Mobile exalead-whitepaper-a4-8-lw

Are You Ready for the
Mobile Enterprise?
Accelerate Your Strategy with a
Search-Based Infrastructure and
Search-Based Applications
ST Groupe & Exalead Whitepaper
MOBILE

1 The Mobile Enterprise: A Consumer-Led Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
2 Rule #1: Mobile’s Not a Just Another Channel, It’s a Different World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
3 The Challenge: Enterprise IT is from Mars, Mobile is from Venus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
4 The Search-Based Application Architecture for Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
5 Usability: Agile Interface, Unified Access, Pertinent Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
6 SBAs: The Right Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
7 ST Groupe’s SBA Platform of Choice: Exalead CloudView . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
8 The Three Approaches to Mobile Application Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
9 Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
7.1 GEFCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
7.2 Groupe Randstad France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
10 End Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE MOBILE ENTERPRISE: A CONSUMER-LED EVOLUTION
Just as consumer-led demand has reshaped the manufacturing sector—ushering in an
era of just-in-time production and mass personalization of goods, and redefining relation-
ships between suppliers, manufacturers and customers—so now employees are taking
center stage in making the long-awaited Mobile Enterprise a reality.
Employees are, after all, consumers, and consumers are crazy about mobile technolo-
gies. IDC expects shipments of application-capable, non-PC mobile devices (smart-
phones, media tablets, personal digital assistants, netbooks, etc.) to outnumber PC
shipments within the next 18 months, and forecasts that nearly 25 billion mobile apps will
be downloaded in 2011, up from just over 10 billion in 2010.1
And while enterprises work
to formulate strategic mobility plans that go beyond RFID scanners and mobile email,
these consumer-employees are heading to the office armed with their own mobile
devices.
Led by C-level executives, more than half of all workers are already using their personal
mobile devices to conduct business at home, on the road and at their desks, repurposing
consumer applications for business use, downloading a growing array of business appli-
cations from iTunes and other app stores, and putting pressure on IT for greater mobile
access to enterprise assets and applications.
Accordingly, we believe now is the time for organizations to move beyond the whiteboard
and begin implementing an effective mobile enterprise plan. Those who act swiftly stand
to gain a significant advantage over more reactionary competitors. To succeed however,
one needs to not only react swiftly, but appropriately. This requires crafting a mobile
enterprise strategy that recognizes the disruptive nature of the mobile world.
RULE #1: MOBILE’S NOT A JUST ANOTHER CHANNEL, IT’S A DIFFERENT WORLD
More powerful processors, better browsers, high-bandwidth 3G networks, and cross-
Wi-Fi /cellular data access have collectively made smartphones, tablets and netbooks via-
ble platforms for enterprise applications. However, no matter how powerful their proces-
sors or fast and reliable their connectivity, mobile devices are not mini-PCs. They are
disruptive tools that are redefining the ways in which we interact with information. We
find these new generation devices part company with their PC counterparts in seven key
ways:
• 24/7 Connectivity: More affordable fixed data plans and expanded network coverage
are facilitating anytime, anywhere connectivity, and forever changing our expectations
for fully contextual, on-demand access to information.
• Local Context: Enabled by GPS, A-GPS (Assisted GPS), and augmented reality
browsers (e.g., Layar), mobile technologies bring location-based context to interactions.
Beyond classic routing and mapping, location data can be used to significantly boost
the pertinence and timeliness of information delivery.
• New Ways of Sharing: Mobile devices bring an active, physical dimension to
information sharing, with devices so small and light they can be freely passed around
as a means of exchanging information. It’s a capacity that both encourages
collaboration and brings a new degree of spontaneity to it. In a related twist, the small
size of devices like smartphones, together with the use of SIM cards, even enables
them to do double duty as devices like debit/credit cards and subway passes, in addi-
tion to the multimedia functions outlined below.
• Extensive Multimedia Usage: Mobile devices are enabling unprecedented integration
of multimedia into interactions, supported by more powerful processors and higher
speed networks, and encouraged by technologies like mobile image capture, video
capture, video conferencing, audio recording, and bar code scanning.
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ST Groupe & Exalead Whitepaper: Are You Ready For The Mobile Enterprise? v 1.0 © 2011 Exalead & ST Groupe
Forrester forecasts
enterprise mobile
users will represent
73% of the U.S.
workforce by 2012,
including 25% who are
not officially ‘mobile’
yet want to use their
personal mobile
devices to access
corporate applications.
Worldwide, IDC expects
the mobile worker
population to hit 1.19
billion in 2013,
accounting for 34.9% of
the global workforce
(75% in Japan and the
US, and 50% in
Europe). 2
82% of U.S. business
executives use a
smartphone, and 65%
of them are willing to
use mobile devices to
make business
purchases.
Oct 2010
DigitalTrends Survey 3
ARE YOU READY FOR THE MOBILE ENTERPRISE?

