Industry Focus - Mobile Banking or mBanking.

This week  in the Industry focus series I’d like to focus on Mobile Banking or mBanking. To begin with I’d like to present some statistics:

a.     Mobile Banking users to exceed 1 Billion in 2017  about 15% of Global Mobile Population.¹

b.     48% of Mobile Phone users have use Mobile Banking in past 12 months.²

c.     Most common use of mBanking is to check account balances, transactions and payments.2

d.     Transferring money is 2^nd most common use case.^{. 2}

e.     21% of Mobile banking users have deposited a check using their mobile phone.²

f.      Users of Kenya's M-Pesa system send 20% of the country's GDP to each other via text message each year.⁵

g.     48% of mobile phone owners do not use mobile banking services because of security concerns. ⁵

and more … you get the picture

Top of Form

 Bottom of

Mobile banking brings about the notion of anywhere and anytime banking, but as banks and financial institutions  evaluate Mobile banking options, the costs and security risks outweigh the clear advantages of improving customer experience.  So as Mobile Solution Architects we ought to understand the Industry landscape, regulatory environment, the business and technical landscape that govern the Mobile Banking imperatives. This post is an attempt to introduce the Mobile banking Industry focus. Let us break this down into Business and technical landscape to make the discussion more consumable:

Business  Imperatives:

a.     Regulatory Considerations  - Financial sector regulation, telecom sector regulations, bank policy coordination, MFS ( Mobile Financial Services) regulations.

b.     Consumer Protection – Regulation, enforcement and protection, which drives the similar limits of liability on mBanking transactions.

c.     Competitive Advantage – Enhance customer interaction, client service and new engagement models

d.     Market Catalyst  - new B2C, B2B services, and drivers ( cost and competitive) that are drivers behind Mobile Banking in all sectors such as Consumer banking, financial services and Wealth Management.

e.     Adoption and availability -  These refer to market catalyst  and drivers that lead to adoption of Mobil centric services  and drive a Banking enterprise to make these sought after services available for general consumption be it, B2B, or even B2B.

Technical Imperatives :

a.     Understanding the security Implications – this includes  data on device, data in transit, data in enterprise, but also includes considerations around malware, malicious application ( on same device), wireless carrier infrastructure, availability to tools and fraud control policies. Etc.

b.     Payment technology Landscape -  Banks do have to consider the payment technology landscape. Today, primary elements of mobile payment technology include (but not limited to) NFC (Near field communication), SE (secure element – cryptographic module), TSM (trusted service manager – handles transactions – sort of like a transacting clearing house) and Cloud based payment services ( Google digital wallets and Passbook based)

c.     Risk Mitigation – Measures that can be taken to address security challenges of Mobile Banking  and payments. These include Fraud detection and alert, secure notification system, Mobile application design and policy that govern end user action. Understanding, access and fraud detection and alert system in the application design process.

d.     OmniChannel Service integration  - Enable bi-directional access, and communication across all channels of communication including request for contact center callbacks from all channels.

e.     Secure notification Landscape - email/SMS/online msg/app alerts, generate automatic fraud alert, offers, promotions etc that is sent to customers in real-time.  The alert use deep linking to enable things like, direct dial to fraud agent, schedule a callback or even click through to disable the block from the mobile app. Application Design considerations.

f.      Mobile Device and Application Landscape – This deals with the policies and technology to provide malware and jail break detection, Spyware and SMS Trojans, Mobile OS and Application runtime vulnerabilities and so on. All this is geared towards preventing privileged access to application and user data that can compromise the integrity of a transaction.

