Essential Guide to Becoming A Mobile App Rock Star - part III - Enterprise Apps
1. THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BECOMING A
MOBILE APP
ROCK STAR
Part 3:
Choosing a Mobile
Enterprise Application
Platform (MEAP)
2. Introduction
Enterprise mobility is one of the most exciting opportunities in the workplace today.
That’s because mobile introduces so many remarkable ways to transform operations.
Mobile technologies are driving an irresistible paradigm shift in how organizations look
at their business processes and how they can change – really CHANGE – them with
mobile enterprise applications.
This 3 part series will guide you and your enterprise through:
1 Developing an actionable mobile enterprise application strategy
2 Creating a mobile enterprise application business case
3 Choosing the right Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) partner
Over
Half
of businesses are making
line-of-business apps accessible
from mobile devices.
Source: Symantec 2012
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3. Standardizing your Mobile
Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP)
“
MEAP vendors offering approaches that support mobile OS diversity have significant
advantages over application suite or mobile OS platforms/tools in three situations:
1) when there are three or more applications, 2) when there are three or more targeted
OSs or runtime platforms, and 3) when projects involve the integration of three or
more back-end systems.
“
Gartner “Rule of Three” (2012)
Many big organizations have given business units the freedom to create and launch
dozens or even hundreds of mobile apps. This has enabled them to quickly deploy
innovative applications and achieve rapid return on investment. But now they’re facing
a major management challenge:
Maintaining apps with bug fixes, supporting new devices and OS
updates, and ensuring that content is up to date
Keeping apps up to date when back-end platforms, external service APIs
and other integration points change
Updating content from multiple content management systems, back office
tools and admin interfaces
Listening to user feedback on the app stores (or internally) and updating
apps to keep users satisfied and engaged
Establishing consistent branding across multiple implementations
Securing data (confidential and public), managing user authentication, and
enabling traceability
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4. So what should organizations do to make
their enterprise app portfolio manageable?
As originally stated by Gartner, any organization planning on creating 3 or more mobile
enterprise apps in the coming years should consider establishing a standardized Mobile
Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP). In the short term, it may require a bit more
work and investment, but the investment will quickly pay off with:
Faster speed to market and ease of keeping the applications up to date
Lower cost of development and maintenance
Enhanced business intelligence
Data and user security
Other benefits, such as brand consistency, change management,
CRM and system architecture.
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6. How to choose a MEAP solution
Once the requirements are clear, there is a choice between choosing an existing
platform and vendor, building one, or possibly a hybrid of the two.
Existing Platform:
Solutions include SAP Mobile Platform, IBM Worklight, KonyOne and DMI Open MEAP.
Creating a Custom Proprietary Platform:
An alternative is to establish a standard framework based on a combination of best
practice guidelines, tools and code that can be reused across the applications.
Organizations such as MTV and ESPN have done this successfully over time.
Hybrid Model:
The third option is to use an existing platform and customize it based on your needs.
This may be a great alternative if there are many common platforms and processes in
place already that can be leveraged to create a standard for your mobile apps.
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7. What are the pros and cons of each model?
Pros
Cons
Existing platform
• Faster speed to market
• Potentially lower cost
• Ongoing support
• License costs
• Locked in to one supplier
• Lack of flexibility
Creating a custom platform
• Tailored to the
organization’s needs
• Flexibility
• Keeping up to speed with
technology development
• Can be costly to develop
and keep up to date
Hybrid model
• Combining the best of
an existing platform and
custom development
• License cost
• Locked in to one supplier
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8. An overview of available platforms
Description
Benefits
SAP Mobile Platform (previously
Syclo)
Create and deploy mobile apps for
the workforce and customers.
• Provides the greatest number of plugins
and tools for SAP integration.
• Cross-platform development based on
Phonegap, which is the most established
dev tool
IBM Worklight
Mobile application platform to
build, run and manage mobile
applications.
• Plugins and tools for other IBM platforms
• Supports HTML5, Native and Hybrid apps
KonyOne Studio
One of the first MEAP solutions
which claims to be
standards-based. Reduces coding
by up to 90%.
• Segment solutions and references for all
major verticals
• Framework for cross-platform development
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9. Description
Benefits
Antenna Software AMPChroma
Mobile cloud platform that
manages the mobile lifecycle from
Design, Build and Integrate to
Publish, Run and Manage apps
• Open platform allowing standardized
tools
• Client technology enables “write once,”
deploy on any device, any version
Kinvey
Backend as a Service solution,
offering data integration, legacy
system mobilization, as well
as complete app backends for
developers creating apps
• Backend as a Service reduces cost of
backend development
• Plugins for Oracle, Salesforce
DMI Open MEAP
Open development framework with
reusable components, back-end
plugins for most major platforms,
content management, middleware and
best practice guidelines.
• 100% based on open source
• Using a combination of native
development and web technology
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10. Conclusion
Take the pain out of managing and maintaining a portfolio of multiple mobile apps by finding the right MEAP solution for your
organization. It will deliver benefits now and for years to come.
For more information on how to become an enterprise app rockstar, read the other parts of our series.
Part 1: Developing an actionable mobile enterprise application strategy
Part 2: Creating a mobile enterprise application business case
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