance or simply to follow up on your mobile workers.
10. Documentation – The new processes should be documented in detail in the form of procedures/manuals. It is a given … but just make sure you do ask for this.
11. Expectations – When you optimize a process the expectations need to change, otherwise you will not reap the benefits of the improved process. If you previously expected your field technicians to do an average of 5 calls per day… the new technology should change that. What is it? 6 per day? 8 per day? Your process expert will help you with this.
12. Change Management – No this is not about IT change requests. This is about your people and how to help them change from doing things the old way to the new way. Change management is about people and what they need to get on board.
13. Support – When you implement mobile technology or a mobile application there are going to be impacts on your support organization. Somebody needs to look after it, right? You would be surprised how often this gets overlooked. Everything from use cases, to scripts, to escalation trees and all documentation needs to be in place. Make sure you understand these impacts early on. Your process expert will be able to do this… easily!

There are some things missing here. But if you are able to get a process expert to answer and prove their worth on the points you are well on your way to integrating your new mobile technology or mobile application into your existing workflow.Similar Posts:

• Friday Ramblings: Electronic Health Records, Microsoft Courier and Hospital Operations
• Making Sense of Mobile Application Development
• Mobile Application Development: Native or Browser
• Mobile Applications and Loyalty
• Enterprise Mobility – one or many device manufacturers?
• Not All Mobile Applications Are Created Equal
• How you view your employees and their knowledge will determine the success of your implementation…
• Zoompass Announcement Falls Short of ‘my’ expectations
• Of Context and Content
• Moving Beyond Wireless Enablement (Canada)

Beautiful Sunday morning here in Toronto (Mississauga to be precise).
As I catch up on reading and wait for the family to wake up before we head to church I thought I would share this post from Harvard Business. David Armano writes a Conversation Starter on the Six Social Media Trends for 2010… and these are:

1. Social media begins to look less social
2. Corporations look to scale
3. Social business becomes serious play
4. Your company will have a social media policy (and it might actually be enforced)
5. Mobile becomes a social media lifeline
6. Sharing no longer means e-mail

Of special interest to some of you will be #5:

With approximately 70 percent of organizations banning social networks and, simultaneously, sales of smartphones on the rise, it’s likely that employees will seek to feed their social media addictions on their mobile devices. What used to be cigarette breaks could turn into “social media breaks” as long as there is a clear signal and IT isn’t looking.

I certainly hope that most of you reading this realize that the value of mobility goes way beyond social media. In fact it is my opinion that social media as a business tool is not for every role/position. It can certainly be a waste of time. Believe me … been there and done that. Unless you see an ROI you truly need to have social media policies in place.

Head over there for the full post by clicking here.Similar Posts:

• Social Media and Enterprise Mobility … continued
• Enterprise Mobility, Social Networks and the End of Email
• MyBlackBerry.com Launch
• Mobile Banking Overview
• Mobile Strategy and the iPod Touch
• Commentary on Google’s Acquisition of AdMob
• Mobile Applications and Loyalty
• Network As A Service: A Carrier’s Differentiator
• List of Mobile Analytics Providers
• 67% Of The World’s Population Are Mobile Subscribers – What are you doing about it?

Last week Google announced a slew of new features for Google Analytics.  As we posted on Friday of special interest to us is the expanded mobile reporting capabilities.  Please note that if you are looking for an Enterprise solution or for something that will help you understand overall mobile behavior you will not find it in the expanded mobile reporting from Google Analytics.  Even those writing about are still very much focused on the mobile marketing and mobile advertising spaces.  I am sure that comes to no surprise to you, however, more attention should be given to actual mobile end user behaviors in an effort to understand users not as advertising consumers but as overall consumers and of course of interest to many of you – as enterprise users.

This from the Google Analytics Blog:

Expanded Mobile Reporting: Google Analytics now tracks mobile websites and mobile apps so you can better measure your mobile marketing efforts. If you’re optimizing content for mobile users and have created a mobile website, Google Analytics can track traffic to your mobile website from all web-enabled devices, whether or not the device runs JavaScript. This is made possible by adding a server side code snippet to your mobile website which will become available to all accounts in the coming weeks (download snippet instructions). We will be supporting PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX sites in this release. Of course, you can still track visits to your regular website coming from high-end, Javascript enabled phones.

iPhone and Android mobile application developers can now also track how users engage with apps, just as with tracking engagement on a website. What’s more, for apps on Android devices, usage can be tied back to ad campaigns: from ad to marketplace to download to engagement. Check out the SDKs and technical documentation on mobile apps tracking to get started. And coming soon, you’ll be able to see breakout data on mobile devices and carriers in the new Mobile reports in the Visitors section!

