Mobile devices have been around
for more than a decade now. In the beginning, they primarily provided the
functionality of telephony, as well as contact, email and calendar
management. Soon after, these devices started offering access to the
worldwide web. Even at that time, it was felt that they would become
pervasive within the enterprise and would be used by the workforce in
multiple ways. However, this did not happen in a significant way for many
years.
Blackberry was the first mobile device to penetrate the enterprise to any
real extent, but employees used it primarily for email and calendaring
capabilities.With the advent of Apple’s iPhone
and Google’s Android platforms, the landscape is changing. These devices have
rapidly started becoming pervasive in enterprise communications. This article
explains the reasons for the quick entry of mobile devices into the business
environment and the factors that enterprises are considering while
incorporating a broad spectrum of mobility capabilities into the workplace.
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When mobile devices were initially introduced, carriers like AT&T, Verizon,
T-Mobile and others made a significant investment in infrastructure for
providing the cellular phone service. The devices were provided by non-computer
electronics companies like Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and others. They had a mix
of proprietary operating systems including Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Palm
OS, which, in turn, came with development tools that were hard to use. These
early mobile devices also used other mechanisms like BREW, J2ME for enabling
application developers to write applications for these devices.
Considering that the carriers owned the subscribers and they had made huge
initial investments, they called the shots in terms of what applications, ring
tones, and phone options were provided to the users of these devices. The
carriers controlled email by putting their own email servers in between
enterprise email servers and the user. The carriers controlled which web sites
users could access by showing a limited set of menus when users tried to access
the web. The carriers also had control over which applications users could
download onto their devices. In fact, the carriers also dictated what the
device manufacturer was allowed to pre-load onto any device that was offered by
that carrier to its customers.
In addition, software developers had to establish a business relationship with
the carriers before they could make their applications available on the devices
offered by that carrier. As a result, independent software development vendors
(ISVs) did not develop many applications for these devices since the carriers
are large companies and it is time consuming and cumbersome for small ISVs to
establish relationships with them. There were a limited number of ISVs that
came into existence (such as Antenna software, Mobilieum, Rocket Mobile and
others); and these companies struggled to grow for the above reasons.
Blackberry was able to break this model. It gradually established that it
handles emails extremely well and that it has much better reliability than what
most carriers offered through their own email servers. Therefore, the carriers
had to cede control of email specifically for Blackberry devices. The email to
Blackberry devices is handled either by RIM, the manufacturer of the device, or
by individual enterprises who install a Blackberry server within the
enterprise.
The real change in this carrier-controlled model happened with the advent of
the iPhone. Apple had established a strong brand name and credibility that
whatever it designs is always the best in its class. With that credibility,
Apple introduced the iPhone as a device that can handle phone, email, calendar,
Internet browsing, native applications, music, videos and more. The device was
immediately adopted by iPod users as they saw the benefits of merging their
music and phone into a single device. As a bonus, these users got unlimited
access to the world-wide web in the same way as they did on their desktops.
With the iPhone, irrespective of the carrier, the user is able to browse to any
URL.
Apple also designed the iPhone with business users in mind. Even in its first
generation phone, Apple had a rich set of built-in security mechanisms such as
SSL, Digital certificates, VPN, etc. In addition, they offered their
distribution channel—Apple App Store—directly to developers and ISVs who could
register their applications in the Apple App store by just signing up for the
developers partnership and getting their applications approved by Apple. Yes,
this mechanism is also a control in a way, but they needed to ensure a level of
scrutiny of the applications in terms of standard development techniques,
suitability of the application for the general public etc. Apple made sure that
the process was simple. The developer studio license and Apple’s application
approval process is straight forward and can be completed by even a single
person development house without any hurdles. In addition, Apple kept the
subscription fees for the program and access to the development tools very
nominal. The development tools are easy to install and use and developers could
develop their first native applications within a one- or two-week learning
period.
The result was an influx of new applications into the Apple App store. The
number of mobile application development companies grew multifold across the
world. The phenomenon was repeated with the introduction of Google’s Android
platform. By the time the Android platform was introduced, the carriers had
already ceded control to the operating system/device company. Android has the
backing of Google – another company with high brand equity. The primary
difference between Google’s strategy and Apple’s is that in the case of
Google’s Android, the operating system is offered to multiple device
manufacturers who are encouraged to create a variety of mobile devices that
leverage the capabilities of the Android mobile operating system. It is easy to
develop and distribute applications on Android devices in similar fashion as
with the iPhone platform. Android also has a similar application marketplace
for users to download these Android applications.
With the success of the iPhone and Android platforms, consumer interest in
smart phones has expanded and the market is consolidating around these two
platforms. Given that these devices offer an easy to use mobile application
platform as well as security capabilities required before the devices can be
connected to enterprise systems, these devices also started entering into
businesses in a rapid way. This posed a challenge for the enterprise IT as they
had not defined the business processes for preparing, distributing, and
managing these devices. IT enterprises usually have standard laptops that they
give to their employees and there are standard policies and platforms to
distribute and manage the laptops. However, mobile devices are different types
of devices and require a different way to manage them. IT enterprises are
therefore scrambling to put together the infrastructure and plans for mobile
devices.
There are companies like Sybase, Antenna software etc. who offer platforms to
make this job easier, though they are still evolving.
With the incorporation of security and access controls, the availability of
mobile device management software, and the sheer prevalence of mobiles phones
and productivity benefits of a mobile-enabled workforce, enterprise mobility is
becoming a reality. Within the next 1 to 2 years, the enterprise will learn to
manage these devices as a standard part of their IT architectures, and will
develop a plethora of mobile applications to provide access to their backend
systems.
A mobile workforce holds promise for direct and indirect business benefits:
·
increased employee productivity
·
greater customer satisfaction and
loyalty
·
streamlined business processes for
lower overall costs of ownership
·
real-time connections within the
enterprise and beyond, with customers and partners
·
more flexible work schedules leading
to greater employee loyalty and satisfaction
We have worked with customers across industries to incorporate mobility solutions into their infrastructures to
both enable greater productivity of the workforce who can access their
applications at any time, from any place; and to extend their reach to
customers via the mobile channel. The benefits are clear and the opportunity is
tremendous. It’s only a matter of time before mobile-based transactions will be
considered part and parcel to a business ongoing success.
For more information, please see Infogain’s Mobile Point of Service and Mobile Stores solutions.