• New Ways of Interacting: With PCs, one uses a mouse and keyboard to navigate
through a high volume of data. With a large, high-resolution monitor (or dual monitors),
users can keep a dozen applications open at once – a necessity given information silos.
With mobile devices, one moves sequentially through more limited data sets in a visual
or physical way, employing mouse-less navigation and input tools like touch screens,
pens, pads, rockers, trackballs, voice commands and motion detectors (accelerometers).
• Primacy of Search: While the use of mobile devices for e-commerce is on the rise, in
a non-entertainment context they are used primarily for rapid information search and
retrieval rather than data entry and transaction processing. And in a search context,
while virtual or physical keyboards may be used to enter text in a Web-style text box,
application developers must find ways to accommodate search and retrieval using the
alternative tools above.
• Social Decision Making: Facebook is the number one iPhone application, and social
networking occupies the number three spot after music and games in the list of top
smartphone uses.5
And, most consumer mobile applications whose primary purpose is
not social networking are nonetheless written to interact with social networks. There-
fore, mobile technologies are habituating users to continual social interaction, setting
the stage for high adoption of collaboration and social decision-making in the enterprise
mobile arena.
Collectively, these capabilities produce a novel and highly engaging user experience. It is
an experience that is so appealing and intuitive that mobile devices are now poised to
eclipse PCs as the preferred method of accessing the Internet, with many users opting to
go online via their mobile device even when they’re seated right in front of a PC.6
For businesses, this means simply rolling out small screen versions of existing enterprise
applications will not satisfy your users, help you achieve significant productivity gains, or
give you a strategic competitive advantage. It’s essential to develop applications that take
advantage of the unique capabilities of these devices and the new types of interaction
they support.
If one can find a way to port the consumer mobile experience to enterprise applications,
employees, customers, and partners could reap significant benefits from:
• Anywhere, anytime access to pertinent, real-time enterprise data
• Rapid, zero-training information retrieval, and
• Natural, human modes of collaborating and of visualizing and sharing information
Those involved in industries and processes heavily dependent on real-time data and
employing the highest percentage of mobile workers are naturally at the front line of those
that could reap the most immediate benefits:
• Logistics
• Inventory Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Healthcare and Medical Services
• Salesforce Automation
• Field Service & Support
But, the range of enterprise data that could benefit these workers and others encom-
passes the full spectrum of enterprise cloud resources, including everything from email to
documents to wide-scope enterprise applications like:
• Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM)
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data
• Business & Competitive Intelligence
• Product Lifecycle Management
Accordingly, one must not only re-envision applications for the mobile world, one must
find a way to bridge the entire enterprise IS ecosystem with this new mobile world. Given
the incongruous nature of these two worlds, this appears to be a formidable task.
Page 2
“Compelling value
from mobile
applications will not
be delivered by
replicating processes
that are currently
available as desktop
applications.” 4
In a 2010 IBM survey,
55% of respondents
expect mobile
software application
development for
smartphones and
tablet PCs to surpass
application
development on all
other traditional
computing platforms
by 2015.8
“Mobile line-of-
business applications
— such as field service
and healthcare apps —
are the next wave of
mobile applications.” 7

