Reality Check: Guidelines for a healthy mobile ecosystem

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.
Ecosystems found in nature can be easily destroyed when there is an imbalance. Business ecosystems tend to be somewhat hardier, yet they too demand balance. The mobile ecosystem, for instance, which is just now emerging, is booming with potential partners and scores of technology options. Much like the Wild West, the different players are vying for control and recognition; they hope to make the transition from early market leader or innovator to long-term mobile provider.
With so much competition in the mobile space, many companies are sure to burn through their funding, be acquired by someone bigger with more capital or be on the losing end of a technology battle. This volatility makes purchasing decisions much harder for IT departments than when selecting mature technologies, such as network infrastructure or operating systems. A robust, balanced partner ecosystem is a tried-and-true standard for helping you sort out which companies are more likely to survive the early-to-market shakeout.
Impacts to your mobile strategy
Dismissing the importance of a business ecosystem has led to some enterprises falling behind in their launch schedules and deployment plans. When a central platform loses vendor support, IT project leaders can be handcuffed to costly solutions that become antiquated as other technology improves. A lack of software improvements or upgrades means competitors with newer technology can quickly outstrip the older, pre-existing system.
A healthy mobile ecosystem that includes a wide range of like-minded partners and leverages integrated solutions protects enterprises from these types of setbacks and ensures ongoing support and services of both the infrastructure and software. Mobile solutions developed within a robust ecosystem are standards-based, pre-integrated offerings that mobilize the workplace quickly, rather than stitching together patches and fixes to make systems work together. Ecosystem partners have tested the systems and made the necessary adjustments to have the solutions work as promised in production environments. This pre-deployment testing greatly reduces the burden on IT, freeing up staff to concentrate on deploying the new systems for their business environment.
Integrated solutions also leverage the joint strength of ecosystem partners. Co-innovations from partners can be introduced quickly into production; often, joint customers of ecosystems are introduced to new innovations first, giving them significant competitive advantages. Ecosystem partners can also help enterprises adapt and adjust to new business strategies because they have more resources.
The abundance of resources within a mobile ecosystem gives enterprises much more flexibility to choose business models that suit the goals of the company. Enterprises are not forced into one business or operations model; instead, they can choose from a customized deployment or select hosted, managed, on-premise, or other business support.
Having this “circle of friends” future proofs mobile deployments so that businesses can adjust as their strategies change. Implementing new services, adding more products, or scaling for additional employees is feasible without anyone needing to rip and replace existing systems.
Explaining the ecosystem
How do you know if the mobile solution you are considering is part of a healthy ecosystem? Look at the company’s list of partners. A mobile ecosystem needs well-run companies from a number of different sectors to thrive. The partners should support both horizontal and vertical business development, including:
–wireless providers;
–independent software vendors;
–system integrators;
–managed service providers;
–platform developers;
–device manufacturers;
–security providers;
–chip manufacturers;
–network providers;
–desktop, laptop, and server manufacturers.
When researching mobile solutions, you will want to be sure they are:
–based on industry standards;
–include open architectures, frameworks and application programming interfaces (APIs);
–proven and tested for security;
–compatible with past releases and future releases.
Issues like company size or executive management track records can also be a factor in a mobile ecosystem. Overall, the partners in the ecosystem must share compatible technology and business values and be financially sound. Both technology innovators and proven leaders should be part of the ecosystem, and the companies should be willing to share their product roadmaps.
Ecosystem troublemakers
On the flip side, what are the signs of an unhealthy mobile ecosystem? Proprietary frameworks and solutions top the list. If the solution is not based on open standards, you will have integration problems and be limited by proprietary upgrades and enhancements.
Also pay attention to a company’s partner announcements. Companies with few partners and joint solutions are probably still fine-tuning their solutions. You will want a provider to have proven and tested integrated solutions and customers that are willing to discuss their experiences with the integrated solution.
In addition, be wary of piecemeal integrations and point solutions. When researching an integrated solution, make sure that it is actually fully integrated. A single module may be the only integrated portion, or the integration may work in only rigid parameters. Also, look to see if the solution provides support across the entire enterprise rather than just a point solution that can lead to short-term fixes requiring constant patches and fixes.
You should also make sure your provider has a global presence and is capable of supporting multi-national enterprise customers. An ecosystem is much more powerful when the partner is able to reach a large number of end users and wider market sectors.
Your role in the mobile ecosystem
Keep in mind that as a customer of a mobile provider, your company will become part of the mobile ecosystem. And entering a strong mobile ecosystem will go a long way toward making sure your mobility initiative is successful.
As President of Sybase iAnywhere, Terry Stepien plays an integral role in establishing the company as the premier provider of mobile enterprise solutions. During his tenure at the company Stepien has held many positions including SVP and GM of the Mobile and Embedded Computing division. He also served as VP of Product Marketing responsible for Sybase’s key initiatives in Enterprise Data Management, Data Warehouse, Application Development Tools and Occasionally Connected Computing. Before coming to Sybase, Stepien was VP of Marketing for Powersoft’s Watcom subsidiary.
Stepien is an active member of industry consortiums, and is founder and co-chair of the ITAA m-Commerce Committee. He began his career at the University of Waterloo where he was engaged in software research and development at the University’s Computer Systems Group, and where he held an adjunct faculty appointment in the Department of Computer Science. He is a recipient of the 2001 J.W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation from the University of Waterloo. Stepien holds a Master’s of Mathematics degree in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario.