Milja's Mobile Musings

As mobility adoption across the enterprise continues at a rapid pace, IT organizations are trying to deal with many challenges that are unique to mobility. We are often asked to share recommendations on how companies can structure their business to support this environment. This is the next topic that we are exploring in the Mobile Sense series; specifically we’ll talk about Best Practices for Setting up a Mobility Center of Excellence. A whitepaper was written on this topic by SAP mobility expert Vishy Gopalakrishnan. A webinar on is being held on Thursday December 1st from 1-2pm eastern and registration is now available.

To get started on this topic, first we should explore some of the unique pressures that mobility is placing on enterprise IT departments. In future blogs, we’ll dive deeper into specific recommendations.

• There is an unprecedented rate of change across the ecosystem – The pace of change in innovation and technology in mobility is faster than other IT areas. This rapid pace of change results in the need for greater alignment between lines of business and IT on mobility initiatives, to prevent duplication of effort.
• Mobility has the potential to be applicable across the entire organization – Mobile devices are everywhere and being used by everyone from true road warriors to information works and well beyond. This pervasiveness creates opportunities to make employees more productive, to engage with customers in a more targeted and deep way, and to collaborate with partners in a streamlined fashion. IT needs to be ready to meet a diverse set of requirements while being agile to meet these needs in a timely manner.
• End user expectations of delivery lifecycles are significantly different – As consumers ourselves, we are used to the relatively smooth and easy process of downloading and using mobile apps from the various app stores. This experience has conditioned people to expect a relatively rapid application development (and enhancement) timeline, without compromising on the quality and user experience of the application.
• There are implications for security – Enterprise IT needs to put in place the appropriate infrastructure, processes, and organization to ensure it can get the desired visibility and control across the lifecycle of these mobile assets (devices, users, and applications). The blurring of lines between professional and personal devices leads to diversity and complexity, as well as data security considerations. IT needs a robust set of tools that automate as much as possible the operational complexities of a mobile infrastructure and still provide actionable insights to deal with issues and exceptions as needed.

Now that we understand the context of today’s mobile environment, we can next look at what a Mobility Center of Excellence actually is. In essence, it is an attempt to coalesce around a set of principles—organizational and architectural—for an effective and efficient use of mobility across the entire enterprise. I’ll dive deeper into Vishy’s opinions on this topic in the next blog. For now, don’t forget to register for the webinar. You’ll also receive a copy of the whitepaper when you register.

Analogies over the years (and centuries) talk about building your house on a strong foundation. In mobility, we’re not talking about driving up a ‘mobile home’, and camping for a few days. We’re talking about putting the right foundation in place to build a house that will last – a “sustainable, responsive and flexible” mobile enterprise strategy. In the whitepaper ‘A Guide to Successfully Deploying Enterprise Mobile Applications’, written for SAP by Chris Marsh of Yankee Group, outlines recommended principles that help enterprises lay the right foundation for any application mobilization program. The principles listed here are Chris’, and the comments are mine. For Chris’ thoughts on each topic, I encourage you to read the full whitepaper here.

1. Lay a mobile foundation.

Start with mobile in mind. I like the way a colleague talks about this. At a recent conference our Sybase Unwired Platform product marketing expert, Carolyn Fitton, asked “What do you get if you mobilize a broken process?” The answer is “a broken mobile process.” The truth of the matter is that mobility won’t fix broken processes – to be successful you need to start by rethinking the actual business process being mobilized.

2. Think agnostic.

The devices that are popular today may or may not be here tomorrow – things are constantly changing. If you look back over the year 2011, you’ll note that it’s been an incredible eventful year in mobility. With the loss of WebOS and Symbian, the rise of iPad, the quick uptake of Android, and the acquisition of Motorola by Google – we’re in for an interesting 2012. For this very reason, a long-term mobile apps strategy will require apps to be agnostic in many aspects. In the whitepaper Chris Marsh specifies that they need to be agnostic “of the different OSs supported, of the platform on which apps are developed and of the back-end systems they utilize.”

3. Focus on the UX.

In mobility, the user is king. You’ll see that the concept of user experience is a common thread throughout the entire whitepaper. Companies need to keep this is mind from day 1 – invest in UX so apps are easy to use and meet the standards that people are used to in their personal lives. You don’t have to make your app look like Angry Birds, but you do need to make it easy to use and navigate.