I am sure some of you will test this in the coming weeks and we will have a better idea of what its true value and differentiators are.

In the meantime here are some other places writing about it:

• Adweek – Google Wades Into Mobile Analytics
• Searchcowboys – Google Analytics finally lets you track mobile apps
• Mobile Marketing Watch – Google Expands Mobile Reporting In Analytics

Similar Posts:

• Commentary on Google’s Acquisition of AdMob
• Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server
• Is Google Eyeing the Mobile Enterprise with New Management Tools?
• Just For Fun: Google Goggles
• Mobile Applications and Loyalty
• App Store Market Data (from AppsFire)
• Making Sense of Mobile Application Development
• Collection of tiny mobile apps for your iPhone (or my Personalized Enterprise Gateway)
• WebOS, Palm Pre and Enterprise Mobility
• Everyone is an expert…

Much has been written on how innovative ideas are born, evolved and tested first on consumers before they make their way into the enterprise. We have seen it with Web 2.0 and social media and social networking.  This is absolutely true and the consumer market proves to be a wonderful and invaluable living lab for the enterprise.  In most cases the enterprise doesn’t have a choice since after the consumer market tests and likes something they take it to work!

Becoming A Better Mobile Application Developer for Consumers

Today I am going to propose something that will go the other way instead. It goes backwards (so to speak) from the enterprise to the common folk out there. If you learn this small and valuable lesson you will become a better developer of mobile consumer applications. You may not become a rock star in the App Store overnight but your hard work will pay off in the end way after the rock star’s have faded. Your applications will be more relevant, meaningful and useful to the end user.

I made the following point a few days ago:

…if we want to talk specifically about mobile workers the conversation cannot revolve around any one of the above points. Instead it needs to focus on one thing:

the mobile worker as part of a process that adds value to your organization

I was trying to drive the point that you you need to focus on the user and their process if you are going to build a mobile application that will add value to an organization.  Don’t mobilize for the sake of mobilizing!  Do so because it adds value.

From Workflow to Lifeflow

If you are developing in the enterprise you do (or you should) a careful process analysis of those roles you are going to mobilize.  You study the workflow – the steps involved to produce that product or deliver that service…

Crude and Simple Workflow

I have seen a lack of rigour and structure among far too many mobile application developers. The App Store has not helped matters since now everyone wants to develop for that shiny object in the room.  A shiny, distracting object!

If we look at the consumer the same way we look at a field worker, a sales person or any other type of mobile worker I believe we would have better, more user-friendly and truly relevant mobile consumer applications.  You can’t really study someone’s life to the extent that you study a process … but you can certainly take the context and given situations, study and analyze those.  I could almost bet that the best consumer applications out there were either done by studying lifeflows or by folks with a deep understanding and first hand experience of how those flows go (because they lived them).

Crude ... but definitely not simple Lifeflow!

Even though I can write for hours about this subject I am not going to… Today I will drop this on you and if there is some interest out there in helping me explore some use cases then maybe we will continue this topic.   If not I will just take my little flow and go home.

(What I would really like to do is start a repository of Lifeflows so others can use these for development purposes… I know it is a stretch… anyone?)

My plan was to compile all the excellent feedback received here and in other places on the debate whether it is best to develop mobile applications for the browser or native to the device (platform).  I gave you a glimpse into my preference a few weeks ago with the teaser called -  Mobile Application Development: Native or Browser.  We will come back to this topic next week with a summary post but in the meantime I wanted to take the conversation in a slightly different direction… yet still related to the decisions around the development of mobile applications.

Ultimately the decision on what and how to develop your mobile application is a strategic one; one that should be based not on the currents of opinion (analysts and vendors) or on the noise around us (blogosphere and marketing).  Instead, this decision should begin and finish with the mobile user.  I realize this is nothing new … but hang in there.

When considering decisions around mobile application development I have noticed an unfortunate pattern.   There is one thing that is being overlooked too often.

When trying to understand mobile workers, most people will mention the importance of location, presence, coverage, whether or not they are power users… and yes they will mention context.  So far so good right?  Well let’s dig deeper.

Location refers to a users place in space.  As in geographic space.

Presence refers to availability and whether or not others can see if the user is available.

Coverage refers to network coverage and whether the user’s device is in or out of coverage.

Regular vs Power Usage typically refers to how much and how often a user uses his device.

Context typically refers to a user’s surroundings and their interactions with those surroundings.

These and other criteria that popped into your head are all good and valuable things to cover.

