It’s Mostly About Mobility: Why Enterprise Apps Are Cool Again

by Chris Preimesberger

Thanks to robust application transformation technology, enterprise apps now can be pushed out to a mobile device without the need to recode. An application can be mobilized for any mobile device, delivering a workflow or a simplified feature set with a fully native mobile look and feel through app transformation.

Enterprises used virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) previously to push existing applications to mobile devices, but the user experience often failed, resulting in user rejection. New-gen transformation technology allows IT to reconfigure an app for mobile use with the same UI components, without touching the core code giving the app a rich mobile UI.

BYOD in the enterprise drives employee demand to use apps on their mobile devices. Unfortunately, 75 percent of Fortune 5000 companies have deployed fewer than five mobile apps, let alone delivering core sets of internal strategic apps.

Most enterprises fear data leakage and theft via mobile devices. It has become more important to secure mobile work, rather than let employees find workarounds, which heighten security concerns.

Mobilization is not just developing for one platform but developing and supporting all of them—including iOS, Android, and Windows. There is no device standardization, making IT’s job much harder. Without an order of magnitude savings in time and expense to mobilize each app, enterprises will continue to fail in delivering mobile to their employees.

With the coming of age of 4G and LTE networks, mobile devices are finally connected to the world in a usable and meaningful way. Apps that couldn’t run before due to bandwidth issues now are deployable on mobile devices.

Traditional vendors are being challenged by startups bringing expertise in mobilization and UI. Many traditional vendors spent years focused on Windows and the Web and have failed to deliver on mobile. BYOD has opened the door for new vendors to rethink the speed and quality with which mobile can be delivered to the enterprise.

As employees are increasingly going mobile in their work habits, they are looking for collaboration functionality similar to what they get with their desktops. That means tools such as WebEx, Box, Skype and Google video chats, Moxie, Salesforce Chatter, Yammer and other social networks. Current mobile OS architecture is generally single threaded, opening the door for new platforms with built-in collaboration functionality deployable to every app.

Employees are using consumer apps such as Dropbox, Box, Facebook, and Gmail with good user experiences. Clunky UIs are no longer acceptable because the IT customer has discovered greener pastures.

Employees are increasingly working away from their desks. A recent Forrester report found that once an employee left his desk, he used his laptop less than 20 percent of the time–even inside the office. A majority of that time is spent on the tablet and smartphone. As mobile makes its way into the enterprise, the entire methodology of work will change, and a true “work anywhere, with anyone, on any device” will emerge.