And more…

As Mobile Professionals   we should understand these industry specifics and approach a solution. From a product perspective we should be able to map the products in the product Portfolio to address these business and technical imperatives, for instance:

a.     Secure Mobile Application Platform -  IBM WL ( MEAP – Application development and management platform) + ISAM ( Risk based access and access management) + IBM AppScan (security vulnerability – application development)  + ARXAN ( this is NOT an IBM products but provides an important functionality for securing an app during runtime on the device). (++and may Be our own Data Power  family of appliances for middleware  and edge security and integration)

b.     Secure and Scalable Mobile Notification Platform –Think -  IBM MessageSight ( Secure Internet scale messaging with QoS features and integration with IBM WL) + IBM WL ( Integration with Public and MQTT/Message sight based notification system and IN app Notification center) + IBM MB ( good old robust Message Broker).

c.     Secure Event and client experience management – Think QRadar ( security information and event correlation and management) + IBM TeaLeaf ( client experience management)  To ensure security event monitoring and client experience.

And more…

Next Post – I will discuss Enterprise Mobile Maturity Model – a vital tool to ease the mobile discussion, add structure and make it more consumable!!

As always I look forward to your suggestions, thoughts and critique… have  a great week ahead!

:)

Nitin

Sources:

1.     Juniper Research - http://www.juniperresearch.com/viewpressrelease.php?pr=356

2.     http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/consumers-and-mobile-financial-services-report-201303.pdf

3.     http://reports.weforum.org/mobile-financial-services-development-2011/content/pdf/wef-mfsd-report-2011.pdf

System of Engagement (SOE) – It is most definitely a Mobile Discussion

This week I want to share some experiences form my client interactions, discussions and workshops. 

So, the term “System of Interaction” or ‘System of Engagement” is setting into business lingua franca. So I wanted to share some of my discussion on that that means and how I have approached it.

Essentially a “ System” can defined as a set of components forming an integrated whole and a system of interaction is set of components that are independent, interacting and above all Integrated. Coming to think about it, Mobility – be it an app on the Mobile device or the bits that emanate from a sensor in the field, meter in a home, a device in a car, train etc are plugged into an enterprise system and channeled through the business processes and eventually integrated as a “whole” business system. I have met with Heath care companies, Automakers, and telecommunication providers, and each one of them is grappling with achieving the “Whole” that can transform the business and take it to new heights.

So, understanding the business becomes imperative, for us to plug-in our thought process and architect a design that can bridge the gaps to complete the “System”. I have taken the liberty to define some concepts/products that can help us achieve that:

IIB – IBM Integration Bus V9.0 – Think of this as a glue that integrates “Other” systems, that provides smart decisive traffic shaping. (Combined ESB and WMB).

DP – IBM WebSphere Datapower Appliance V6.0 - This of this as a tool that provides the path to the glue (IIB) and ensures the flow or transport is secure, scalable, Internet ready and conforms to standards.

API Mgmt – IBM API Management V2.0 – This of this as an external persona of the business of “systems”. A platform that allows for a secure way to expose, manage and channel the enterprise front. This is becoming increasingly important in the seamless interaction space, giving enterprise full control and flexibility in launching new business fronts.

MobileFirst Platform – IBM Worklight – A wholistic platform that allows to integrate Mobile Application in a secure, seamless fashion to the enterprise eco-system that may be comprised of the components above and legacy enterprise systems.

IBM MessageSight – This of this as an appliance that is of internet scale and capable of receiving and processing messages and acting as a shock absorber for other back end processing systems.

Collectively I think, these can be positioned as a foundation to any “System of Interaction” or “System of engagement” discussion.

 So why as a Mobile Solution Architect, do I bring this up?   I should probably just stay focused on MobileFirst….:)

I bring them up as I think these are related… to Mobilization of an enterprise. Going Mobile has many technical underpinnings and to have a wholistic view is akin to having a “Systems” view. So knowing these concepts and products at a conceptual level IMHO is essential in a Mobile Conversation!

Have a great week ahead..

:)

Nitin

PHI, ARRA, (PP)ACA a.k.a Obama care, HHS mandate of PHI – what is this got to do with Mobile Conversations??

