Smartphones like iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc. are a wonderful combination of computers and cell-phones. They include many multi-media features that seem to be capturing the interests of individuals. With the growing popularity of these devices, enterprises have discovered them to be useful for employees who are distant / dispersed from the office. Therefore, developing smartphone applications for the enterprises has become necessary. In this paper we describe our methodology for smartphone enablement of enterprise software systems. This comprises of a framework to assess the business processes to identify the potential candidates for smartphone enablement and also guidelines for re-factoring the system architecture.As most of the enterprises are either web applications and/or web services, the technical approach will provide the details of developing the solution using web technology. Based on our experience, we briefly discuss the benefits and limitations of our approach. We conclude the paper with a short note on the evolution of web technology in the smartphone area.

1. ACEEE Int. J. on Network Security , Vol. 02, No. 02, Apr 2011
Smartphone Enterprise Applications
Rahul Pandhare, Sunil Joglekar
Innovation & Research Labs, Patni Computer Systems Ltd, Seepz, Andheri(E) Mumbai 400 096.
rahul.pandhare@patni.com, sunil.joglekar@patni.com
Abstract— Smartphones like iPhone, Blackberry, Android, A. Assessing business processes for smartphone
etc. are a wonderful combination of computers and cell-phones. enablement
They include many multi-media features that seem to be Mapping the advantages that mobility offers against
capturing the interests of individuals. With the growing
characteristics of the business activities could be of help in
popularity of these devices, enterprises have discovered them
to be useful for employees who are distant / dispersed from the identifying the potential business process suitability for
office. Therefore, developing smartphone applications for the smartphone enablement. Once we identify the potential
enterprises has become necessary. In this paper we describe candidates, we should check maturity of the existing IT
our methodology for smartphone enablement of enterprise infrastructure and how it supports the desired business goals.
software systems. This comprises of a framework to assess the
This qualitative approach should compare business benefits
business processes to identify the potential candidates for
smartphone enablement and also guidelines for re-factoring and gaps in existing underlying IT infrastructure capabilities
the system architecture.As most of the enterprises are either and help in prioritizing the business process.
web applications and/or web services, the technical approach Anywhere anytime is an USP of smartphone solutions.
will provide the details of developing the solution using web Extension of the enterprise systems functionalities such as
technology. Based on our experience, we briefly discuss the CRM, automation of manual data capturing and delivery of
benefits and limitations of our approach. We conclude the paper
real time data at point of activities are key enablers for the
with a short note on the evolution of web technology in the
smartphone area. operational effectiveness and efficiencies. Mobility also
enhances the responsiveness, collaboration among different
I.ENTERPRISE ACCESS AND SMARTPHONES stakeholders. During assessment exercises, one should look
for the business processes with above requirements and its
Over the years, the software systems architecture has business criticality too.
evolved from monolithic to client-server to web applications.
Though the underlying functionality has remained same, the B. Assessment Framework
UI and access mechanisms have made tremendous leaps. In order to assess whether a mobility solution would be
With the availability of enterprise application on beneficial or not the following steps needs to be followed:
smartphones, we can have immediate access to key customer Business Need and Gap Analysis - The purpose behind
data while still on the field. Mobility can thus help in this is to evaluate business processes that have greater
improving operational effectiveness, visibility across value benefits from mobility solutions. This will involve Need-
chain and reducing operational cost of an organization. For Gap analysis based on business processes requirement and
this, we need to have an enterprise wide mobility strategy in As-Is system capabilities to fulfill those requirements of the
place. organization.
In the following sections we have described methodology Analysis and Recommendation – Based on the scores
for smartphone enabling an enterprise application. In this obtained in the “Need for Mobility Solution” and the “As –
Is System Capabilities”, it helps us derive the Need-Gap
we first assess the suitability of a business process for
index which tells us whether we can go for a mobility solution
smartphone enablement and then go ahead with the technical
for the application or not. Fig .1 shows the result of a sample
feasibility for development of smartphone enterprise
assessment. Applications which fall under the “Most
application.
Suitable” zone are ideal candidates for smartphone
enablement. “Suitable” are the ones which can be smartphone
II.ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK enabled but the benefits may not be up-right justifiable. “Not
The assessment framework focuses on bringing a clear Suitable” are the ones, which should not be considered for
distinction between “must have” and “nice to have” solutions. smartphone enablement.
Prioritization of the business processes on the basis of
expected business benefits and creating road map would be
the key to ensuring maximum benefits and reducing the risk
of failure.
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2. ACEEE Int. J. on Network Security , Vol. 02, No. 02, Apr 2011
• Add a separate web server for hosting smartphone
specific input and output forms. The mobile web
server is a replica of the normal web server. The
requests from smartphones are recognized by the
proxy server and are routed to the mobile web server
in order to display the device specific content as
shown in Fig 2.
Fig.1. Sample Assessment of Enterprise Applications, which are being
considered for smartphone enablement.
Once the business processes are identified as potential
candidates for smartphone enablement then the re-factoring
of system architecture is done.
