Over the last year, I talked to a lot of clients and potential clients about their enterprise mobile strategies. I also took part in creating some mobile apps for the consumer and internal staff of enterprises. During these conversations, some recurring themes arose. Here is a brief summary of the chief concerns of enterprise mobile app strategies and roadmaps
Employees and customers are clamoring for mobile apps NOW – Enterprise development is in catchup mode when it comes to mobile. Most of the big ERP vendors have unsure offerings or non-existent presence in mobile. But increasing number of employees and consumers are demanding information on the mobile platforms.
Enterprise work force are the motivators for driving these efforts and IT is finding itself looking for a silver bullet to satisfy these demands. More often that not, these mobile efforts are high visibility projects impacting a lot of departments.
While this situation means that efforts are well-funded, it also increases the pressure on the IT department to get it right, the first time. Such pressures incentivize less risk taking and opting for safer routes. This situation presents an opportunity for IT departments to drive innovation into the mobile apps to exceed their user’s expectation.
Platform and device fragmentation is still an issue – Almost all of the clients I talked to expressed some level of concern related to the platform and device fragmentation. While some have analytics on their existing user base, and can categorize the most important devices as of a given day, it is often hard to predict the what the landscape might look like by the time the mobile app effort is launched.
Given the fragmentation between iOS and Android as well as having to deal with Blackberry user base, the choices for proceeding forward get immediately riddled with thorny questions.
What is the right way to approach building the mobile apps? Is a HTML5 based cross-platform approach the right one? Or going native is the way to go? What are the existing skill sets of the in-house IT staff? Is buying into a Mobile Enterprise App Platform a sensible strategy? The answer of course depends on a lot of criteria and I often find myself talking to the clients about the pros and cons of every approach. But as we are often reminded in world of movies and film making that a bad story line cannot be overcome by using 3D. Often its not just the “how” but the “what” that will determine the app adoption. Compelling content and impact is often where one needs to start.
ROI and Engagement tracking is still an issue – Despite the desire to get into the mobile game, the clear case for Return on Investment in mobile apps within the enterprise world remains unclear. The departments are clamoring for apps, but how should the investment weigh against other strategic initiatives? Given tight budgets, what criteria should determine whether to go down the enterprise mobile app route?
How will the success of such efforts be measured? These are some of the questions that governed the thinking in the past year. One way that I recommend to clients to overcome such blocking hurdles is to accelerate the rate of experimentation related to mobile apps.
Time boxing app releases into shorter release cycles will provide increased understanding of the return on investment while reducing the risk of investing large capital into these efforts. Typically a six to eight week release cycle can yield insights into what is working. Mobile app efforts can be enable of the “lean thinking” within the enterprise.
Data and device security is a big concern – Both Android and iOS platforms were built from ground-up thinking about enterprise security. This gap over time has been filled by third parties such as MobileIron, AirWatch, Good Dynamics and others. Often when engaging in enterprise mobile app efforts, security is a big concern. Dealing with situations like lost device, compromised device etc are real scenarios.
While this is no different than if a corporate laptop is lost or stolen, there are real nightmare scenarios that are unique to mobile devices. Increasing number of employees are bring their own devices to work, and along with it, bringing their own network inside the premises. Finding the right balance between corporate security and governance while not infringing upon the user’s device privacy are tricky issues to deal with.
Providing a seamless experience that is secure without the need to go through multiple sign-ons, provisioning and certification need to be thought of, before embarking upon the actual app development.
Fitting a mobile app effort into a waterfall cycle – Huge enterprise shops with multiple departments and dependencies often coordinate multiple projects via a Project Management Office to ensure consistency, and effectiveness of development. Unfortunately, this scenario also means doing things a slower pace. To increase the agility of mobile app development, where every six to eight weeks result in a new version of the app, requires some retrofitting of agile and lean processes into the waterfall cycles.
There is no doubt that there is a learning to be done when creating mobile apps. The faster the rate of learning will enable better, cost-effective and useful apps. The agility and inter-dependence can be reduced by generating an eco-system of APIs that are released on an agile timetable rather than the longer waterfall cycle.
Selecting a mobile partner is still tricky – Most enterprises have some sort of software development partner at one point or the other to assist with acceleration or execution of new initiatives. When it comes to selecting a mobile app partner, there are a few things to consider for long term success.
Should you go with a partner with deep enterprise integration experience or a shop with deep mobile app development experience in the consumer space. How important is the ability to do user experience both in terms of visual design and interaction design?
These are some of the questions that IT must navigate before settling on a vendor of choice. How experienced is the potential partner with API development? Will the vendor be able to bring deep yet diverse experience with the various mobile development platforms out there? Are there examples of existing apps done by the vendor in-line with your vision? How does the vendor integrate innovation into delivery? How do they manage quality of architecture and design?
Conclusion
As your enterprise navigates the waters of mobile app development, partnering with a vendor that can address all the top concerns you may have is an important decision to make. Partnering with the right vendor will set the right foundation for your enterprise and set you on a path to rapid innovation in this dynamic yet evolving space.
Top 6 Concerns in 2012 for Enterprise Mobile App Development
by Amit Malhotra on January 2nd, 2013 | ~ minute read
