Published on the 18/07/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
A slavish fascination with mobile apps targeted at consumers may be robbing enterprises of the full productivity benefits that mobility has to offer…
Smartphone and tablet apps for the consumer are where most enterprises focus their attention when first exploring mobility, but this could rob them of the productivity benefits of more internally focused efforts.
A report issued this week by Appnation indicated that the so-called “app economy” will double from $US72 billion to $US151 billion by 2017, but according to Darren Besgrove, chief operating officer for BlinkMobile Interactive, many enterprises are missing out on the benefits that could accrue once they work out, “how to take SAP into the field and make it usable in the field, or make Oracle financials useful in the field”.
Besgrove acknowledged the continued and important role for killer mobile apps, but argued that many enterprises had been relatively slow to extend mobility to their own workforce and work processes. BlinkMobile chief technology officer Alan Williams said that “lots of enterprises are focused on customer facing mobility” but that there was at least an equal benefit that could be wrought from employee mobility and business process change.
He offered the example of Queensland Airports which has used BlinkMobile technologies to allow iPad-equipped employees to lodge lost property reports and access the enterprise’s SharePoint database of lost property as they moved around the airport. The organisation is gradually providing mobile access to all of its paper forms. Williams said that organisations seeking to embrace mobility did not need to totally disrupt their existing business processes, but could judiciously augment what was possible by providing mobile access to enterprise content for specific use-scenarios.
This is made easier by the increasing ubiquity of mobile devices. According to Gartner global tablet shipments alone will this year soar by 67.9% – and 65 percent of those will be bought by individuals, with many devices finding their way into corporations under BYOD initiatives.
While BlinkMobile accepts that an app developed for a particular device and use-case will always provide the premium end-user experience, it argues that by using a mobile enterprise application platform in conjunction with “shells” which allow users to still take advantage of the functions of their mobile devices, it is now possible and economical to provide access to a much broader range of corporate applications for employees on the move.
