choosing a mobile enterprise application platform (meap)

Part 3: Choosing a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP)

The essential guide to becoming a

Mobile EnterpriseRock Star

The essential guide to becoming an enterprise app rock star (Part 3)

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IntroductionEnterprise mobility is one of the most exciting opportunities within the workplace these days because of all the change management opportunities it provides organizations. There is a real paradigm shift occurring in terms of how organizations are looking at their business processes and how they can change – really CHANGE – them with mobile enterprise applications.

This 3 part series will guide you and your enterprise through: 1. Developing an actionable mobile enterprise application

strategy 2. Creating a mobile enterprise application business case 3. Choosing the right Mobile Enterprise Application Platform

(MEAP) partnerSource: Symantec 2012

of businesses aremaking line-of-businessapps accessible frommobile devices

OverHalf


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Standardising your Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP)

“MEAP vendors offering approaches that support mobile OS diversity have significant advantages over application suite or mobile OS platforms/tools in three situations: (1) when there are three or more applications; (2) when there are three or more targeted OSs or runtime platforms; and (3) when projects involve the integration of three or more back-end systems.”

Gartner’s ‘Rule of Three’ (2012)


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To keep up with market demand, many big organisations have given business units the freedom to create and launch dozens or even hundreds of apps. While this has enabled business units, across markets, to get to market quickly innovative applications and benefit from the rapid return of investment, one year later the benefit of freedom has turned into a major challenge.

• Maintaining the applications with bug fixes, support of new devices and OS updates, ensuring that content is up to date, etc

• Keeping the apps up to date when backend platform, external service APIs and other integration points change

• Updating content from a myriad of content management systems, back office tools and admin interfaces

• Measuring and comparing applications equally to apply insights and learning’s from one initiative and apply for others

• Listening to user feedback on the app stores (or internally) and update the apps to keep users satisfied and engaged

• Inconsistency of brand and look and feel implementations• Securing data (confidential and public), managing user authentication, traceability

where logging is important


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So what should organizations do to make their enterprise app portfolio manageable?

As originally stated by Gartner, any organisation planning on creating 3 or more enterprise class apps in the coming years should consider establishing a standardised Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP). Short term it may require a bit more work and investment but the investment will quickly pay off with:

• Faster speed to market and ease of keeping the applications up to date• Lower cost of development and maintenance• Enhanced business intelligence• Data and user security• Other benefits such as brand consistency, change management, CRM and system

architecture.


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MEAP

DEPLOY

DEVELOP INTEGRATE

DEPLOYMANAGE


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How to choose a MEAP solution

Once the requirements are clear there is a choice between choosing an existing platform and vendor, building one or possibly a hybrid of the two.

1. Existing Platform: There are various vendors out there although most are also tied into a specific backend supplier. Existing solutions include SAP Mobile Platform, IBM Worklight, KonyOne and GG/DMI Open MEAP. Most of them are primarily paper products as each implementation is 80% custom development, but provide a good starting point.

2. Creating a Custom Proprietary Platform: An alternative is to establish a standard framework based on a combination of best practice guidelines, tools and code that can be reused across the applications. Organisations such as MTV and ESPN have done this successfully over time.

3. Hybrid Model: The third option is to use an existing platform and customize it based on the organisations needs. This may be an especially great alternative if there are many common platforms and processes already and can be leveraged to create a standard for the applications as well.


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What are the pros and cons of each model?

Pros Cons

• Faster speed to market• Potentially lower cost• Ongoing support

• Tailored to the organisations needs

• Flexibility

• Combining the best of an existing platform and custom development

• License cost• Lock-in to one supplier

• Keeping up to speed with technology development

• Can be costly to develop and keep up to date

• License costs• Lock-in to one supplier• Flexibility

Existing platform

Creating a custom platform

Hybrid model


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An overview of available platforms

Description Benefits

Create and deploy mobile apps for the workforce and customers

Mobile application platform to build, run and manage mobile applications.

One of the first MEAP solutions which claims to be standard based and reducing coding by up to 90%.

• Provides the greatest number of plugins and tools for SAP integration.

• Cross-platform development based on Phonegap which is the most established dev tool

• Plugins and tools for other IBM platforms• Supports HTML5, Native and Hybrid apps

• Segment solutions and references for all major verticals

• Framework for cross-platform development

SAP Mobile Platform (previously Syclo)

IBM Worklight

KonyOne Studio


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Description Benefits

Mobile cloud platform that manages the mobile lifecycle from Design, Build and Integrate to Publish, Run and Manage apps

Backend as a Service solution, offering data integrations, legacy system mobilization, as well as complete app backends for developers creating apps

Open development framework with reusable components, back-end plugins for most major platforms, content management, middleware and best practice guidelines.

• Open platform allowing standardized tools• Client technology enables “write once,”

deploy on any device, any version

• Backend as a Service reduces cost of backend development

• Plugins for Oracle, Salesforce

• 100% based on open source• Using a combination of native development

and web technology

Antenna Software AMPChroma

Kinvey

GG/DMI Open MEAP


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ConclusionAvoid worrying too much about the challenges of maintaining a portfolio of different applications and find the right MEAP solution for your organisation will deliver benefits from mobile enterprise applications in the short and long term.

For more information on how to become an enterprise app rockstar read the other parts of our series.

•Part 1: Developing an actionable mobile enterprise application strategy•Part 2: Creating a mobile enterprise application business case

About Golden GekkoWe transform existing businesses and help create new industry leaders in the mobile space through our experience, technology innovation, UX design and reliable quality solutions.

Our services include service concept design, UX/UI design, native app, HTML5, mobile web and backend development, quality assurance and distribution. With 1500+ projects delivered and 150+ clients we provide solutions for telecom, retail, CPG, media, enterprise, government, healthcare/pharma, transportation and travel.

For enterprise clients, we offer solutions such as Meetr, a mobile productivity and collaboration solution providing secure access to documents, business intelligence, meeting planning, data gathering, CRM, ERP and more by aggregating existing enterprise platforms.

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choosing a mobile enterprise application platform (meap)

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