4. Build in security from the start.

When we talk about security, we are our own worst enemies. After all we’re only humans and we’re working with easy to lose devices (trust me I’ve lost a few). Unfortunately, we leave devices in airplanes or taxis (or both), and they can easily be stolen. Chris suggests you “carefully consider the degree and type of security required and make sure there are contingencies in place to handle a security breach if it occurs.”

5. Think about where social adds the most value.

Just as mobility is changing the enterprise, so is social networking. Chris discusses how social is increasingly used to “bind platforms together into a sticky proposition”. Consider how social features will add the best value to your mobile applications.

With a foundation that takes these 5 aspects into consideration, you’ll be in a good place to start. Please remember that you can listen to the webinar on November 1st from 1-2pm eastern. Chris Marsh and SAP’s senior VP of Mobility, Dan Mahowald, will also take live questions.

In my first post in this series on mobile enterprise applications (Why Are So Many Companies Launching Mobile Applications?) I talked about the why companies are considering deploying mobile apps. Assuming you think you want to move ahead with some kind of mobile app, we can now talk about ‘what happens next’? And while you’re thinking about it, you probably want to register for the “Key Strategies for Enterprise Mobile Apps” webinar based on the whitepaper written for SAP by Chris Marsh, Senior Analyst for Yankee Group. Now let’s dive deeper into the content from this paper.

For many companies today, mobility can be approached in a haphazard manner. Many companies use mobile technologies that address a specific set of workers (such as field workers) or a specific business application (such as mobile CRM). At this point most people understand the benefits that mobility can bring to the organization (if not, read the whitepaper in detail). According to Chris Marsh, approaching mobility in a haphazard way with ‘opportunistic’ solutions can be limited in scope and not scalable and actually slow you down in the future. The following are some characteristics and limitations that Chris lists as opportunistic mobility:

• Point solutions address one specific application or business need, and in many cases are a bandage approach to mobility—a solution is rapidly applied to enable one specific application need (e.g., wireless e-mail access).
• These specific solutions don’t consider the broader mobility requirements within an organization.
• Projects are initiated before policies are established, and administrative and management tools to enforce policy are limited or nonexistent.</

So is this a bad thing? It can be in the long term, but it the short term maybe not. After all, these solutions can be used to show the benefits of mobility to executives. They can be used as a litmus test to reaffirm your beliefs that mobility is really worth investing in. I recently spoke at the EMF’s Mobility Bootcamp at CTIA and asked “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer of course is “one bite at a time.” So if you’ve gone the path of ‘opportunistic mobility’ as Chris describes it, just consider it your first bite of that elephant. But don’t stop your journey after one or two bites. Think big while you start small. In fact, starting small can often reveal the policy and management issues that you are going to have to face when you tackle a bigger company-wide mobility strategy.

According to Chris, the first step to creating a more integrated approach is to understand how mobility is critical to your success. This mobility assessment must consider the full scope of employees, assets and business processes. From there, executive management, finance, IT, affected line-of-business leaders and end-users can establish policies.
I really like the list provided in the whitepaper that demonstrates when you’re doing it right. Yankee indicated that you are on the right track when your mobility initiatives take on the following characteristics:

• The key focus is on specific business processes that will benefit most strongly from mobilization. This has to be the starting point if companies are to actualize the full potential of mobility for business transformation.
• Individual mobile projects “plug in” to a common management and security infrastructure. Mobility is driven by policy rather than by ad hoc end-user pull.
• Projects can be supported and management and security policies can be enforced. This is regardless of the type of network used (public or private, wired or wireless), the application accessed or the device used.
• A broader set of technologies and mobile tools is considered a “mobility package” for end-users. This includes integration and coordination of voice, data and remote access services.
• Common middleware, software and security architectures exist. These can be leveraged across different mobility services within an organization.

So there is certainly a lot to think about when you start ‘eating the elephant’. But don’t get overwhelmed! These guidelines are a very logical and tactical starting point when you think you are ready to move ahead. Once you feel like you have this checklist covered and you’re ready for the next bite, we’ll talk about how to choose which applications to deploy.

