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Got Questions About The Enterprise Impact of iOS 7?

June 13, 2013 by 21 Comments

Apple WWDC 2013 banner art

Courtney Buchanan who writes for the Chief Mobility Officer Blog  over at Visage Mobile writes about some of the new enterprise features that Apple announced ( Glossed over ) at WWDC. It’s a pretty complete list with some interesting commentary – take a look.

 iOS 7 is a major update for the enterprise. While much of the media focus emphasizes the big changes to the user interface (UI)  there is a substantial suite of new features and upgrades to the existing capability of iOS that will impact the enterprise – most of them very good.

Of course the devil is always in the details. Based on what I see in Apple’s Developer site/community, the release of the API’s for many of these functions seems elusive (as of yesterday at least, unless I missed something).

What to do:

CIO’s and their relevant mobile focused resources should keep an ear to the ground and not get caught off guard by the potential impact of this upgrade. The good news is that the iOS 7 release is still months away.

The questions raised by a sample of CIO’s, IT EVP’s and some enterprise BYOD suite providers that I have spoken to since the iOS 7 announcement include:

1. SSO and Per App VPN: What protocol is being used (ipSec, SSL, other? and what are the back-office requirements? What is the impact on our enterprise app storefront design (existing and in process)? What are the methods of authentication/identity and policy?

2. What role if any does the new iCloud Keychain play a part of the enterprise class SSO, and in either case, where are the conditions for username/password storage?

3. Auto-App Updates: Can this be shut off? Are they (finally ) controls to prevent OS upgrades by enterprise employee’s before an IT / developer review? (for security, compliance and enterprise app breakage). What is the compatibility of auto app updates work with container or app wrapper schemes ? How granular are the auto-app controls, if any (iTune App store vs Enterprise App store?).

4. Airdrop – “interesting improvements for the consumer” but what controls for sharing exist for the enterprise?

5. Volume App Pricing: Most comments were very positive, citing a much-needed change but lots of chatter related to the fragmentation across platforms. This is not really an Apple issue in isolation, but one where enterprise business leaders are clamoring for some standard mechanisms.

6. How will iOS 7 impact existing EMM suite solution providers, including the usual cast of characters (BYOD, MAM, MIM, MDM and Ei-Ei-O solutions) -:)

7. There is also some down in the weeds chatter about Apple’s messaging service (APNS) that is in use by most (all?) MDM providers to wake up the on-device MDM profile and call home for updates etc., that is relevant to what Apple may, or may not, be doing to increase its service reliability.

I’m sure as the dust settles and Apple starts to talk more about the detail schemas on these and the other enterprise goodies in iOS 7 more questions will arise.

One immediate action that enterprises might consider given that Apple’s developer qualification bar is so low: warn employee’s against any thought of paying the $99 bounty to get a developer account and downloading the iOS 7 beta to their phones.

What do you think about the enterprise feature set  intended iOS 7? What do you like? What worries you?
Feel free to leave a comment here or write to me at bob@sepharim.com

Note 1: http://blog.appsense.com/2013/05/the-risk-of-ios-device-management-with-mdm-only-solutions/

 Jon Wallace, CTO of Cloud at AppSense does a really good job of laying out some the issues I am thinking about around MDM and Apple’s APNS issues here:  The Risk of iOS Device Management with MDM Only Solutions

Filed Under: BYOD, Enterprise Mobile Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Poll: Does your company intend to upgrade its BlackBerry Server Suite?

May 17, 2013 by 4 Comments

There is a lot of news out of BlackBerry’s key event BBLive this week.

18263479In particular, BlackBerry is declaring a war on the messaging universe with the company’s intent to expand its BBM platform to certain Android and iOS screens (phones, not tablets).

While that may create some industry buzz in the short-term, the investor community is scrambling to understand how Blackberry will monetize the BBM product suite in the long-term.

And my friend and colleague Rob Enderle today with a provocative (if over stated) piece entitled: Why A BlackBerry Is Better Than an iPhone.

While many analysts and the media are focusing on devices, I think that few are spending enough time understanding where BBRY is heading with creating a revenue turnaround on its software, and especially its services biz. With that in mind…please help me, help you by gathering some data on BlackBerry’s back office product suite/

Do you or your company plan to use or upgrade to BlackBerry BES 10 server/services?

Please feel to place a comment to if you like.

 

Filed Under: Enterprise Mobile, Polls Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Investing in Mobile? 6 Tips for CIO’s

April 25, 2013 by 20 Comments

If CIO’s don’t have a plan for mobile, they have a problem. A big one.

This is true regardless of whether we are talking about how people use mobile devices at work, shop online or at retail stores, pay for goods and services or become more socially engaged. For CIO’s the question is, “Are you ready for mobile?” And if not, what do you need to do?