This week I'd like to draw attention on Healthcare (Information) Industry - But  at the very core of this discussion is "Information" - creation, storage, access and dissemination. This information may be  about the patient, healthcare partners, Hospitals, practioner and in the litigious society we live in legal system as well. I spend last week researching, discussing and understanding some of the challenges and imperatives of Mobile healthcare, and while this post is not meant to be exhaustive it is  meant to provide some insights into the types of discussion we  can expect with  any of our clients in Healthcare space be it - Insurance companies (Aetma,Cigna), Healthcare companies (UHG etc) or even Electronic Healthcare record (HER) providers.
 

Let me start by sharing some headlines:

1. The market for mHealth App service will reach $26 Billion by 2017
2. Federal Rule Expands Privacy Protection and Penalties for Patients Health Information
3. US Health and Human Services (HHS) has established a set of directives. Initiatives is called - "Mobile Devices"
4. The US "Affordable Healthcare Act" - has issued a ruling on sharing of PHI (Protected Healthcare Information), which used to be heavily regulated, between HHS and other state agencies.
5. As "Affordable Health care" laws go into implementation - The general public will represent a larger pool of  Insurable subjects, and that will not only require a Mobile based Insurance sales portal but also access to "personal ( and protected) healthcare Information"  -- I am certain the health care industry will race and scramble to compete and provide a competitive edge.
6. HL7 , which is a global authority on standards of health information technology (members in 55 countries), has a detailed directive of adoption of mHealth (MH) and  Meaningful Use (MU). - I urge you spend some time on  http://www.HL7.org

And more… but you get the idea..

(Source: http://www.mobilehealthcaretoday.com/)

 

EHR  - Mobile Consideration:

Regulation   1.253-page Obama care rule - Last Friday 2.PHI 3.HHS 4.ARRA 5.(PP)ACA a.k.a Obama care 6.European Union: Directive 2011/24/EU 7.2009 HITECH Act

Standards   1.HL7 2.OpenEHR 3.Virtual Medical Record 4.Continuity of care record 5.DICOM 6.ISO - TC215 7.SMART 8.ANSI X12 (EDI) 9.Laboratory Information system (LIS) 10.Health Information Exchange -HIE

Technology   1.Health Informatics 2.Meaningful Use (MU) 3.Mobile Healthcare (MH) 4.Mobile Device Diversity 5.ICT/eCharts/ 6.Security and Transaction (time  stamps) 7.Big Data/Mobile/Analytics. 8. New MDM use cases beyond B2E 9. Security, Data leakage, Data self-destruct.

Fundamentally, all the players, namely:

1. Insurance companies (Aetna, Cigna),
2. Healthcare companies (UHG etc)
3. Electronic Healthcare record (EHR) providers
4. Healthcare providers - Hospitals
5. Government entities such as a HHS
6. And others…

All of them would have to focus on

1. Provide access to Unified information about a Patient/consumer to all the "interested" and "Authorized" entities. The idea is to reduce heath care expenses by better and timely sharing of information.
2. A patient/Consumer - should have access to all of his or her records to share with healthcare providers at home and abroad.
3. Integration of Laboratory Information systems and Hospital information system with EHR.
4. Other Regulation on PHI and HIE which was heavily protected will now be visible to other entities like HHS.

As you can see all of this is really related to - Data, Information and it's subsequent security and access control. So I think this is a challenge, which is primarily a data, and informatics challenge. So question  is why does it impact Mobility? Or Why is this a Mobile Conversation? --- I think that is a fair question.

Here is why?

 At the time of all this changes in  US Laws, and update to healthcare regulation, our primary interface weather it is Doctor/Nurse (Health care provider) or  Patient/Individual Health Care Consumer) are moving to Mobile devices  as their primary means to interface with  healthcare information. So it is imperatives that the "Health Care Intermediaries"  such as  Insurance companies, EHR providers, etc provide data access with appropriate levels of governance  and access control which is in compliance with the current laws.

How should we tailor our Mobile conversation?

 This is interesting, as I have been in several interesting discussions and learned that many of health care providers want to start with basics i.e. Mobile Web, before they sort out the regulation, Industry accepted practices, maturity in mobile technology and so on. Mobile Web in this case is also least disruptive as the access control standards are already in place and the considerations around "Mobile Imperatives" are minimal.

