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You wouldn’t buy a computer if no applications were available to run on it. In the mobile world, this same principle applies, but on a much broader and more integrated scale. All mobile solutions are thoroughly interconnected, involving multiple platforms, operating systems, applications, network topologies and data stores.
As an example, different devices meet different needs and have a unique set of operating requirements that are specific to that device and what it is accessing. Whether the end user’s device is an Apple Inc. iPad or iPhone, Google Inc. Android, Research in Motion Ltd. BlackBerry or PlayBook or something else can add significant complexity and dependencies to completing any mobile transaction. The process of connecting a device to a back-end system – whether it’s Amazon.com or an enterprise portal – has lots of variables and staggering amounts of detail. Successful deployment of mobile solutions requires a comprehensive understanding of these competing and overlapping technologies and process flows.
The issue, of course, is that enterprises have businesses to run and value to deliver to their customers. Providing integration among multiple device platforms, applications and back-end data sources is the job of an enterprise’s mobile technology partners. No single provider can handle every aspect needed to fully mobilize an enterprise. Mature solutions providers already know that the inherent heterogeneity of mobile technology requires cooperation.
Ecosystem in motion
What’s at the heart of a healthy mobile ecosystem? Providers that deliver significant value share vital characteristics:
–Cooperation with other providers as needed to pre-integrate solutions.
–Resources to scale to the needs of large customers.
–Adherence to industry standards.
–A relentless focus on customer needs, not on market dominance.
Mobile solutions have many interdependent parts and the mobile landscape constantly changes. Because of this, providers must act as partners to test new solutions and make real-time adjustments to ensure their technologies work as expected once in production. Such pre-integration testing reduces the burden on enterprise IT departments, allowing them to focus on deployment.
Having integrated solutions also means the ecosystem can leverage the joint strength of partners. Providers that collaborate can quickly introduce co-innovations that enrich the marketplace.
Integration and co-innovation require healthy relationships with other best-of-breed vendors. For example, providers need experience in working with device manufacturers Apple, Google, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., RIM and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. – and must be willing to move quickly to develop new relationships as platform trends change.
Customer focus
Truly great providers understand that the best value they can provide is to understand exactly what each enterprise customer needs – and deliver to meet that need. An ecosystem partner should do all of the following:
–Understand your business and the unique value you create for your customers.
–Understand what impact mobility can have on your business, in both the short term and the long term.
–Marshal the resources to execute the mobilization plan regardless of scale.
–Work with your own partner ecosystem.
–Align with other solutions providers to catalyze around your needs.
The nature of your business, its size, its own internal ecosystem of partners and suppliers – all of these are material to the development of your mobility strategy and the selection of the right mobile solutions.
For example, if you’re a retailer, it’s not enough just to mobilize the customer experience. You must mobilize the supply chain as well. A mobilized front end can’t be very effective if everything grinds to a halt on the supply side.
Depending on the size of your business, calling the shots on mobility transformation can galvanize your entire industry to change for the better. If yours is a large enterprise and you have a very complex environment that involves many partners, you’ll need scalable resources to help you succeed. Not just any provider can deliver a mobile enterprise strategy for the Fortune 100. Finally, every provider must be willing to compromise and step back when product overlap inevitably occurs. No enterprise of any size should tolerate providers that want to instigate turf war over its mobile project. Whatever is in the best interest of the customer takes priority.
Defeating complexity
Mobilizing an enterprise is a much larger and more complex endeavor than deploying a few mobile applications here and there. Only technology partners that actively participate in the larger mobile ecosystem can provide the integrated, holistic and strategic vision that leads to success.
Dan Ortega is senior director of product marketing for Sybase mobility products. Ortega brings more than 20 years of technology marketing experience to Sybase, having held senior-level marketing positions with a series of successful startups in the mobility and analytics domains. He also has worked with expansion stage companies, such as Centigram Communications, and Fortune 500 companies, including Sun Microsystems and Wang Labs.