THE CHALLENGE: ENTERPRISE I.T. IS FROM MARS, MOBILE IS FROM VENUS
Beyond a disruptive user experience, the mobile world as a whole is characterized by un-
predictability, rapid change, perpetual innovation and a free flow of information. Enterprise
information systems are characterized by rigidity, control, planning, compartmentalization
(silos) and a slow rate of change. How then can one adapt a rigid, conventional IS eco-
system to meet the unique needs of the mobile enterprise? We see six main challenges:
• Availability
How do you satisfy the need for real-time, 24/7 data access when applications are
routinely taken offline for maintenance and batch updates?
• Scalability
How can you meet the needs of an unpredictable number of users and volume of
traffic?
• Performance
How can you extract sub-second responsiveness from systems that can be slow even
on a local network? And how do you expand information access without straining
existing systems?
• Usability
How do you create interfaces well suited to read-only, search-centered tasks and new
modes of interaction? How do you provide access to all relevant resources without
perpetuating silos? Checking a dozen sources to accomplish a single task is tough in
the enterprise environment, and impossible in a mobile context.
• Adaptability
How do you provide meaningful access to data-intensive applications in bite-size
chunks?
• Security
How do you meet enterprise security needs in a mobile environment?
At ST Groupe, we have worked closely with our clients to examine all options available for
meeting these challenges: developing a Web services framework, creating a new middle-
ware database, deploying a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP), and deploying
a Search-Based Application (SBA) architecture.
A Web services approach could theoretically provide the agility needed for the mobile
enterprise, but it is a complex and structured approach requiring system-wide adaptation
of existing resources.
Developing a new middleware database may satisfy the need for a consolidated data
layer, but such large-scale data integration projects are complex, costly and difficult to
evolve. In addition, such a strategy addresses only data consolidation and not mobile
application development needs.
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MOBILE
Mars and Venus: The Mobile World meets The Enterprise

Using a MEAP that offers back-office integration in addition to application development,
deployment and/or management tools could be useful, but they tend to be tied to a single
vendor’s application suite (e.g., MEAPs from SAP and Oracle) or they employ less than
ideal integration strategies: conventional data integration using a relational database, Web
services integration, or ‘pass-through’ connections managed via application programming
interfaces (APIs) or SQL-based tools. Such connections introduce complexity in construc-
ting composite applications, and keep mobile application availability tied to source system
availability.
On the application development front, however, MEAPs can provide helpful toolkits for
OS-specific development (e.g., offerings from Microsoft, Apple and RIM) or for multi-
channel, device- and platform-agnostic development (typically full Web solutions). (See
the Chapter “The Three Approaches to Mobile Application Development” for more on Na-
tive vs. Full Web development.)
However, the final option, the SBA framework, provides the fully independent, consolida-
ted data layer the mobile enterprise requires (without conventional data integration), and it
can aid application development with or without an OS-specific or multi-channel MEAP.
Engineered for high-volume, read-only transactions on the Web against impossible to
forecast traffic, the SBA architecture also offers the scalability, performance and availabi-
lity the mobile enterprise demands.
In our estimation, it is in fact the only technology that can bridge the otherwise incompatible
worlds of Mobility and the Enterprise. Let’s now look more closely at this architecture and
the ways in which it responds to the special challenges of the mobile enterprise.
THE SEARCH-BASED APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE FOR MOBILITY
To construct a search-based mobile architecture, one first deploys a search engine along-
side one’s existing enterprise information cloud. The engine serves as a bridge between
the enterprise and mobile worlds, non-intrusively collecting and processing enterprise
cloud data, and making it available to mobile devices.
First, the engine uses data connectors and crawlers to collect data from structured data
repositories (databases, CRM, ERP, etc.) and unstructured resources (documents, email,
the Web, multimedia files, etc.), and to compile this data into an index. It is a rapid and
automated process. One simply needs to set top-level parameters for the connectors,
and the search engine itself does the hard work of collecting, analyzing, classifying and
updating data.
Once the data layer is created, a built-in interface expressly engineered for information
search and retrieval can be easily adapted for mobile devices, enabling rapid deployment
of search-based mobile applications. Or, custom or packaged mobile applications can
access the data layer directly using standard Web technologies (HTTP, REST, XML, RSS,
SOAP, RDF, OWL, etc.), automatically benefitting from the engine’s unique capabilities
(lightning-fast query processing, automated data aggregation and filtering, full-text search,
fuzzy matching, massive scalability, etc.).
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Exalead CloudView’s Mobile SBA Architecture