     I have also learned that the traditional use of Mobile Devices Management (MDM) which was confined to B2E ( Business to Employees)  use cases may  extend it's capabilities to B2C use cases ( Think selective device wipe, and disable access).  These are certainly new opportunity and costs to  the healthcare Industry in general. The role of Access control is and will be extended with Mobile Context ( Think ISAM Risk based access features). Social media will play an interesting role, simply because the regulations (PHI) and social media contradict each other in principles.

And more..

From this learning I have taken an approach of what we all discussed a few weeks back on "Mobile maturity Model" - which is simply a structural model to explain the Mobile Journey. The Mobile maturity intends to provide a structure to describe the various maturity levels of an organization aspiring to adopt the Mobile-computing platform. Like any maturity model the Mobile maturity model is a framework purported to define the organizational understanding of  Mobile computing  platform, and provide a roadmap to a Mobile platform.

1. mHealth Care Maturity Level 1 - Basic  (PHI) - Mobile Web- IBM WL ( Mobile Middleware) + DP (Added security, transformation and integration) +ISAM (Risk based access).
2. mHealth Care Maturity Level 2 - Intermediate(PHI + Partner/Provider Access control)  IBM WL + DP+ ISAM + enhanced MDM ( Provider/partner data control).
3. mHealth Care Maturity Level 3 - Advanced( PHI + Integrated Health care service + Security - app/data and device)  IBM WL(Containerized apps)+ DP ( focus on Integration)+ISAM+MDM(multiple App stores) + IBM API Management ( think Swim lane and API Access)
4. mHealth Care Maturity Level  4 - Fully Integrated mHealth. mHealth Care Maturity Level 3 + more….( I'd love to see the community's input here)…:)

Net-Net- This is just an example, but we have to draw an adoption model for our clients to adopt and consume technology that they can use in near term.

 

As always I welcome your comments, critique and thoughts. Above all I ask you all to post your experience.

:)

Nitin

 

Mobile Enterprise Capability Maturity model (CMM) - Pathway to Enterprise Mobile Aspiration!

This past weeks have  been  interesting to  say the least. I  was fortunate to meet many clients in UAE and meet our extended technical sales teams (SCA/SCLs)  from  GMU IMT in UAE. I learned a lot in process – the culture, food and the best of views the region has to offer, above all I learned that the requirements and approach to technology is quite different.  Which was an amazing insight I learned. More on this on a different post, but this week I want to focus on a more fundamental topic  of “Understand and engaging with our clients” in Mobile context, because I think we are working hard but falling short a few steps. Below are  a few thoughts:

Our IBM MobileFirst Offering is probably the most comprehensive approach to Mobile Enterprise in the industry.

            We ought to focus on addressing the Industry use cases ( Healthcare, Insurance, Banking etc) with some consultative approach to devising a solution – a point solution to address the a tangible use case  which IMHO will resonate with our client base. 

In my previous posts I identified a few sample point solutions such as :

1. MEAP (IBM WL) + MDM  (IEM)to Target a Mobile Platform for Internal (B2E) and External (B2C) as a "Mobile Infrastructure" or

2. "Optimized Mobile Middleware" (IBM WL + DP +XC10/WXS)  or

3. "Secure Mobile Platform (IBM WL + Access Manager), or

4. "Mobile Test Framework" ( IBM WL + RTW etc) Or

5. "Mobile Customer Experience Management" (WL + TL) and so on..

Understanding our client’s Mobile Aspirations – This is vital as well, I have seen interesting understanding and wide spectrum of challenges that our clients perceive with Mobility – Ranging from  the ‘external Mobile eco-system’ that they have no control over and ‘internal infrastructure’ which is largely ignored and within full control of the enterprise. –Our Goal –should be to  demystify  this landscape and paint a picture how our products and approach  can address this issues and better manage the Mobile Aspirations or at times these are Mobile Ambitions.

