Mastering the Mobile Shift: 3 Keys to the New Enterprise

MASTERING THE THE MOBILE MOBILE SHIFT: SHIFT: THREE THREE KEYS KEYS TO THE TO NEWTHE NEWENTERPRISE ENTERPRISE © 2014 APPCELERATOR,APPCELERATOR, INC. INC. ALL ALL RIGHTS RIGHTS RESERVED RESERVED 1 Mastering the Mobile Shift: Three Keys to the New Enterprise

These days you can’t step out the front door without being hit by some new statistic confirming the Age of Mobile has arrived. Tablets and phones dwarfing PC shipments? Check. Mobile app projects soon to vastly outnumber traditional application projects? You bet. Mobile phones more ubiquitous than indoor plumbing? Yes, even that too.1

What these statistical fireworks really announce is a sea change in the way enterprises – and enterprise IT – must operate. Companies positioned to win the Age of Mobile have grasped the three principles of the era:

APPS ARE DIFFERENT FROM APPLICATIONS. As Gartner has astutely noted, “apps” and “applications” are not the 1 same thing. 2 Applications are baggy monsters prized for their long lists of capabilities, while apps are valued for doing a few things well, their purposefulness. The way we design, build, distribute and evaluate apps is new.

APIS ARE THE LIFEBLOOD OF MOBILITY. Properly managed, APIs give developers greater speed and creativity 2 in app development, while granting companies a way of managing the explosion in data sources and connections to backend systems driven by mobile.

ANALYTICS ELIMINATE THE GUESSWORK IN MOBILE SUCCESS. It’s hard to improve what you don’t measure. Effective mobile 3 strategies rely on a new breed of analytics, helping to ensure that users of every stripe have smart, responsive, and memorable app experiences.

Going mobile means mastering each of these– apps, APIs and analytics. Call it the “Three A’s,” call it the “three legs” of the mobile stool, or perhaps call it what it is: the keys to the new enterprise.

1 “Deputy UN Chief Calls for Urgent Action to Tackle Global Sanitation Crisis.” UN News Center. UN, 21 Mar. 2013. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.

2 Prentice, Brian. “The App and Its Impact on Software Design.” Gartner Research, 18 May 2012. Web.

MASTERING THE THE MOBILE MOBILE SHIFT: SHIFT: THREE THREE KEYS KEYS TO THE TO NEWTHE NEWENTERPRISE ENTERPRISE © 2014 APPCELERATOR,APPCELERATOR, INC. INC. ALL ALL RIGHTS RIGHTS RESERVED RESERVED 1 Mobility is a “Sea Change” for Enterprise IT? Prove It.

Start with the changed relationship -provided stuff; departments LOB LOB LOB between IT and the business. obtaining their own apps and/or app makers because it was quicker LOB LOB Historically, IT was positioned than going through IT and the as the sole (or at least primary) results met user demand for mobile LOB LOB provider of technology solutions ease-of-use — but the summary to the enterprise. This arrangement result for IT was a loss of control. LOB IT LOB had many advantages, stability, Centralized procurement, central guidance and economies LOB LOB standardized processes, shared LOB of scale being chief among them. tools and economies of scale, But it also turned IT’s function even IT’s relevance, began to erode. PLANNED ECONOMY into something resembling a Every line of business became a centrally planned economy. siloed, techno do-it-yourselfer. And as with most planned DIY DIY DIY DIY Today this means that in DIY DIY DIY economies, this led to capacity DIY DIY DIY most organizations there are DIY DIY DIY DIY constraints and mixed outcomes. DIY Business units flooded IT with multiple, disjointed pockets DIY

DIY DIY DIY technology requests, and were of mobile investment and DIY often left grumbling about the tooling, resulting in higher DIY DIY DIY DIY cost, wait time and/or resulting costs, inconsistent results, DIY IT DIY product. DIY DIY DIY siloed data, poorer security DIY DIY DIY Then mobility exploded. This DIY and limited reusability. DIY DIY DIY DIY DIY DIY explosion took various forms —

FREE-FOR-ALL employees bringing in their own And this isn’t the only challenge devices because these were confronting IT. preferable to the stodgy, corporate

Ah, if only. So much of traditional IT’s way of doing things is built around web (or older) applications and architecture, that the desire for mobile to be simply another flavor is understandable. The web’s legacy is baked into our design strategies, the delivery tools we use, how we connect to systems of record, our processes and timelines, basically everything.

But as it turns out, the architectural ramifications of mobile are vast. In fact, the turn from web applications to mobile apps is no less trivial than the last great architectural shift, from client-server to web. Mobile differs from everything that’s come before in three important ways:

1 The range of platforms and 2 The number and variety of 3 The rise of the user. devices data sources Not long ago, users were second- Gone is the Wintel monopoly. No While most people are awake to the class citizens. What mattered was the longer are we creating applications device explosion, fewer see that an system. Users existed to enter data in to run on a single set of devices of equivalent expansion has occurred precisely the way the system wanted fixed screen sizes. Now the need is on the backend. Good mobile apps it, and if they got it wrong it was for apps that run across a range of are greedy things, hungry for all their fault. (Recall the old “user error” devices, a range that seems to expand manner of data from enterprise jokes.) Not any more. In a mobile by the quarter. Appcelerator’s Q3 systems to SaaS repositories, world, users expect smart, elegant, 2013 Mobile Enterprise survey public sources such as social to context-aware apps that orchestrate shows that 62% of customers the looming Internet of Things. the data they need regardless of are supporting three or more source, and which run anywhere, mobile platforms (iOS, Android, anytime on their device of choice. Windows, etc.). And if your app can’t deliver that experience? The user deletes it and finds one that can.