It is an elegant solution that is as robust and agile as it is simple, and it is ideally suited to
meeting the unique requirements of the mobile enterprise. It is also a solution that can be
rapidly implemented, satisfying the need for a swift response to user (and market) de-
mands for mobile enterprise services.
Availability: 24/7, Real-Time Access
First, the data layer the search engine creates is completely independent from and non-
intrusive upon source systems. This ensures that essential data is available 24/7, even if
a particular source system is offline. One can also add or remove source systems on the
fly without having to rebuild the index, further bolstering availability. As an added benefit,
the layer also provides a convenient source of data that can be cached on devices to
ensure service continuity when Wi-Fi or cellular access is unavailable.
Second, the SBA architecture enables complete control over data freshness. The engine
can use push or pull strategies for incrementally updating the index, and the frequency of
updates can be set individually for data sources. Updates can be set for regular intervals
(quasi-real time, every minute, daily, etc.), or performed only on request from an applica-
tion. Updated data in the index is then available to users in real time.
Scalability: Easy, Unlimited Scaling
Search engines were expressly engineered for read-only access to high volumes of data
by large numbers of users. Their column-oriented index structure, flexible document
model, distributed architecture and request processing techniques equip them to scale to
virtually any number of users or volume of data. With the right engine, such scaling is
also rapid and hassle free. One can scale infinitely simply by adding on commodity
servers, with no painful data migration or system rebuild required.
Performance: Sub-Second Responsiveness, Non-Intrusiveness
The same characteristics that give SBAs their massive scalability also enable their high
performance. Index-based SBAs process requests 100s of times faster than relational da-
tabase systems. SBAs can deliver sub-second responsiveness even against staggering
volumes of data (billions of records and petabytes of data) for thousands of simultaneous
users.
And because the engine in essence decouples data from underlying systems, mobile
users can benefit from this sub-second responsiveness even if source systems are pain-
fully slow to interact with inside the firewall. In fact, SBAs can even improve the behind-
the-firewall performance of these source systems by offloading read-only access
requests, freeing resources for ‘write’ transactions. It is a highly efficient, write-once, read-
unlimited-times strategy.
USABILITY: AGILE INTERFACE, UNIFIED ACCESS, PERTINENT DATA
Due in large part to the influence of the Web, search has become the dominant mode of
retrieving and navigating information in almost all user contexts. It is therefore only natu-
ral that search should play a central role in enterprise mobile applications, where simple,
rapid access to information is a requirement, not an option. And thanks to users’ familia-
rity with search, SBAs are usable without training.
In addition to this innate usability born of familiarity, SBAs offer extended usability through
an agile interface and unified, contextual information access.
Agility
Whether designed for tablets or smartphones, SBA interfaces are very flexible, perfor-
ming well even in low bandwidth environments, accommodating both small smartphone
screens and larger tablet displays, and supporting navigation by touch, keyboard and
other input mechanisms.
This navigational flexibility is aided in part by the automatic generation of facet-based
navigation. Facets are dynamic data categories and clusters that can be used as an alter-
native to text boxes as a means of searching and navigating through data: a mode well
suited to keyboard-free maneuvering.
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MOBILE