Here are 6 tips for CIO’s:

1.     Mobile makes you more secure, not less secure.

Consider these:

  • As an enterprise moves beyond MDM point solutions and builds mobile services as an ingrained part of their back office / infrastructure services, existing latent security defects are discovered and fixed;
  • Building for mobility promotes a greater focus on protecting data in motion and at rest; and
  • Increasingly, enterprises are building their own apps and app stores and distancing themselves from consumer storefronts.

Advice: Build for mobile first, then secure. Don’t let the uncertainties of security prevent you from getting started.

2. Mobile is the new desktop.

Mobile mandates the need to provision, support and secure a heterogeneous structure throughout all layers of the OSI model. Worry less about “gadgets” and more about “data fluidity” and user experience. Consider that these items are a long overdue paradigm shift irrespective of mobile in the way CIO’s and their IT organizations should think.

Advice: If you already have a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), layer in Mobile Oriented Services (MOS) as a platform with an eye towards retiring MDM point solutions. If not, start building one.

3. Be ready to fail and react.

Consider that most companies:

  • Overestimate the number of features a mobile application should have;
  • Underestimate the infrastructure impact (e.g., 100,000x more traffic on your Salesforce, email or Web server);
  • Create a poor user experience.
  • Fail to build in analytics

Advice: Don’t let the fear of failure prevent you from getting started. Fail fast and move forward faster.

 4. Focus on work first and play second.

Consumers with gadgets in hand have created hysteria for IT and a gold rush for companies like Apple, Google and Samsung. And like it or not, your enterprise has subsidized this gold rush on a several fronts. The pressure to satisfy the consumer emotional gratification throughout this era (eg.” play happy”) has largely come at the cost of  the “work happy” business goals of the company.

Advice: Establish an Employee Center of Excellence with a charter that balances the needs of the business and the desires of the employees.

5. Think beyond the app.

CIOs need to lead their organizations to answer two questions: What can we do better because of an investment in mobility, and what can we do that is new that will drive incremental revenue and profit?

Advice: The best return on mobile occurs when organizations think forward and outward, not backward and inward.

6. Mobility is just getting started.

The one sure thing that CIO’s can count on about mobility is change. In terms of a human evolution analogy, we’re just at the point where we’ve discovered how to make a fire out of twigs and sticks.

Advice: Make a plan, build a playbook and keep your visors on.

 

Please react and tell me what you think !

 

The research brief was originally published in full through my work with Computerworld’s, Enterprise Mobile Hub at http://www.enterprisemobilehub.com/blogs/bobegan/how-cios-can-navigate-mobile-hyperbole Please check their site out!

 

Customized reprints via Sepharim Group are available. Please contact bob@sepharim.com or call 401-345-5000 for more details.

 

Filed Under: Enterprise Mobile Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

BlackBerry In The Black, or Black Eye?

March 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Blackberry won’t be in the Black, but will its earnings give it a Black eye?
Of course it may well be me who will get a black eye here…

First let me say that I think that management has done a pretty good job at getting the company operationally under control, focused and accountable. The challenges in front of the company now, are all about market execution. In that regard, I think BlackBerry likely has more pain in front of it before it can realize any potential gains.

 Some of the issues that BlackBerry face include:

1.  A mainstream and industry media who frankly worry more about site traffic and  ”clicks” than real, if not investigative reporting and facts. The recent fiction about BlackBerry’s status with the U.S. DoD and U.K approval authorities are two cases in points. The feeding frenzy on Apple lately, is another.

2.  Blackberry worries too much about Apple and not enough about Samsung and Microsoft-Nokia. By 4/1, I get more inquiries from enterprise organizations about these two companies than Apple. The same is true when I’ve informally surveyed MDM/MAM/EMM solution suppliers. Part of this has to do with the already large adoption of iPhones and iPads in the enterprise. Support is assumed and widely in place via LDAP and ActiveSync and/or any number of MDM suppliers. BlackBerry needs to skate to where the puck is going. I thought all Canadians knew that.

3. The Z10 is a Gen1 device. The Q10 is still a fantasy. BlackBerry needs to accelerate its new product release cycles. And the company needs to innovate and deliver the highest levels of quality. No more crappy cameras; Longer battery life, not shorter; Best in class audio; Solid, high quality applications, not Android phantoms. Etc.

4. BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins needs to find himself a charismatic president to speak for the company. I’m sorry sir, but I’m in pain every time you try to be cool. It feels like watching a club singer in a SNL skit on a floating motel 6 that is masquerading as a cruise ship. Just be you.

Earnings will be released in a few hours. As I said, I think the company is likely to face more pain before things can, or might get better. We’ll see. My personal takes on what to expect…

  •  z10 device sales around 700k
  • z10 ASPs ~550
  • Total revenues at 2.485B (just inside the projected range)
  • Expect service revenues to be down by 22% and software revenues to be down 10%
  • This would put EPS from ops into the -.75 cent range, below consensus.

