Enterprise Mobility is lot more than bits on a device and delineating between Platform and ecosystem

Topic: Enterprise Mobility is lot more than bits on a device and delineating between Platform and ecosystem and yes Mobile apps have to be pretty and smart as a design imperative.

Folks this post is long overdue, so I will attempt to pack as much of my learning as I can in this post, and try to make it meaningful.

I spend a month in UAE to better understand mGov (Mobile Government Project), and  I wanted to share some experiences and learning’s. But before I start I must applaud the UAE government for Hyper focus on government services, where rest of the world is cutting back on government services UAE is raising the bar on government services. For instance, UAE has 24 hours  government services (criminal defense, Immigration, Visa services etc) via phone, all services are online and their next quest is to mobilize all government services by 2014. So Kudo’s for the initiatives and a reminder for all of us on opportunities in UAE to be lead by examples and references.

It is evident that  any Enterprise Mobility is lot more than a bits on a device and it does challenge an enterprise on Mobile readiness. There are many considerations such as existing services, the payload of the existing services, (as many of them are designed for Web), security models (less invasive but adherence to same enterprise security standards), and inclusion of things like Maps (decision to use Google or enterprise ARCGis maps or even cloud ARCGis services. So on..

The Mobile Application design considerations spans from:

a. Intelligence (this includes data, integration and enterprise awareness – all required for least amount of data entry by the user on a mobile app/device) …to

b. Beauty – The Mobile apps would have to be pretty with regard to color, UI design, functionality and include Map services etc.

and

Everything else in between – hosting, middleware, network, integration, external services, and all related IT functions.

This where I would like to take an opportunity to distinguish between

1.     Platform AND

2.     (External) Eco-system

Now Eco-system is a complex community of frameworks, MobileOS, Mobile services (telecom, SMS, LBS Push etc) and its environment functioning as an ecological unit. This is something we do not have control over. An enterprise can survive, even thrive and play in this eco-system by adopting frameworks and adapting to the evolution. Think about it…”Evolution” --- which is at a very rapid pace in the Mobile ecosystem.

Platform on the other hand is something an enterprise uses as a standard to launch technology, services and applications. A platform can a Operating system like Unix or Middleware like WebSphere Application services that provides and avenue to connect, integrate and consume other “Platform” hosted services or legacy services via some sort of transformation. For instance their a few fundamental ways we connect and integrate various platforms (database, web services and JMS (Messaging)). Platform is something we have full control over as the enterprise develops, deploys and manages application, services and integration.

I make this distinction, for the following reasons:

1.     Client discussions – we need to discuss what we can influence and what we cannot. This keeps the project discussions realistic and productive.

2.     Because we now in Mobility space, we need to better understand the eco system and how our platform and MobileFirst Portfolio differentiates and absorb the eco-system and as a single enterprise ecologic unit.

3.     Define the ability of a Platform (full control) to adapt to the ever changing eco-system. This is vital discussion point and a competitive differentiator.

4.     Unlike and traditional enterprise application space, the Eco-system is playing a more dominant role as the mobile OS vendors and device manufacturer are setting the tone of innovation and technology landscape. The faster a platform can adopt and adapt to the change, an enterprise can gain a competitive advantage in marketplace.

And…

Sound smart --- our knowledge of the eco system will help us better position products and solution.

The role of Mobile Middelware:(Ideal characteristics)

1. Mobile Middleware provides a layer of indirection, which allows for the back end services to be shifted without affecting the end point. - Flexibility 
2.Ability to surgically enable and disable Application specific to a platform, administratively provide platform specific messages - Control. 
3.Mobile Middleware also arms the enterprise to adapt and fit into to current Enterprise Security platform (authentication, authorization and security policy enforcement etc) - Security 
4.Mobile Middleware also provides an avenue to exploit existing services (SOA Model) and since these services were design for Web Application, Mobile middleware allows for filtering and altering the content, prior to sending the response back to end use. - Flexibility, control and reuse and Optimization of existing enterprise services. 
5.Mobile Specific Services - Unified push notification, SMS and devices specific notifications etc; provide an avenue to address these via platform.

AND

Ecosystem provides the value add services to the app that is developed and managed in our environment can "Play well" or Integrate well with that eco system. like ISIS/GDW etc. So we need to think in terms of API services or API Management ( we have a product, but I am focused on concept here) that amalgamates that service tier.

As always I welcome your thought and critique ..either on this forum or via e-mail.

Have a great week ahead.

:)

Nitin

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

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