III.ARCHITECTURE APPROACH FOR SMARTPHONE ENABLING WEB
BASED ENTERPRISE APPLICATION Fig.2. Architecture diagram of an enterprise web application
Almost 80% of the requests that come for smartphone C. Steps for Developing Smartphone Enterprise
development are related to smartphone enablement of Application
existing enterprise applications. Essentially most of the
Following are the steps for developing web-based
enterprise applications are either web applications or web
smartphone enterprise application:
services. Accessing the same web application on smartphone
1. The initial exercise will be to collate all the existing
will not work owing to the constrained environment of the
use cases and the role based access mechanism that
device.
is being followed in the current enterprise
A. Native or Web Platform applications.
In order to develop smartphone applications we can either 2. Select the use case and roles which should be available
adopt native technology or web technology. Using native through smartphones.
technology, the entire application i.e. the presentation, 3. The presentation layers including the forms and the
processing, data storage etc. will reside on the device. This reports will have to undergo changes to take care of
allows off-line operation, access to native features and better the small screen size. Forms which earlier might have
been spanned to pages will now have shorter and
performance. On the other hand, we run into issues of
lesser content. Similarly the reports/dashboards will
deployment and distribution. With so many operating systems
need post-processing to fit onto device.
like Android, Windows, Mac, we end up building systems
4. Identifying functions in the Business façade that will
specific application. As most of the enterprise applications
be accessed by the smartphones. There may be few
are in web technology, it will be economical to choose web
cases where we may have to alter the business logic.
platform for smartphone enablement of these applications. This can be handled by way of servlet chaining.
For refactoring the system architecture, we need to verify 5. The existing functional and acceptance test cases can
set of preconditions like availability of - Use Cases, Business be re-used for testing the smartphones applications.
Façade and Test Base.
B. Architectural changes VI.CASE STUDIES
The architecture of a smartphone-based enterprise We have considered two case studies to show the way
application is very much similar to that of any enterprise we have implemented this methodology for our customers.
application. It follows the standard – web server, application They are – Time and Expense Management and Defect
server and database server communication. Tracking System.
The changes that are to be incorporated in an existing
enterprise application are: A. Time and Expense Management system
• Implement mechanism to identify the source of a This application facilities addition of users, projects,
request. This can be done by recognizing the user- expense reports, timesheets along with approvals. The
agent in the request or through the proxy that is being smartphone application (Fig.3.) has a subset of these
used or by means of WURFL (Wireless Universal functionalities like approval workflow and the timesheet
Resource File), WALL (Wireless Abstraction Library) defaulter list.
etc.
2
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3. ACEEE Int. J. on Network Security , Vol. 02, No. 02, Apr 2011
VI.FUTURE DIRECTIONS
One of the major drawbacks of web applications in
smartphones is accessing device native features like contacts,
camera etc. There are workarounds like BONDI framework
which provide Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs).
These APIs allow application developers to access key
terminal features and functions.
There are browsers like Opera Mini which are evolving
into development platforms. It is specially designed for
mobile phones, smartphones etc and uses J2ME platform.
Added to this is HTML 5 which is another critical step for
web application development. It has in-built features like
Fig.3. Time and Expense Management System providing field validation, off-line support and geo-location
APIs.
B. Defect Tracking System Combination of Open Service Gateway Initiative (OSGi)
This is a defect management application which allows and Cloud computing are making smartphones even more
project creation, entry of defects, changing of defect status powerful by providing services on demand. Based on the
geographical location that the user is in, the smartphones
are capable to detect and provide pertinent services which
can also be referred as location based context aware services.
All these areas are potential candidates for further
research in the area of smartphone enterprise applications.
REFERENCES
[1] Mobile developer’s guide to the galaxy (Published in 2009)
(http://www1.j2mepolish.org/downloads/
MobileDevelopersGuideToTheGalaxy.pdf)
[2] Patterns: SOA client access integration solutions (Published
Fig.4. Defect Tracking System using smartphone in 2006) (http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/
sg246775.pdf).
It provides dashboard which shows the details of the [3] Enterprise j2me developing mobile java applications
defect count against each project. The same application when (Published in 2004) (http://books.google.co.in/
accessed through smartphone provides dashboard in a pie- [4] Mobile applications with IBM WebSphere everyplace
chart which is much easier to read through smartphones access design and development (Published in 2001) (http://
(fig.4). www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg246259.pdf)
V.BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rahul Pandhare is a Business Research Analyst in Innovation
Following are the benefits that we can derive by web
Research Lab at Patni Computer Systems. He has around 5 years
enabling smartphone enterprise applications: of experience as software professional. His primary areas of interest
• Reduction in cycle time as folks away from desktops are Cloud Computing, Enterprise Mobility et al.
can have access to the applications.
Sunil Joglekar is a Senior Technical Architect in Innovation
• Reduced cycle time leads to improved productivity
Research Lab at Patni Computer Systems. He has 18 years
as there is less wait period. experience as a Software Professional and has spent about 5 years
• Economical and cost-effective solution as we are in United States mostly as a consultant at Sun Microsystems. He
using the existing business facade. specializes in architecting testable solutions for complex enterprise
• Effective management of application distribution software systems and their integrations such as EAI / B2Bi / SOA.
across devices. His primary areas of interest are: strategizing & architecting
innovative solutions with Web 2.0, Cloud Computing and
Autonomic Computing et al.
The limitations of this solution are:
• Possibility of fragmentation.
• Internet connection and bandwidth availability.
© 2011 ACEEE 3
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