 Other things I will be listening for:

1. What plans does BB have to grow the software and licensing side of its business which traditionally has been only about 4% of its revenues.

2. What does BB intend to do make up for its expected drop in service revenues (~30% of biz), especially as it looks to retire BIS and it changes the way it accounts for active consumer and enterprise service subs. Keep in mind one no longer needs use/own/subscribe to a BES because the new BB10 devices support ActiveSync.

3. is the Q10 on track for release – when, where, what price?

4. Any other new devices? Tablet?

Thoughts?

 

Filed Under: Blackberry, Daily Insights and Observations Tagged With: , , ,

6 Ways To Look For Mobile ROI

March 18, 2013 by 1 Comment

How should an enterprise approach the question of determining ROI on mobility/BYOD?

This is one of the most common questions that I get from CIO’s and their IT Executive staffs. Determining ROI is a complex undertaking. More than anything an ROI exercise really needs to be aligned to your business objectives. Equally critical, enterprise leaders must include the employee perspective – what it is, and what it may not be. It is important that an ROI isn’t, or shouldn’t be, just about money saved, or net new revenue generated. An ROI may be about employee acquisition, retention and morale.

With that in mind, here are a few items to get you started along the path of establishing an ROI against your investment in mobile.

1. Start by looking for love in the right places. All too often enterprises are applying outdated 18th century business techniques against a 21st century business opportunity. If you did that in your personal life, looking for your life long partner, just how far do you think that would get you?

2. Flip the BYOD ROI question on its head. What is the cost of not investing in BYOD? For some companies BYOD is a business norm. For some employees it may be considered an entitlement right (for better or worse). Ask yourself if is this an application specific initiative or an enterprise wide consideration?

3. Think beyond the gadgets. Most companies will over-estimate the business process or features they mobilize and underestimate the impact the mobile has on their back office infrastructure.

4. Get everyone on the same page. Compounding the BYOD ROI issue in many companies are, the real and imaginary forces, of accountability, politics, competitive pressures and risk. These forces are both internal, and external. Marketing and sales worry about driving revenue, acquiring and supporting customers, and extending the brand. IT worries about protecting margins through technology enablement, on boarding and supporting employees and protecting the brand. Finding the common ground between these perspectives is critical. Ask yourself what you need to do, want to do and why? And make sure that you involve business, technical and employee end users as you create the answers.

5. Ignore the myth that BYOD is about employees and their gadgets. It may not be, and often isn’t, contrary to conventional thinking. BYOD can also about customers and supply chain partners “showing up” in your store, at a campus site, on your network or at your Internet doorstep with their mobile device in-hand. Yikes….

6. Don’t let the numbers get in the way. Numbers are a game of liar’s poker. All we have to do is remind ourselves about all those Web ROI calculations we did in the 90’sto remind us why…

Do you have other items to add to the list?

 

Filed Under: Enterprise Mobile Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Nokia Maps Put Consumers at Ease, Unlike Google or Apple

September 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

People don’t remember phone #’s, because they don’t have to.
People don’t need to worry about spelling, because they don’t have to.
People don’t need to know how to get from one place to another, because they don’t need to – or shouldn’t need to.

Amid a rash of criticism of Apple’s new mapping system on iOS 6, Nokia deserves some bragging rights.

After years of less than engaging or clever marketing, I am pleased to see Nokia stepping up to the plate and getting its act together. Clearly Nokia marketing is striking while the iron is hot. Earlier today I took notice of a clever – and open – comparison of Nokia comparing its upcoming Lumia 920 to Apple’s new iPhone 5 (arriving on our doorstop tomorrow).

Now Nokia is standing on rooftops, calling out to anyone who will listen, that they are the best in location and mapping on phones. Not a rushed afterthought (I’m looking at you Apple). And certainly not a loss leader for an advertising scheme (I’m looking at you Google). And frankly while Google does “ok” most of the time, Nokia deserves its bragging rights because it makes you feel local, wherever you are.

When Nokia bought Navteq, I worried that 20 years of research, platform development and mapping would fall into an abyss from which there is no return. Fortunately my worries did not pan out. Nokia continues to advance the features, the accuracy and the already very good consumer experience of its Navteq platform.

Over the years, I’ve toyed with Nokia’s based Navteq maps. During my most recent tests on a Lumia 900, I found Nokia’s mapping system to be exceptional. Why? Location products must remove worry from the customer, not create more worry. Unlike Google and Apple maps, Nokia Maps put customers at ease instead of causing anxiety. Whether I was traveling in Europe, or sparse areas north of Toronto, the Nokia system never had to apologize because it “could not connect to the cellular network”. Nor did I ever get upset with the system for not giving me enough notice to take an exit, or turn left. My experience remained consistent as a made my way through public transportation systems, or remote islands like Turks and Caicos – whether I was walking, biking or driving. And my car never showed up on the wrong side of the road.

