Why would our clients invest into Mobile Computing Platform?

 Topic – Why  would our clients invest into Mobile Computing Platform?

 Folks,

             Like many of  us, I have been in travels and visiting clients, and as  I speak to  many clients, I wanted to take a step back and reevaluate our approach to Mobile Computing Platform.  I use the term Mobile Computing Platform because I think Mobility as a term is too loosely defined  and we need to take a step back and understand the drivers and investments  that  our clients are willing to make into mobilizing  ‘a Initiative’. One thing I have been pondering on is that, I think Mobility has fueled a lot of creative applications, and every enterprise has a loose vision, but are we really paying attention to the design that includes back end plumbing as well? or is it expected for these new paradigm to be Ephemeral?

So I begin with  a basic question,  apart from the clamor from iOS7 release, geo location, Samsung’s auto scroll function  and many such ‘cool’ features. Why would our clients make a decision to Invest into Mobile Platforms? And  will the traditional ROI models suffice to  make  a level of investment that mimic’s investments made into traditional Enterprise application. One school of thought is that the mobile investment is mere extension of enterprise application infrastructure and hence is an incremental effort, and so is the investment.

So looking at the reasons on why our clients and enterprise will invest into mobility is broadly categorized into 3 areas:

1.     To Monetize – Simply put, a Mobile application/platform will generate new revenues, and becomes strategic go to market strategy. Example  retail, cruise lines etc.

Constituents – B2C and B2B in some cases.

2.     To make people productive – This includes ensue that employees in office and field, be is sales or oil rigs can do their job and add to efficiency factor.

Constituents: B2E or B2F(ield)

3.     To provide better customer service – This category, the enterprise may not be able to monetize or have direct impact on bottom line, but need to provide a channel that is in tune with times. This is simply cost of doing business. At times it is hard to put numbers behind goo customer service.

Constituents: B2C or even B2E

Business drivers	Monetize	Enhance Productivity	Better Customer Service
Technology	Hybrid	Native	Mobile Web/Responsive Web
Constituents	B2C, B2B	B2E, B2F	B2C, B2E

Figure 1: Think of this as a matrix, where the Business drivers/constituents and technology can be chosen, there is not strict tie with technology choices. Which I think in many cases depends on the use cases.

So Why are we not talking technology? – what about Mobile Middleware, Mobile Device management, iOS7 – iPhone 5s/5c, Samsung Galaxy, Worklight…. And more… Well I have learned that unless we realize why we do  and what we do? And how much investment our clients will make? our effort to capture Mobile interests will simply go into educating our clients. So I feel that it is very important for us to have a surgical approach towards enterprise Mobile Computing platform.

So an Organization where we do expend energy? – This has been a hard question for me, as I think our chase to keep up with the industry and evolution in Mobile OS is not only important, but resource intensive with  return that involves volume. Not to mention the competitive pressures we face from open source frameworks (with software sales) and boutique firms ( with software services). So I have been pondering on where we compete and where do we leave off the low-lying  run of the mill projects for others. This IMHO is the area we will need to innovate and understand from an offering perspective, as to providing a comprehensive platform where NOT only our clients can address the notion of ‘extending’ or ‘Mobilizing’ existing enterprise application but tap into innovative areas of business where ‘Mobile context’ can ‘transform business’ and provide new avenues of growth and revenue. This is where IMHO is  where we can prove with a sustainable ROI models and venture into areas that neither Open source or any of the 1000s of the boutique firms can penetrate because of they lack “Enterprise IQ’ and thought leadership.

In my next post I will expand on this, as some of my thought are still raw and I  will need to refine some of it with research.

Until then…please send me your thought and critique on this forum.

;)

Nitin

MS buys Nokia, Verizon regains Vodaphone, ‘Google Now’ is all about Context, and 85% of large corporations will have API programs….Is all of this driven by Mobile imperatives!

MS buys Nokia, Verizon regains Vodaphone, ‘Google Now’ is all about Context, and 85% of large corporations will have API programs….Is all of this driven by Mobile imperatives!

Folks...

This week started off with some amazing headlines. From mega mergers to not so headline worthy news, and it may be my imagination, but I think all of these big and small headlines are not just indicative of industry evolution, but also driven by Mobile imperatives. So let me discuss some of these:

1.    Microsoft buys Nokia – Now this may be either strategic merger or a life line for both Nokia and Microsoft, but one thing is for sure Windows Mobile Operating system is going to be relevant. Not just in GMU (Growth Markets) but the existing presence of Microsoft in their current accounts. The Value of an integrated product (we have seen with Apple (iOS)) is immense. It will be interesting to see how this will evolve Microsoft itself and innovation it will bring to the market. And YES we need to understand this, as we have a Mobile Platform that aim to address all Major Mobile OSs.