However, if we want to talk specifically about mobile workers the conversation cannot revolve around any one of the above points.  Instead it needs to focus on one thing:

the mobile worker as part of a process that adds value to your organization

It may sound harsh to some.  If it does you are not getting what is being said here. We are not forgetting that the worker is also an individual, but instead we are focusing on the main reason why that individual works in an organization (profit or not-for-profit) and gets paid.  They get paid to add value.  Your mobile application strategy needs to revolve around that one fact…

A worker exists in an organization to add value… even if mobile.

A mobile application needs to add value to the mobile worker.

The analysis therefore needs to focus on the work that the worker performs.

We will develop this topic further in the coming weeks (after I get some more mobile banking posts under my belt).

In the meantime please take a look at IT Business Edge writer Carl Weinschenk’s article with a similar title as this post and which makes reference to one of our articles.Similar Posts:

• Mobile Application Development: Native or Browser
• Collection of tiny mobile apps for your iPhone (or my Personalized Enterprise Gateway)
• 13 Things To Remember When Integrating Mobility (Or How To Avoid Process Peddlers)
• Twitter’s Mobile Strategy
• Mobile Strategy and the iPod Touch
• Mobile Advertising and Productivity
• Moving Beyond Wireless Enablement (Canada)
• App Store Market Data (from AppsFire)
• Mobile Applications and Loyalty
• Of Context and Content

The majority of you have seen this… but to me it is well-worth having it posted here mostly because of the enormous potential this could have. It is the type of thing that makes you sit back and wonder what it could become… (I am talking about the Microsoft Courier – video below).

Yesterday I shared this video with two of my colleagues on my current assignment. Both have been Hospital IT Directors and one is also a Nurse and Clinical Informatics expert. Both of them tried at one time or another to bring mobile technology into their large hospitals with varying degrees of success. What do you think their reaction was? They were both awe struck. In fact I would say they were even a little bit giddy about it. They began to think and talk about the potential (and especially liked the fact that it folds, is smaller than a laptop and has a touchscreen). Of course they started asking questions about whether or not it had RFID capabilities and about its ruggedness. Had I not stopped the conversation I guarantee you they would have asked me (as every nurse does when I speak of mobile technology) if it could withstand being dropped into the various and sundry fluids found in hospitals. I have only seen the video … so I don’t know the answer to those questions or if it would be part of their roadmap.

But watching the video does makes you think. And dream.

It is good to think and it is good to dream.

As we move forward with the implementation and adoption of a province wide (Ontario) electronic health record this device does show some promise. Perhaps it could help adoption for the smaller practices scattered throughout the jurisdiction (numbers vary but the number I hear often is that we have over +12,000 healthcare providers in Ontario). It is certainly portable enough for physicians to carry… But how helpful would it be for hospital based nurses who typically need both hands to do their job properly?

Those of you involved in healthcare know it is never a straightforward endeavor. No two implementations are ever alike; can you imagine tens of thousands? Several of my previous roles took me deep into the hallways, operating rooms, kitchens and sub sub-basements of hospitals across North America where I learned one thing – it is never easy and no two hospitals are alike… and even if you thought they were alike – you never ever say that to anyone in a hospital (or in healthcare for that matter). In fact I would say that in some cases it was easier for me to implement large cutbacks in non-clinical services than it was to actually implement a new technology. Of course it was also difficult to suggest a mobile strategy offering from a device manufacturer perspective since hospitals are typically looking for a device agnostic vendor with whom they have the confidence that all options will be presented.

Truly, only time will tell what comes of the Microsoft Courier. However it is good to see that they still want to be in the game. Without much further ado…

FYI – This post also marks my decision to discontinue the healthcare and technology blog over at Virtuate. Instead that blog will focus more on the change management, process transformation and training in healthcare and in hospitals. In addition to that I will post anything related to mobile health over on this blog.Similar Posts:

• Mobile Phone Use in Hospitals
• Clinical Care and Mobile Technology
• Mobility Video from IBM
• Mobile Strategy for Small Business: It’s About Local Convenience
• One thing to get rid of…
• Network As A Service: A Carrier’s Differentiator
• Mobile Strategy Blog … launching m-strat.org
• Vettro and Antenna – a few more thoughts
• 13 Things To Remember When Integrating Mobility (Or How To Avoid Process Peddlers)
• On Mobile Context

The discussion rages on. I continue to enjoy the experience of native applications much more. But there seem to be a lot of people out there jumping on the ‘mobile browser application‘ bandwagon. Of course everyone has a reason for it but if we focus solely on the end user (how about that?) the native applications provide a richer and better experience (not to mention better integration with device functionality). Inside the enterprise (as we attempt to mobilize our workers) this argument hasn’t taken off just yet. This is mostly because it adds a layer of complexity (and costs) to the roll out and support of multiple devices and platforms.