I think we all agree that mobility for the enterprise is evolving and expanding rapidly. Recently, we’ve had a few discussions on Enterprise Mobility Management (Looking beyond mobile device management) and (A deeper dive into Enterprise Mobility Management). These postings were based on a whitepaper (link below) written by Philippe Winthrop of the Enterprise Mobility Foundation. We all know and have discussed the significant possibilities that come from deploying mobile solutions in the workplace. But, we need to recognize that it can be difficult to navigate this very complex ecosystem. And of course that’s where EMM comes in.

Whether you are a mobile device user or you are in IT, you know that personally owned (or individually liable) devices are proliferating in the workplace. From the user’s point of view, you just want access to work data from your own device – so you go to IT to ask for it. But what does IT do to address this need? In the whitepaper, Philippe comments that this proliferation “is also causing a knee-jerk reaction from IT departments that feel compelled to deploy mobile device management solutions as a means to ‘secure’ those devices.” I’ve seen it over and over again that IT departments are comping up with MDM RFPs daily. The unfortunate thing is that often they are thinking about MDM in a silo instead of taking the broader perspective of comprehensive Enterpirse Mobility Management. In my last few posts, and in the whitepaper, we’ve talked about how mobile device management isn’t the only thing you need to consider any more. so what are Philippe’s parting words on the topic?

The Enterprise Mobility Foundation strongly recommends that “organizations take a step back to look beyond just mobile device management, to mobile application management and most importantly their holistic enterprise mobility strategy to develop a 360 degree view on the opportunities and challenges that mobility can bring to the workplace.”

I couldn’t agree more. I encourage you to read the full “Looking Beyond Device Management to Enterprise Mobility Managment” whitepaper on this topic and share your perspective. To hear more on this topic directly from Philippe and SAP, please join us Wednesday September 7th at 1:00pm for a live webcast and Q&A.

Date: Wednesday, September 7th @ 1:00pm EDT

The webcast is free, but you do need to register in advance.

In my recent EMM posting, I introduced this as topic that will be part of the new Mobile Sense thought leadership series. The ‘Looking beyond Mobile Device Management’ whitepaper, published by Philippe Winthrop of the Enterprise Mobility Foundation is the basis for this discussion. We started talking about Enterprise Mobility Management. Now, let’s take a deeper look at some of the key aspects of EMM.

Mobile Inventory/Asset Management: Understanding what devices are accessing corporate information is a core capability that every company needs in order to wrap their heads around their mobile users. Insight into the most basic information on all mobile devices, including which devices are connecting into corporate systems, is critical.

Mobile Security: When I talk to IT teams from our customers and partners, I consistently hear that security is the #1 driver for a mobility management solution. This aspect of an overall EMM solution addresses anti-virus, anti-malware, authentication, encryption, etc. to ensure information loss prevention.

Mobile Application Management: As apps increasingly become a critical aspect of many companies’ mobility strategies, managing those applications also increases in importance. The ability to add, remove or update custom or third party applications in a centralized fashion (such as a corporate app store) will smooth mobile rollouts and ease the user experience. Additionally, organizations will want to ensure that there are security measures in place at the application level.

Wireless Expense Management: As we talk about adopting a BYOD model, the ability to track and manage telecom/wireless expense management (TEM/WEM) data is becoming increasingly important. It is important to be pro-active in management of wireless carrier expenses, as well as the inter-departmental chargebacks for both individually and corporate liable devices.

And finally, Philippe also includes mobile operations management and mobile help desk as important aspects to address the ongoing health of a mobile network and support infrastructure.

You’ll notice that the above categories of EMM don’t include the traditional Mobile Device Management. So what is MDM?

According to Philippe, “Mobile device management should be considered – in its purest form – to be specifically managing the physical mobile device as a means for IT departments to ensure that the hardware is performing in line with its expected specifications and configurations.” Philippe goes on to describe that this is separate from ensuring the proper and expected performance of any single application or the network the devices may be connected to.

Specifically, mobile device management is part of mobile lifecycle management, which includes (like most other IT hardware lifecycles) the procurement, operations, retirement and replacement of mobile devices. Mobile device management should hence be considered the operations component of the mobile hardware lifecycle.

So now I’ve explained the difference between MDM and EMM. In the final installment of this Mobile Sense series, I’ll share some of Philippe’s recommendations to you on this topic.

If you want to continue the discussion, registration is now available for the webcast on this topic being help on September 7th at 1pm. During this webcast, Philippe Winthrop and I will discuss thoughts on the topic, share a brief discussion on how Afaria addressing EMM and MDM and do a live Q&A session.