Out in style: Making mobile applications the centre of enterprise development
An infrastructure to support mobile apps requires software on the back-end and users' devices - as well as a style guide for developers, says Globo's Yad Jaura
Until recently, mobile app development for most organisations was little more than an ad hoc activity, largely focused on particular activities for workers in the field.
Today, though, with personal mobile devices ubiquitous the focus of enterprise development has started to turn around, with mobile app development increasingly taking precedence over conventional, PC-focused development and "consumerisation" raising users' expectations of corporate apps.
"We have seen a real revolution in terms of the user interface and, in particular, user experience," says Yad Jaura, marketing director, Western Europe, at mobile application software provider Globo. Typical consumer apps, he adds, "are light years ahead in terms of design and experience compared to many traditional enterprise applications".
The key to the slick and easy interface of many mobile apps, says Jaura, is that they focus on doing one thing and doing that well and, furthermore, they are also updated frequently on the back of usage and user feedback. Organisations need to adopt a similar approach with enterprise mobile app development.
"All of us are consumers, as well as users in an enterprise and we can therefore see both sides of that approach. People both inside and outside of IT can see the advantages of a more flexible approach; know how it has worked in their consumer life and can see the benefits," says Jaura.
Never assume...
The trouble is, says Jaura, many mobile initiatives represent little more than ordinary enterprise apps simply shifted to work on an iPhone or a BlackBerry, but take insufficient account of how this changes not just the needs of the application, but also the environment in which it will be working.
"They make certain assumptions. They assume, first, that the network is always available; they assume that it's free to use, that there's no cost for moving data across the network; they assume that the network will be ubiquitous and fast, and that there won't be any concerns with latency," says Jaura.
Traditional applications, adds Jaura, assume that the network on which they are running will be secure, and that the hardware, too, will be locked in either an office or a data centre. "And, if they do go wrong, that there's IT support on-hand to fix them," he says.
He continues: "But when you get into the mobile world, none of those assumptions are true any more. You can't assume that the network is fast - there's an awful lot of places that only have GPRS or Edge and you are down to dial-up speeds. You have got to be able to cover every such eventuality," says Jaura. On top of that, use of the mobile network will also have a cost that needs to be accounted for.
While there are some applications that can help organisations to address some of these issues, it makes more sense to install an infrastructure that can support tens or hundreds of mobile apps, enabling enterprise developers to focus purely on business processes and usability. That, says Jaura, requires a mobile platform that can, on the one hand, provide security for enterprise apps on employees' own devices while, on the other, providing the middleware that can support back-end integration with enterprise applications.
Indeed, while some enterprise mobile app advocates suggest that simply developing the mobile app and getting it to the front-line workers quickly can, in itself, generate benefits, Jaura believes that it is the back-end integration that reaps dividends in terms of efficiency and cost savings.
Jaura cites a Globo client working for NHS Trusts across the country, providing post-operative care to people in their own homes, changing dressings, administering minor medical care - whatever is stipulated in the patient plan.
"An awful lot of these companies use entirely paper-based processes. So they would have a paper form listing all of the things that they would have to do when they visited patients, make notes, get the patient to sign them and send the week's sheets back to base. There, an army of people would rip open the envelopes from some 3,000 different healthcare workers and key the details into the back-end system," says Jaura.
But as many as five per cent of those forms never got keyed into the systems, either because they never arrived or because the clerical workers couldn't quite decipher the handwriting on the forms - so the organisation couldn't bill for those visits.
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Out in style: Making mobile applications the centre of enterprise development
An infrastructure to support mobile apps requires software on the back-end and users' devices - as well as a style guide for developers, says Globo's Yad Jaura
The mobile app that Globo put together for the organisation converted all that into an app that ran on users' smartphones - Android, Apple iOS, BlackBerry or Microsoft Windows Phone - and enabled users to simply tick the appropriate boxes, enter some notes and then ping the forms straight back to base. The mobile app also caches the documents if there is no suitable network connection and transmit them when there is.
When the app was implemented, the organisation expected to get its return on investment from getting all the forms back and the reduced administrative burden both on staff in the office, who could be re-deployed, and in the field, who could therefore make more calls every day.
"But the biggest return came from the fact that because the data was coming in more quickly they were able to issue their invoices more quickly, too. They told us that in cash flow terms alone, they are saving £1.5m per year," says Jaura.
Uniform style
The ultimate aim is to have an infrastructure in which applications can be quickly conceived, built, tested and deployed - and, once deployed, updated regularly. This is almost the opposite of the way in which old style enterprise applications were developed: large, all-encompassing apps that would take six months or more before seeing the light of day in a major rollout - and which would be only infrequently updated given the complexity involved.
Another element that should not be overlooked, adds Jaura, is a style guide, which will cover how mobile apps should be presented so that the interfaces are uniform and easy for users to master - dialogue boxes that essentially ask the same thing should be the same and provide the same options across all the organisation's mobile apps.
"The way your applications come across and the perception they give of your organisation is also a branding issue. It's about how you want to communicate your brand, vision, message - all those sorts of things... Also, conventions about how things should work are absolutely important," says Jaura.
In terms of presentational style, the adoption of HTML 5 ought to help, continues Jaura. HTML 5 means that different smartphones and tablet computers' screen sizes aren't an issue. It automatically lays out apps regardless of whether the user is sporting an Apple iPad or BlackBerry Passport. Furthermore, HTML 5 ought to be sufficient as a client platform for all but the most graphics intensive of apps.
As a result, that combination of mobile platform and HTML 5 means that enterprise mobile app developers can focus purely on the design of the app and the business logic, not just streamlining the development of the apps, but also enabling them to be built more rapidly and upgraded regularly, too.
"If you can focus on, and get those two elements, right that's what's going to really drive adoption of mobile apps," says Jaura.
Yad Jaura is marketing director, Western Europe at mobile application development tools company Globo. He can be contacted by emailing [email protected]