For now, I leave you with two stories:

Jason presents and refutes the most common arguments for why iPhone applications need to be built using native code instead of web technology.

Three of the arguments either don’t apply in all cases or are simply wrong.

The five most common arguments for native app development are:
1. Offline Mode — The ability to continue to use an application when you are not connected to the Internet.
2. Findability — If you’re not in the App Store, people won’t be able to find your application.
3. Performance — Javascript on mobile is too slow to use for application development.
4. Device Attributes — The need to access things like the camera, gps and the accelerometer.
5. Monetization — The ease with which people can and will buy your application.

These five reasons are also provided to argue for native app development on other platforms like Android and Blackberry as well.

Now It’s Your Turn
Regardless of the number of visitors to the Mobile Strategy Blog we always have a tough time collecting opinions and commentary. Not sure if it has to do with our style or with our readers… But we do value your opinion and we would like to hear your thoughts on this topic (and all the others of course). So please drop us a line or leave a comment below:

– What are your thoughts?
– Are these arguments one-sided?
– What are you developing for?Similar Posts:

• Making Sense of Mobile Application Development
• Collection of tiny mobile apps for your iPhone (or my Personalized Enterprise Gateway)
• iPhone and Enterprise Mobility
• Mobile Applications and Loyalty
• 13 Things To Remember When Integrating Mobility (Or How To Avoid Process Peddlers)
• Mobile Strategy and the iPod Touch
• App Store Market Data (from AppsFire)
• Mobile 2.0 Cloud
• Content On Its Way
• Mobile Search Now With Video – YellowPages.ca iPhone App Updated

I was just reading over at FierceWireless Lynette Luna’s comments on the expectation that the iPod Touch will be an important part of Apple’s earnings report to be released tomorrow.   The reason, Ms. Luna writes is because,

The iPod touch offers a pretty good alternative for those who don’t want to be tied down to AT&T or add another wireless contract.  I recently bought the iPod touch because I wanted an iPhone but couldn’t justify adding another wireless plan on top of two contracts I already have with two different providers, one a broadband access plan and the other a family plan.

Ms. Luna references an AppleInsider story on how the iPod touch is seen as a small but stealthy asset in [the] Apple lineup which in turn references a few other reports:

The J.P. Morgan report views the iPod touch as Apple’s netbook, of sorts.  At least, the analysis says, until Apple officially enters the netbook market – something the firm expects the Mac maker to do.

“We think the iPod touch provides the portability, Internet browsing, and email features that are the hallmark of the netbook PC experience,” the report states. “With the iPod touch, the main limitation is the small screen size relative to netbooks. While we continue to believe that Apple will introduce its own netbook-like device, in the interim, the iPod touch should help the company benefit from the latest computing trend related to the netbook.

Mobile Enterprise Implications

A mobile strategy is not just about smartphones and not all your mobile workers necessarily need a voice plan.  (But you knew that already)…

Apple does include the iPod in its iPhone Enterprise Deployment Guide, and in fact the title of its first chapter is – Deploying iPhone and iPod Touch:

This chapter provides an overview of how to deploy iPhone and iPod touch in your enterprise.
iPhone and iPod touch are designed to easily integrate with your enterprise systems,including Microsoft Exchange 2003 and 2007, 802.1X-based secure wireless networks, and Cisco IPSec virtual private networks.

As with any enterprise solution, good planning and an understanding of your deployment options make deployment easier and more efficient for you and your users.

When planning your deployment of iPhone and iPod touch consider the following:

- How will your company’s iPhones be activated for wireless cellular service?
- Which enterprise network services, applications, and data will your users need to access?
- What policies do you want to set on the devices to protect sensitive company data?
- Do you want to manually configure devices individually, or use a streamlined process for configuring a large fleet?

The specifics of your enterprise environment, IT policies, wireless carrier, and your computing and communication requirements affect how you tailor your deployment strategy.

Your organization may have controls (or even just policies) in place that prevent you from even considering this option.   However, there is a strong likelihood that sooner or later both the iPhone and the iPod will meet your enterprise requirements.

How can you leverage the iPod Touch for those workers that do not need a voice plan?  What about mobile campus workers or those micro mobile employees (ie. hallway)?  Are you thinking about it?  Or is it not part of your plans yet?

Similar Posts:

• Collection of tiny mobile apps for your iPhone (or my Personalized Enterprise Gateway)
• Moving Beyond Wireless Enablement (Canada)
• iPhone and Enterprise Mobility
• Twitter’s Mobile Strategy
• Mobile Becomes A Social Media Lifeline
• Mobile Strategy Basics
• Mobile Advertising and Productivity
• Mobile Application Development: Native or Browser
• Making Sense of Mobile Application Development
• Content On Its Way