2.    Verizon and Vodaphone – Capturing it’s own 45% market share and access to some EU markets, Verizon aims to capitalize on the network investment and boost it’s mobile services. Think of the ‘Infrastructure’ needed for expanded Mobile Services. I have always believed that TELCO will play a pivotal role in our Industry and Mobile space, and seeing boost in investment from all major Telco is not only encouraging but also indicative of an industry trend. IBM as a technology and enterprise software provider with our MobileFirst and Middleware Portfolio can play a major role here.

3.    85% of large corporations will have API programs – Past few of my posts I have discussed the importance of API management. Recent news of Apigee raising capital, layer 7 being acquired by CA, Mashery being acquired by Intel, is not accident that large companies have figured that API management is fairly important. I have discussed this before, and I reiterate that - API management is extending into the software defined networking market to connect data infrastructure operations. Mobile computing on the rise will eventually converge with services exposed in software defined (networked) marketplaces and evolve into the ecosystem that Mobile application will learn to rely upon. We absolutely need to find synergies between our own offerings before we begin to event attempt play in the emerging open API marketplace. (Think – MA (PI) aaS – Mobile API as a Service.

4.    Google is testing a local news “card” in its Google Now service - Google Now is a logical vehicle for local news because one of its primary functions is knowing where you are and providing information that is “contextually relevant” to you, as specified by your interests, the time of day, and your location. We have always known that Mobile application discussions are always about deepening engagements with contextually relevant engagement. There is a lot of work Google is doing with its Google services and Google Glass platform, to bring contextually relevant engagement to fruitful reality. Imagine U are wearing Google glass and participating in social crime watch and alert systems, or sharing an exciting offer with peers. So there is a lot of potential, we just need to advocate a platform that can be the plumbing system or engine of sorts to capitalize on this technology.

5.    European mobile revolution and IBM is very much a part of it - In Europe we are once again partnering with Visa to revolutionize the mobile payment solutions.  We will provide software, technology services and consulting to help power these mobile ambitions. No reason why we cannot replicate in other markets like US, LA and GMU. We just need repeatable pattern (and may be a product combination). Mobile banking and mobile payments have both been perennial conversations in financial industry and still is relevant.  We should look at our financial services point of view and address platform and security challenges.

I have discussed a lot of business and technology related to our industry. I do want to spend some time talking about what I have learned with my recent engagement.

1.    Clients do NOT want to have a product discussion they NEED a solution discussion. This has become a norm with Mobile discussions. Approach that I have used recently is the Enterprise Capability Maturity Model  discussion (I have discussed this in the past). Basically approach is:

a.    Describe key initiatives, characteristics, and components of a world class mobile enterprise

b.    Partner LOB and IT stakeholders across the enterprise on mobile initiatives

c.    Create a gap analysis, identifying areas of strength and areas where the return on investment is the most impactful

d.    Deploy a progressive business and technical strategy to adopt the technology, tools, and mindset needed to become a MobileFirst enterprise

2.     Mobile Discussions are still tiring, and this is because everyone has an opinion on mobile apps, one thing we should focus on is the fact that Mobile initiative is far beyond “bits on a mobile device” discussion. So we should curtail a wish list discussion to the enterprise mobile objectives discussion.

3.    Deconstruct Mobile application Landscape. Broadly speaking we should breakdown Mobile ‘External Eco system” (Stuff that we externally interact with) and Mobile Platform (Stuff that we need to do to enable enterprise Mobile platform and services)

a.    Mobile Application Design and development

b.    Mobile Application test environment

c.    Mobile – Cloud –External eco system

d.    Mobile Device management

e.    Mobile Security.

These are broad areas of discussion, but we absolutely either need to structure our conversation or device a boundary. IMHO this will make our discussions more productive and go beyond story boarding.

I think I have rambled enough for this post. As always I welcome your thoughts, critique and opinions.

Have a great week ahead!

:)

Nitin

References:

1.    http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/31/enterprise-api-programs/#!

2.    http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/31/apigee-raises-35m-for-api-management-platform/#!

3.    http://qz.com/110493/google-is-testing-a-local-news-product-for-google-now/#!

4.    http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/08/qq_netflix-algorithm/#!

5.    https://testflightapp.com/sdk/android/doc/1.0/

6.    http://www.bankingtech.com/162072/visa-europe-ibm-and-monitise-plan-european-mobile-revolution/#.UicinZyq3mk.twitter