In addition, one has great flexibility in how facets and data are visualized: tag clouds,
sliders, wheels, charts, graphs and other methods of visualizing data are all inherently
supported.
Unified Access
The SBA engine uses semantic and statistical processing to meaningfully aggregate
cross-silo data so users can benefit from a holistic view of information without having to
consult multiple applications. The engine can also make multimedia content exploitable
through technologies like content-based image retrieval (CBIR), in which a computer in-
dependently analyzes and classifies the content of images, and independent audio/video
transcript generation, classification and indexation.
Pertinent Data
The ease with which you can construct mashups with SBA platforms also enables you to
deliver more pertinent information. Mashups meaningfully aggregate data on the fly at
query time, meaning enterprise cloud data can be integrated with external data like Web
or social media content and GPS data to deliver highly contextual information.
In short, an SBA hides away the complexity and scale of information systems and deli-
vers to users exactly what they need, in a form they can immediately digest. This is
exactly what task-based mobile usage demands.
Adaptability: Big Data in Small Streams
Search engines also offer a unique advantage in adapting high volume information sys-
tems to the small message sizes dictated by mobile networks. A search engine by design
uses ranking and relevancy mechanisms to deliver only the most pertinent data for a
given request.
Consider a search engine on the Web: the base of available data may encompass billions
of pages, but only a handful of relevant sources are delivered in an HTML page of just a
few kilobytes. Users then move through result sets in a sequential yet rapid way to refine
or redirect their search. This capacity for rapid, sequential navigation of highly relevant
data is tailor made for delivering big-pipe data across tiny channels.
Page 6

Security
The use of an SBA platform helps you enforce existing security rules without impacting
the mobile user experience. The SBA platform enables security to be managed at the
infrastructure level (in the search engine itself) rather than at the application layer. Data-
level security is achieved using Access Control Lists. Internal and external network
interactions are protected via secured standards (AES, HTTPS).
At indexing time, information regarding the users and their rights is appended as meta-
data to index entries for data, documents and resources. Read rights can then be ins-
tantly checked at the index level (with source applications consulted in the case of write
and execute requests). This boosts scalability and performance and permits you to pro-
vide users with the convenience of single sign-on access for all resources while enforcing
source-specific rules.
For the user, the platform behaves as though it had only crawled and indexed the content
authorized for that particular user. It not only blocks access to unauthorized documents,
but also to the titles, summaries, document previews and other metadata associated with
those documents. And, the platform as a whole can be configured to respond in real time
to changes in user permissions and rights.
SBAs: THE RIGHT CHOICE
Given all these unique capabilities, it is clear that only an SBA architecture can effectively
bridge the enterprise and mobile worlds. It endows enterprise information systems with
the availability, scalability, performance and security mobile usage requires. It delivers the
agile interface, unified access, pertinent information and rich collaboration suited to the
new modes of interacting being forged in the mobile arena.
And, it provides the high level of agility the mobile enterprise demands, with the capacity
to rapidly create and modify applications, to deliver big data in optimal message sizes,
and to scale to any volume of data or number of users.
In summary, it meets both the vertical and horizontal needs we address within our global
approach to developing mobile applications:
• Vertical (infrastructure) needs: information access and routing should be ultra-
efficient and consistent with the usage conditions of the mobile environment.
• Horizontal (business) needs: the information delivered must be relevant to a particular
business task or workflow, and users need to be able to distill that body of information
in a rapid and pertinent way.
Thus, in our view, the SBA approach is perfectly adapted to the construction of solutions
satisfying all these prerequisites. However, not all search engines are SBA capable, and
not all SBA-capable engines are equal. To succeed, one must choose the right SBA
platform.
We have extensively studied the offerings in the search marketplace, and the Exalead
CloudView search engine is undoubtedly the superior choice for SBA development in
general, and for enabling the mobile enterprise in particular.
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MOBILE

