Most companies are willing to leverage apps for their customers, but far fewer are willing to do so for their employees.
So says Philippe Morin, executive for innovation application services at Business Connexion, who notes that there is a lot of scepticism from some large enterprises around the bring your own device (BYOD) trend and the threat it brings.
"Most of the apps enterprises would give to their employees revolve around dissemination of content at this point and will progress to business functions, too - which is already happening, but far less than content distribution," says Morin.
According to Morin, the primary benefits of apps are enterprise agility and giving people the ability to solve their own small problems quickly, without the requirement for too much enterprise budget spend, and without the lengthy wait time or tender processes.
Apps also help to reduce the overall IT spend, and to focus efforts on more important business functions and IT-related problems, he adds.
Evolving employees
Morin explains that the proliferation of mobile devices, particularly smart devices, has changed employees' mindsets; they demand rapid solutions to their problems. "As they become increasingly used to being able to download an app to facilitate a function, and then either trash the app or keep it, they become more demanding on their IT departments and software vendors to provide this."
In SA, he notes, there are the "innovators, early adopters, majority and laggards" paradigms as far as enterprise app adoption is concerned.
"I would say most business units within enterprises are very keen to explore the 'app world' idea, but are often hindered by outdated ways of thinking and resistance to change from either top-level management or from a risk-averse IT department.
"This is true for internal delivery of app-type functionality, but in the consumer space, companies are fully embracing the delivery of apps for their customers," he explains.
Morin says security is one of the challenges organisations face when using apps. Other concerns include ensuring the correct content is pulled through; knowing where the data is coming from and having the ability to access said data; as well as return on investment.
"We actually specialise in all these areas, and what I have found quite unique about our approach is how we help customers truly understand the business objectives behind an app and the functionality that should be served in order to deliver great value that is measurable. This is something I have found only a handful of companies doing well."
Cross-platform solutions
Morin points out that organisations are turning to cross-platform solutions when it comes to app delivery. Cross-platform solutions are those that work across multiple delivery devices and platforms, such as iOS, Android and Windows Phone, and/or across multiple data source platforms, he notes.
"As an example, when delivering a 'sales force app', one may need to pull data from Google or Bing Maps, and map this to their customer base in their CRM [customer relationship management] system and document-centric content from their document management system - three separate platforms that need to be called on by the app. The app would also need to be made available across multiple devices, unless the company provides a specific device for sales people."
In the second instance, he adds, there is a need for mobile 'cross-platform' solutions where companies are able to provide content across multiple different interfaces with different design paradigms.
Nonetheless, he believes there are many challenges facing cross-platform solutions, including delivery - ie screen size, keyboard size, orientations and resolution - and design cues for different OSes and the like.
"Overcoming this becomes slightly easier the more experience you have, as you know what to look out for. There are also tools for app development that teams can use, such as PhoneGap [now called Cordova], IBM's Worklight toolkit and Rhomobile, for example," he concludes.
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