MobilityWatch

by Chris Willis The mobile software eco-system has been, since it’s birth, rather “exclusive.” Platform players, especially, have developed walled gardens of functionality, attempting to solve as much of the enterprise’s problems on their own as possible. This creates a major headache to CIOs who are faced with the challenge of developing a strategy that meets the needs of all stakeholders. For example, when a company leverages a closed platform … Read more

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s report about recommending tougher provisions over mobile app privacy had some big technology companies raising objections, according to news coverage. While some push back from mobile device and social media giants isn’t surprising, what does the FTC’s report and the government’s overall direction on app privacy mean for most enterprises? Should the average enterprise pursuing mobility also push back against tighter privacy rules, or preemptively … Read more

Even though Marissa Mayer has finally addressed the elephant in the room, the decision by Yahoo! to abolish its work-from-home policy seems to fly in the face of the growing role of mobility in the enterprise. Enterprise mobile apps, after all, are all about connecting people with information and business processes wherever they happen to be at the moment. Upon closer examination, however, we can see the differences between working … Read more

A few years ago, the idea of building custom enterprise apps instead of buying packaged software for functions such as customer relationship management had become a thing of the past. Why build your own CRM or enterprise resources planning system when you could simply buy one off the shelf? The old “buy versus build” argument—excluding websites—was a foregone conclusion in favor of “buy.” Then came the smartphones and everything changed. … Read more

To operate your business process at full capacity, enterprise mobile apps need to integrate with back-end systems for access to data, transactional or collaborative processes. We’d like know more about the type of systems you plan to mobilize over the next few months. Is it a customer relationship management system or a specific CRM function, an enterprise resource planning suite? Maybe it’s a Web portal, mobile apps that integrate with … Read more

Moving quickly with enterprise mobility is more important than ever. Where a year ago, many companies still exhibited a “stick a toe in the water” approach with a pilot project that might take a year, today, multiple app projects per year is becoming the norm, as recent research has noted. That means speed is imperative. Previously on Mobility Watch, I’ve addressed some of the bigger picture challenges that tend to get … Read more

By using an HTML5 container approach for a charting app, Invesco Canada was able to reuse Web app content, leverage the efficiency of its enterprise mobility platform, and enable a strong user experience.

Bruce Borgundvaag, assistant vice president of Digital Strategy at Invesco Canada talks about the importance of mobile security.

Hari Pillai, manager, e-Development & Design Our mobile initiative started with, like a combined approach actually. There was a lot of interest through our sales team that our advisors are getting more mobile savvy. And essentially, they wanted us to look into different mobile offerings that are in the market right now. And we also, at the same time, we were also doing a lot of research-within our team, within … Read more

Perhaps the biggest challenge in developing mobile enterprise apps is integrating them to backend systems. That’s why any technology that can simplify that challenge—including mobile backend-as-a-service (MBaaS or simply “BaaS”)—is a technology worth watching. Like a mobile enterprise application platform (MEAP), BaaS uses middleware technology to allow developers to link to backend systems like enterprise resources planning (ERP) without extensive coding. But with a BaaS solution, the middleware runs on … Read more