Whether you are a consumer who wants to occasionally to use your phone to accurately map your drive, or a road warrior with little sense of direction (like me) Nokia is the top of the line and will keep you on time and at ease.

Nokia completely owns, builds and distributes it mapping content, platform and apps.

Filed Under: Apple, consumer experience, Google, iPhone, Location, Nokia Tagged With: , , , , ,

Nokia UK Graphic Comparing Lumia 920 to Iphone 5

September 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

If you have not bought an iPhone 5 and are looking for new handset options, Nokia is making its case for the soon to be released Lumia 920 through a clever graphic.

Worth a look if you are in the market.

Nokia Graphic Comparing iPhone to upcoming Lumia 920

Filed Under: Daily Insights and Observations Tagged With: , ,

ViVOTech Takes More Money

March 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

http://venturebeat.com/2012/03/26/vivotech-gets-more-money/

This company seems to have some staying power, unlike most in the mobile payments space.

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A Christmas Poem: Blackberry’s Jam Isn’t So Sweet

December 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Podcast: Download | Embed

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Every electronic gizmo was working, right down to my mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nick would leave more high-tech there.

My children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of new gadgets danced in their heads.
My wife in her Snuggie, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down, for a long winter’s nap.

When on the side table there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
I looked, and I saw my BlackBerry flashing and red,
And I knew that meant trouble, as I groaned, “Oh, no! It’s dead!”

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Was little consolation for my lifeless 9-9-3-0.
I tapped it. I shook it. I tried all to no avail.
But, deep down I knew, this was yet another RIM fail.

You see, my Bold became cold as coal three times before
Data wouldn’t provision, BBWorld wouldn’t work right.
Then, an odd defect appeared on the screen in plain sight.

Ever since I bought it, my BlackBerry was a mess.
My friends all chuckled, “Why didn’t you buy the 4S?”
Four times it had failed me, in just more than eight weeks.
For lack of quality, the 9930 in volumes it speaks.

More weary I became with each trek to the store;
The tales of reliability seemed nothing but old folklore
But each time it broke, I ended up playing RIM’s game.
Each time it broke, I called them by name.

“Now, Joshua, Jacob, Marshall and Mike,
You work at Verizon. You know what it’s like.
Sarah and Sally and Susie and Jan,
You’re at Customer Care. Do what you can!”

Their eyes – how they twinkled! Their dimples –how merry!
But all they could say was, “It’s that darn BlackBerry.”
What choice did I have? Maybe the fix was an app?
No, no, not at all. I had fallen into a Trap.

“We can send you another.” That would be number four.
“You can exit your contract.” For a fee, plus lots more.
“Maybe the Galaxy Nexus or another new device?”
No way that’s for me, when $699 is the price.

So, my 9330 is dead, and I’ve no options in sight.
I’m trapped. I’m upset. And it doesn’t seem right.

Blackberry’s Jam isn’t so sweet,
Its trouble will continue, beyond Wall Street.

RIM is in trouble, and it has to do better quick.
If it doesn’t, it may be in dire straits, with more than St. Nick.

I’ll end this rant now, so we can go back to good cheer,
Merry Christmas to all, and to all, better mobile in the New Year!

Filed Under: Blackberry, Daily Insights and Observations, Research In Motion, RIM Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Amazon vs Retailers: No Christmas Cheer

December 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Amazon is running a 24 hour trial this weekend (12/10) that has retailers upset. The trial uses the Amazon application “Price Check” and offers a $5 discount based off the Amazon Price as an incentive for consumers to share in-store advertised prices with them. At issue is how many consumers will choose to purchase steer their decisions to Amazon based on the $5 discount and 6-10% sales tax avoidance? Likely very few. Amazon price check app is not new and there are similar apps like Red Laser that consumers use to price shop.

I suspect in the short-term, that the anxiety here is not based on business metrics and more about the emotions about Amazon making such an overt move right in the middle of the holiday shopping season. In the long-term, initiatives like this may help provide some insights to the key issue: Will brick and mortar stores evolve to become the showrooms for mobile purchases?

My advice: Retailers should be extending their online and brick and mortar channels with mobile apps. By taking control of the channel, including discounts and coupons, the retailer is likely to raise the average spend / shopper and keep them coming back. Even if the lift isn’t much in the short-term, its good, inexpensive insurance, and the retailer can learn from the consumer business intelligence that can be collected.

Amazon’s deal is shown here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000749751

Here’s a statement that the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s Katherine Lugar issued today about the promotion

http://www.geekwire.com/2011/retail-association-pissed-amazoncoms-price-check-app

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Filed Under: Daily Insights and Observations, mobile commerce, mobile payments Tagged With: , , , , ,
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