ST GROUPE’S SBA PLATFORM OF CHOICE: EXALEAD CLOUDVIEW
ST Groupe’s analysis of leading open source and commercial enterprise search platforms
revealed that Exalead CloudView is clearly the market’s top SBA platform:
• It is the only enterprise search platform developed simultaneously for the Web and the
enterprise, enabling it to apply advanced semantic processing to Web-scale volumes of
data while delivering exceptional usability
• It is ideally engineered to enable information access, discovery and analysis in a cloud
environment
• It offers equally adept analysis and processing of both unstructured and structured
data, with a unique capacity to transform unstructured data (documents, email, etc.)
into structured data and to meaningfully connect it with existing structured data (data
bases, CRM, ERP, SCM, etc.)
• It features unique administrative tools that accelerate development and facilitate
management, like a drag-and-drop mash-up builder and WYSIWYG control over data
relevancy and ranking
To date, ST Groupe has deployed Exalead CloudView in a number of highly successful
SBAs for both mobile and non-mobile channels, including applications for clients such as
Gefco, Acacia and Randstad/Vediorbis. Some of these SBAs are highlighted in the Case
Studies chapter which follows the review of mobile application development approaches
presented in the next section.
We invite you to call us today to discuss which of these approaches is best for your orga-
nization, and to learn more about Exalead CloudView and the role that SBAs can play in
helping you realize your mobile enterprise.
Page 8
Exalead CloudView’s Triple Advantage over Competitors
Performance
• Massive scalability
• Sub-second responsiveness
• Low TCO
Usability
• Simple, Web-style search
• Dynamic, contextual navigation
• Easy configuration & management
Agility
• Deploys in days or weeks
• Evolves as source data evolves
• Open, standards-based framework

THE THREE APPROACHES TO MOBILE APPLICATION DESIGN
Mobile technologies have evolved to the point that you can now develop feature-rich soft-
ware applications for mobile devices using sophisticated, modern development tech-
niques. But what design and implementation strategy should you choose given your
constraints and expectations? How can you be sure to get the most out of targeted de-
vices? How can you be sure your application is truly usable? The following table ad-
dresses these questions in summarizing the main approaches to developing applications
for smartphones and tablets.
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MOBILE
Strategy As-Is Use of
Existing Web
Application
Full Web
Development
Native Device
Development
What is it? An existing Web
application is made
available to mobile
users, without any
modifications for mobile
usage.
Application specifically
designed for mobile
devices. Developed and
accessed via standard
Web technologies.
Application specifically
designed for mobile
devices. Developed and
accessed using
OS/device specific
technologies.
Target Audience Existing enterprise
users - unlikely to win
new users. No
assurance of cross-
device compatibility.
Device/OS-agnostic
approach that can
support one or multiple
audiences using a
variety of terminals.
Serves only users of the
targeted platform(s). No
cross-device
compatibility without
further specific
development.
Performance Performance likely
perceived as degraded
in mobile context.
Performance can be
optimized for mobile
environment.
Performance can be
optimized for mobile
environment.
Graphical User
Interface (GUI)
GUI not optimized for
mobile devices; may be
difficult to navigate;
content may be
inaccessible.
With the right design
approach and
optimization strategies,
one can develop a very
responsive GUI and
deliver a successful
user experience.
Can use platform SDK
kits to construct simple
UIs. Can extensively
customize GUI to deliver
a rich user experience.
Device-Specific
Interaction (GPS,
gyroscope,
accelerometer, camera,
printers, scanners, etc.)
None. Can interact natively
with principal terminal
hardware/software
features. Can extend
interaction as needed
with extensions or
native code wrappers
(adds some complexity).
Platform SDKs contain
APIs with everything
needed to interact with
all the hardware and
software features of the
terminal. Optimization
still required to ensure a
successful user
experience.
Technical
Implementation
No separate
implementation.
Developed using HTML
5, CSS 3 and JavaScript.
Relatively easy
development using
standard skill sets.
Programming language
(Java, Objective-C,
JavaScript, etc.)
depends on targeted
platform and
application. Generally
more complex
development requiring
more specialized skills.
Relationship to SBAs An SBA provides an
alternative to as-is use
of existing applications.
SBA provides data
aggregation and
information search,
access, and reporting
functionality that can be
incorporated into any
programming
environment. SBA
widgets can be
developed using HTML 5
and CSS 3.
SBA provides data
aggregation and
information search,
access, and reporting
functionality that can be
incorporated into any
programming
environment.
Our Recommendation To be avoided if possible.
Better to deploy an SBA
with light customization
of out-of-the-box GUI.
A good choice for
organizations targeting
multiple audiences or
seeking maximum
portability and flexibility.
User experience can
satisfy most B2B needs.
A good choice for
organizations
standardized to a
particular device/OS and
possessing the requisite
skill sets. Maximizes
use of device features
but restricts agility.
"Mobile Web applications
can, in certain scenarios
and with careful attention
to application program-
ming interfaces and ex-
tensions, provide a rich
user experience that does
not equal native applica-
tions, but approximates it
at a fraction of the deve-
lopment effort and with
greater portability and
flexibility." 9