            So this is where we should introduce some thing like a Mobile Enterprise Capability Maturity model (CMM) – the idea of any CMM is to define a path, as path that is easily understood  on the steps and approach needed for them to on board capability  into the enterprise. CMM suggests a structured approach that makes sense  and can be aligned with the overall enterprise technical landscape and overall enterprise maturity model.

For example here is a  Maturity model:

Capability Maturity Model - CMM

CMM 1 - Enterprise  Mobile Platform ( MEAP + MDM) - this addresses B2B/B2E and B2C -- Basically a  starting foundation for  a foundation with Mobile

CMM 2 - Enterprise Mobile Integration -- this include integration to EIS/Security and various other integration with  CMS and other legacy system.

CMM 3 - Mobile Customer Experience management -- this is the analytics piece with coremetric and TL where not only I have  a mobile enterprise but also I want to make it better/the experience and value derived from it.

CMM4  - Enterprise Mobile Transformation - this is where I move my internal workflow to devices, because my security and integration is mature and the feedback loop is consistent from CMM3.

And so on..

I would like to mention here that CMM is  a dynamic approach and not set in stone, I think this approach can be suggested when we are involved at a more strategic level like working with CIO’s office for a  MobileFirst Initiative. Suggesting CMM in a product discussion may diminish it’s value.

Point: Let us discern between the types of discussion  and gauge the depth and breadth of the discussion. 

As always I am interested in your critique and thoghts.

Have a great week ahead!

:)

Nitin

Mobility - Let us engage Deliberately and not by accident!

As I meet many clients and team members I realized one thing, and that is:

 

Mobile  will not fix or bypass existing deficiencies in the enterprise, on the contrary Mobility will bring these concerns front and center to all Mobile discussions. So Mobility is NOT about an app running on a mobile device, but have far deeper implications when it comes to enterprise integration and mobilizing these services. I think our experience and out platform can serve as our competitive advantage in surfacing and addressing these in our Mobile Conversations. From a platform perspective competing products also have to have the enterprise DNA in them. ( More on this in next post)

Mapping Enterprise design points to Technical design points:

In the spirit of engaging with a purpose and deliberately, I wanted to discuss an approach that will lay the foundation and provide a structure before we get into product features. The approach I usually take is devising a “Enterprise Design points” and mapping to “Technical Design Points”. The idea with this approach is to  ensure we capture the LOB/Business design requirements and  use the tools at our disposal  to  define  a solution architecture to address the enterprise design points.

Enterprise Design Points:

a.     Deliberate and Intentional engagement

b.     Exposing back end services and data

c.     Data transfer and data growth considerations

d.     Bandwidth and TCP Socket chatter

e.     MEAP or MCAP?

f.      Enterprise Integration

g.     Security – enterprise and endpoint security

h.     Device and Platform support

i.      Legal responsibilities – Application store, client data and resulting exposure

 Which Maps to

Technical Design Points:

a.     Enterprise application integration (tools and libraries

b.     Device integration and peripheral support

c.     Application client runtime

d.     Device/OS platform support 

e.     Packaged mobile

f.      Hosting

g.     Architectural flexibility

As always I love to hear from you your critique and thoughts.

– Let us engage Deliberately and not by accident!

Have  a great week ahead.

;)

Nitin

Mobile is lot more than just a Mobile App and Cloud technologies are even more important than ever

Folks

 This post is long overdue, and IBM Impact 2013 was busy, amazing, productive and exhausting all at the same time.  I think many of these Conferences like IBM Impact2013 challenges  us in many ways, our bodies, our mind and ability to deliver a meaningful and tailored message is not an easy task.  I was amazed to meet many brilliant colleagues  and such events makes one humble and fortunate at the same time to be a part of interesting evolution in our lifetime.

Mobile

Yes it was a certainly a hot topic, and it was evident that we have moved our conversation from Why? To How?  Which indicates a certain level of Maturity. IBM MobileFirst message was loud and the relevance of the topic was very well received.

