What's your Mobile Enterprise DNA?

All major digital technologies are heading toward mobile, including telephony, computers and the Internet. But what is driving this migration? Several factors have spurred this mobile wave of opportunity. For example, advances in technologies such as greater bandwidth, mobile networks and security have driven the high adoption of mobile devices to 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide.¹ With this growth, applications have been exponentially increasing in popularity, in part from the explosion of app downloads and growing popularity of smartphones. Gartner last reported that the number of downloads are approaching 12 billion, equating to $15 billion in revenues and forecasted to grow to 76.9 billion and $35 billion respectively.² Just as the last decade was focused on the Web, this is the decade of "mobility." Mobile initiatives are becoming a part of every digital strategy. Just as the website was critical for every successful business, the mobile application has become the next vehicle to help deliver your company goals.

In biology, DNA is the blueprint for all living things. Similarly, "devices," "networks" and "applications" form the DNA and help us to navigate the various technologies and opportunities of mobility in the enterprise.

Devices: In 2011, we will reach a tipping point where smartphones and tablets shipped will surpass PCs and notebooks shipped. Mobile devices are now exceeding traditional computers in unit sales and revenue.³ This phenomenon will occur, in part, because of the lower price-point compared to notebooks, as well as location flexibility and compelling native device functions such as location, notifications, accelerometers and alerts. A reported 67% of enterprise workers indicated that they will be using a smartphone or tablet as their primary working tool. In fact, the adoption of smartphones and tablets has increased globally for both business and personal use tablets, with more than 50% of all mobile devices being either a smartphone or tablet.⁴ But navigating which devices and which operating systems can be challenging. So what if you didn't need to make a choice? Developing mobile solutions for the largest number of mobile devices, either in your customer base or employee base, will provide you with the opportunity to increase productivity of your workforce and/or leverage mobility as a new channel to engage with your customer. However, without a network or applications to deliver content, the device becomes little more than an expensive hard drive.

Networks: Network technologies have been continually improving. In this context, networks are the connection between the devices (or users) and the backend application and content that requires access. Network technologies have become an enabler for businesses to cost-effectively and securely deploy mobile solutions throughout the organization. Network speeds available on 3G and 4G "long-term evolution" (LTE) systems are now affordable and provide significant coverage areas. Also, these network technologies can be managed by native mobile applications that leverage other technologies such as Wi-Fi, or one can even continue to use the application off-line. Mobile device and data management services, as well as SaaS, are other strategies to enhance mobile enterprise solution deployment.

Applications: All major media are headed toward becoming mobile—in the form of content and applications of all types, from lifecycle to engagement to transactional, including websites, social, gaming, news, television, advertising and even money, from coins to banking to credit cards. It will be the applications that deliver the meaningful content required to drive workforce productivity and provide a new channel for customer engagement. In the early days of the Internet, every business needed a website; today, every business requires a mobile application—or at least a mobile website—to give customers access to the business' content and services. Mobile strategies and opportunities can vary across businesses and industries, but it is the content and applications that will ultimately achieve the business benefits of going mobile.

Among the many business benefits of going mobile:

• New channel to engage with customers;
• Drive workforce productivity;
• Improve customer experiences; and
• Increase brand awareness.

The evolution of enterprise mobile app deployments or mobile strategies falls into three stages, also known as  "the mobile lifecycle." If any of these stages are mismanaged, it can lead to large developmental costs, inflexible technology and eroding margins. The challenge for many businesses is managing costs of the mobile lifecycle while continually delivering secure and compliant mobile applications with a consumer-like user experience.

The Mobile Lifecycle

The mobile lifecycle is the process of managing mobile initiatives throughout any organization. It is comprised of three general overarching stages where each stage has specific challenges:

1. Tactical: A single app, revenue-driven and departmental in scope, built in-house or with a third party;

2. Developmental: Many individuals and departments in the organization use specific apps for their teams or lines of business. This results in a lack of integration across the enterprise due to many independent mobile initiatives with different methodologies and built with various technologies; and

3. Strategic: Strategic importance of mobility requires IT ownership driven by lowering total cost of ownership (TCO) with a platform approach and centralized provisioning.

There is an evolution, or migration, throughout the mobile lifecycle. However, many different departments and business units including sales, HR, marketing groups, IT, and e-business may be at different stages within the same enterprise. The challenge for most is how to best manage the various and competing requests from all stakeholders, regardless of the progression through the mobile lifecycle stages.

Conversely, how can one leverage the business benefits of mobile initiatives throughout the organization while managing the potential high cost of mobile solution development? If not implemented correctly it can cause more pain than gain. Avoid overburdening your workforce and causing costly mistakes by taking the right approach the first time.

Common costly pitfalls to going mobile:

• "Build-it yourself" is not sustainable;
• Development from scratch takes too long;
• Multiple platforms become a cost multiplier; and
• Complexity of technologies.

Many best-in-class organizations have taken control of their mobile ecosystem as it becomes integral to their business. A mobile application platform approach enables organizations to adapt rapidly to new mobile platforms, enforce compliance to IT standards, control access to corporate data networks and secure mobile endpoints at their points of vulnerability while also providing a consumer-like mobile experience. As mobile initiatives evolve and mature in the enterprise, mobility begins to fall under IT management as a core infrastructure service, essential to remaining competitive in today's global economy.