CASE STUDIES
Gefco
With over 10,000 employees in 100 countries, GEFCO is one of the top 10 logistics
groups in Europe. The company provides multimodal transport and end-to-end supply
chain services for industrial clients in the automotive, two-wheel vehicle, electronics, retail
and personal care sectors.
GEFCO engaged ST Groupe to help them rebuild the Track & Trace solution for their au-
tomotive transport service. This service entails transporting vehicles from factories to
dealers, with GEFCO being responsible for the whereabouts of 7 million vehicles on any
given day. Their Oracle database system consolidates all logistical movements of these
cars worldwide, and holds 3 terabytes of data.
After 2 years of expensive optimization projects, GEFCO was still encountering perfor-
mance difficulties with the legacy Track & Trace system: more than 1 minute response
time per query, restricted access during work hours to avoid conflicts between information
requests and internal transaction processing, and data latency of up to 24 hours due to
batch updating.
ST Groupe worked with GEFCO to replace this legacy system with a CloudView SBA. The
award-winning makeover delivered better performance, agility, usability and security—at a
lower cost—than their previous database-centered model. Results highlights include:
• A query response time of less than a second
• A data refresh rate cut from 24 hours to 15 minutes (with the system capable of
delivering a quasi real-time refresh rate if so desired)
• A 50% cut in the cost per user
• A large improvement in information accessibility - with no end user training needed
• A 99.98% availability rate with a limited material investment
• Automatic generation of operational reporting against all data facets
The nature of GEFCO’s business and the special characteristics of the revamped appli-
cation (fresh data, instant responsiveness, high availability and maximum usability) made
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Long, complex forms replaced by a single text box for launching complex queries, with navigation and search
refinement supported by cartography and dynamic data facets.

rolling out a mobile version of the application a natural next step. As the application was
already endowed with mobile-ready usability, the main task was to adapt the application
for a small screen format and mobile modes of input. Routing and mapping capabilities
were then integrated to create a highly successful mobile application for logistics.
Groupe Randstad France
Following the acquisition of Vediorbis in July 2008, Randstad is now the second largest
HR services provider in the world. Present in 43 countries, Randstad's 26,970 employees
work at close to 4,200 branches and in-house locations to employ over half a million
people on a daily basis.
ST Groupe is working with Randstad to integrate Exalead Cloudview into a strategic
redesign of the human resources applications used by staff and customers. Given the
highly time-sensitive and location-dependent nature of recruitment, and the extensive
interaction with social networks in the employment field, producing applications for mobile
devices was a high priority.
Deploying a CloudView SBA has enabled users to search multiple internal and external
resources from a single text box—with no painful data integration—including:
• Multiple resume databases and applicant tracking systems
• Email messages, text files and PDF documents
• Social networking, Intranet and Web sites
CloudView also boosts the quality and relevancy of this unified content by mining it for
embedded information, and using the enhanced data to produce mobile-friendly faceted
search and navigation by dynamically generated categories (related terms, location,
education, years of experience, etc.). Semantically mined data can include:
• Named entities (people, places, organizations, dates, etc.)
• Key phrases and concepts
• Hidden relationships and connections between resources
To deliver smarter matches against this enhanced content, CloudView’s semantic tools
also provide "type ahead" query completion, spelling correction, fuzzy matching, and
phonetic and approximate spellings – aids especially appreciated in the mobile environ-
ment, where time is of the essence and typing quality may be less than ideal.
In a matter of seconds, clients and staff can hone in on and share information about an
ideal candidate, and candidates can instantly identify and respond to their dream opportu-
nity. Managers also gain anywhere, anytime access to interactive operational business re-
porting.
Page 11
MOBILE