            Another Important thing that I learned is that Mobile is NOT just about Mobile application but more than that. The ‘System of engagement’ and/or ‘Internet of things’ that we talk about is real and here. Here are a few nuggets:

1.     Maturity in M2M or M2X and ‘Connected’ vehicle is seen a trend that will change the way we live. Networks are gearing up to provision the bandwidth and special 4G LTE offering and Auto Manufacturers  are ramping up the  “Connected Vehicle’ offering. 

Google This: M2m Multi-Operator alliance – include NTT Docomo, Etilsalat, Telefonica are promoting a common standard.

Real ‘Smart cars” – Fords AppLink lets driver do interesting things with Glympse app. GM announced 4G LTE technology in their cars, Volvo ‘Connected Vehicle cloud’, Toyota ‘Friend’ – trends indicating that Cars may be ultimate Mobile devices and possibilities for commerce, retail, automobile and others are immense

2.     Internet of Things is also Mobile: This is real, where now the system of Interaction is the system of engagement i.e. my utility appliances can be instruments, intelligent and interconnected.

Google This: Qualcomm – Alljoyn – Open source software that enables this technology for these appliances to not only communicate but be controlled. – Intelligent.

3.     mHealth, mEducation. And so on… so I am now convinced that this is big 

 Thought:

Think Optimized Mobile Middleware: We need to think about  ‘Security’ and ‘Scalability’ – and from a ‘Systems’ perspective, I think we should look at all ‘touch points’ of my enterprise that includes the device as it is now an extension of my enterprise. Because: my application/app, an agent or a process that is ‘engaging’ with my enterprise is running on that ‘Device’. –something to think about!!

API Management:

 API Management is relevant. I think  this is not an accident but a trend that we should not only be aware of but also understand. API management I think like Cloud is an important part of the mobile story. Here is why:

1.     API management is – Well, let’s us say a ‘Public persona’ and provides Middleware services tool to manage and operate the services that are hit by Mobile devices and other applications.

2.     It is a contract between an API provider and consumer. This contract dictates the data packaging and/or business logic. With the volume and diversity of type of requests from different types of applications ( Mobile/web/cars etc) API management has become relevant and create a ‘Marketplace’ where producers and consumers thrive.

3.     This is vital to understand, I discuss the ‘unintended consequences’ of going mobile, which is known to increase the traffic and response time burden  by almost 10X. Think of increase in status checks, content download and like ‘Mobile Transactions’. So an unplanned  App or a mobile app without backing of a mobile strategy and planning  can swamp network, and connections to middleware services. API management  and ‘Marketplace’ also gives Mobile application developers  a rich choice of APIs to use for consistent and accessible interface that can be governed and managed. Forrester (think tank) suggests thinking of API management as Cloud Connect Technology that lets the data in the Cloud/data center get out and back to the Mobile app that needs it.. securely.

A typical API management solution will include :

a.     Developer Portal – signup and understand the use and consumption of APIs.

b.     API Gateway – tom mediate and govern the traffic between consumer and provider.

c.     API Lifecycle management – simple Governance enforcement.

Let us take time to understand how this can speed up development and deployment of Mobile and adaptive web applications.

Cloud – Increasingly important for Mobile presence.

So, I have always believed that  we can always do a better job in Cloud delivery than we have in the past. Cloud we define is a ‘Service Delivery and Consumption” model, and regardless of the medium, virtualization technologies involved  it  is about network and access to “Stuff” on demand.

We are seeing that clients expect a certain level of  Cloud integration  for things like Storage, profile access, application data, application provisioning, application  and runtime hosting and on and on… idea being that  we want the ‘enterprise’ to  consume data, APIs and quickly ‘compose’ application that can then be deployed quickly, forming of a web of services. While this seems enticing and natural extension to Mobile way of doing things, such initiatives require planning around security, governance, management and availability of network. But IMHO for us to success in marketplace a ‘cloud integration’ is a  must.

As always I would like to hear your thoughts,

Have  a great week!

:)

Nitin