END NOTES
1. Frank Gens, IDC Predictions Team, IDC, "IDC Predictions 2011: Welcome to the New Mainstream,"
Dec. 2010, Doc # 225878.
2. Michele Pelino, et al., Forrester Research, Inc., "Enterprise Mobile User Forecast: Mobile 'Wannabes'
Are The Fastest-Growing Segment,” Oct. 2008. Sean Ryan, et al, IDC, "Worldwide Mobile Worker Popula-
tion 2009–2013 Forecast ," Dec. 2009, Doc # 221309.
3. http://digitaltrends.fabernovel.com/slide/view/?slug=m-commerce-et-b2b-disposition-a-effectuer-des-
acha&utm_source=dgt_newletterhtml&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=8209 (in French).
4. Paul D. Hamerman, Forrester Research, Inc., "Mobile Applications Will Empower Enterprise Business
Processes" Sept. 2010.
5. Morgan Stanley Research, "The Mobile Internet Report," Dec. 2009.
6. Ibid.
7. Michele Pelino, T.J. Keitt, et al., Forrester Research, Inc., "The Global Mobile Application Landscape,"
Apr. 2008.
8. IBM Survey, "IT Professionals Predict Mobile and Cloud Technologies Will Dominate Enterprise Compu-
ting By 2015," Oct. 2010, http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32674.wss.
9. Ray Valdes, et al., Gartner, Inc., “Hype Cycle for Web and User Interaction Technologies, 2010,” July
2010.
Page 12

About ST Groupe
For 25 years, ST Consulting has been providing its clients with strategic assistance in the areas of project mana-
gement, business process management, functional and technical IS architecture development, and change mana-
gement. ST Engineering services encompass Internet applications and web portals (JAVA/ JEE, Microsoft.net,
open source), business applications, infrastructure development and Managed Services (Service Centers, TMA,
Support) . ST Groupe’s client base includes over 50 large companies in sectors including banking and finance, in-
surance, business services, the public sector, industry, construction and civil engineering, logistics, retail and
telecommunications.
.
About Exalead
Founded in 2000 by Search engine pioneers, Exalead®
is the leading search-based application platform provider
to business and government. Exalead's worldwide client base includes leading companies such as Pricewater-
houseCooper, ViaMichelin, GEFCO, WorldBank and Sanofi Pasteur, and more than 100 million unique users a
month use Exalead's technology for search. Today, Exalead is reshaping the digital content landscape with its
platform, Exalead CloudView™, which uses advanced semantic technologies to bring structure, meaning and ac-
cessibility to previously unused or under-used data in the new hybrid enterprise and Web information cloud.
CloudView collects data from virtually any source, in any format, and transforms it into structured, pervasive,
contextualized building blocks of business information that can be directly searched and queried, or used as the
foundation for a new breed of lean, innovative information access applications.
Exalead was acquired by Dassault Systèmes in June 2010. Exalead has offices in Paris, San Francisco, Glasgow,
London, Amsterdam, Milan and Frankfurt.
Exalead UK
33 Cavendish Square
London W1G 0PW
Tel: +44 (0)207 182 4003
Fax: +44 (0)207 182 4181
Exalead Germany
DS Deutschland GmbH
Bonifazius Türme
Rhabanusstr. 3
D - 55118 Mainz
Tel: +49 61 31 90 82 56 45
Exalead Italy
Corso Giuseppe Garibaldi, 86
20121 - Milano
Tel: +39 02 62 71 10 10
Fax: +39 02 62 71 10 11
Exalead Benelux
Dodeweg 6c
3832 RC LEUSDEN
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 85 201 59 82
Fax: +31 85 201 61 80
Exalead France
10 place de la Madeleine
75008 Paris
Tel: +33 (0) 1 55 35 26 26
Fax: +33 (0) 1 55 35 26 27
Exalead USA
221 Main Street, Suite 750
San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: +1 (415) 230 3800
Fax: +1 (415) 230 3850
ST Groupe
1, rue Saint Georges
75009 Paris
Tel: +33 (0) 1 53 20 41 10
Fax: +33 (0) 1 48 74 01 11

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