Doesn’t HTML5 solve mobility’s cross-platform headaches using common web skills? Unfortunately, ANALYTICS HTML5 is really an umbrella term for a basket of web standards that require formal submission, review, approval, ratification, etc. This means it advances at its own pace, rarely APIs APPS in coordination with the various platforms and browsers on which it must run. Today, the differential in HTML5 feature support across browsers is upward of 30%.3 Furthermore, as the release of iOS 7 showed, conforming to a separate body of general standards isn’t always a top priority for the platform These differences drive the needs they’re enhanced on a more providers, who understandably of the new enterprise: apps that frequent basis, and user want to differentiate the capabilities work seamlessly on any device, expectations for usability and of their own operating systems APIs that provide readily available, performance are sky high. rather than write to a generalized mobile-optimized access to any mean.4 Finally, HTML5 web apps Now, given unlimited resources, data source, and analytics to (and their hybrid cousins) are cut solving this problem would be no measure success and drive the off from all but a fraction of the APIs big deal. You’d simply hire the best available to native apps, leaving a best user experience possible. native mobile app developers much smaller palette of capabilities for developers to work with. The Key #1: Apps money can buy, you’d spend a fortune maintaining multiple result is often a significantly compromised user experience. Where mobile apps are concerned, distinct code bases, and you’d throw This is not to say HTML5 can’t be the first step is admitting we have armies of testers at every release. effective for certain kinds of apps. a problem. The problem is this: In the real world we need It’s particularly suited to content- mobile apps follow a different something a little more efficient, driven apps such as news, where delivery lifecycle from traditional information is continually updating with a bit more hope of scale. desktop and web applications. and the intermediary of an app They run on a much wider range So what might our ideal mobile store only creates a bottleneck. But of devices and operating systems app delivery machine look like? for the moment, HTML5 remains one more tool in the toolkit, not a silver bullet.

3 “BII REPORT: Why Facebook Defriended HTML5-For Now.” Business Insider. N.p., 24 Oct. 2012. Web. 27 Sept. 2013. 4 Krill, Paul, and Galen Gruman. “Bad News: IOS 7’s HTML5 Is Full of Bugs.” InfoWorld. InfoWorld, 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

MASTERING THE MOBILE SHIFT: THREE KEYS TO THE NEW ENTERPRISE © 2014 APPCELERATOR, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 4 • Developers would be able to Without these things, it’s difficult APIs are the lifeblood of mobility. build any kind of app – web, for any IT organization to meet They give developers the simplified hybrid or fully native – using the requirements for an effective access to the data and services a popular and widely adopted app portfolio: great user experience, needed to build amazing apps. language such as JavaScript, short release cycles owing to the In fact, good mobile APIs act as rather than having to learn the high frequency of app refresh, a spur to innovation. Think of specialized languages for each and a generally greater number them as Lego blocks: the better (HTML 5, Objective-C, Java, etc.). of apps. Trying to achieve these and more varied the collection • Real-time prototyping of app mobile ends with legacy web of blocks you make available, look and feel would allow tools is a recipe for defeat in the the better and more creative the designers and developers mobile age — and an invitation objects people build. for the business units to continue to collaborate as the code is An enterprise that makes being written. to go it alone. mobile-optimized APIs widely • Even native apps could be The good news is that these criteria accessible to developers is supported from a single code aren’t as pie in the sky as they positioned to make terrific base with significant reuse may sound. They do, however, innovation leaps, and at a across platforms, ensuring that require a new kind of solution pace that would never be users of every stripe (customer, capability, one built for the new achievable by top-down partner, employee) receive the mobile reality. (Keep reading.) best, most intelligent and planning alone. context-aware app experience Key #2: APIs But here again, the key phrase is on their device of choice. Mobile’s emphasis on user mobile-optimized. The standards • Automated testing, tuned to experience makes good client for middleware and backend data the particular needs and use design and development access that defined the web era cases of mobile apps, would paramount, leaving developers won’t work for mobile, as the deliver fast assessments of little patience for the server- following table shows. quality and behavior across side “plumbing” required to platforms, ensuring the delivery access data and pipe it in the velocity needed to match the right format to the app.5 This is frequency of mobile app where application programming releases. interfaces – APIs – come in.

5 Another interesting reversal of the web era, when virtually all development was server-side.

PRINCIPAL API FORMAT XML, SOAP JSON DATA PAYLOAD Large and static, optimized for Niche and orchestrated, PC display and feature-driven optimized for small screen and applications purpose-built apps

NUMBER OF DATA SOURCES Few Many DATA SOURCE LOCATION Behind the firewall Behind the firewall, SaaS virtual private clouds, public cloud CLIENT DEVICE PROFILE Powerful device with few con- Battery- and bandwidth- straints (e.g. power), stationary constrained (by network and/or access fees), roaming CLIENT-TO-DATA CONNECTIVITY Steady, broadband Intermittent & variable speed, driving need for online/offline syncing and rate limiting

USAGE PROFILE Predictable usage hours (i.e., Anywhere, anytime access 9-to-5, 8-to-10)

It isn’t an exaggeration b) users who are quick to issue integrations for some of the most to say mobile is pushing the delete penalty to any app popular systems, both enterprise another tier into enterprise with performance hiccups. An (Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, etc.) and architectures, one designed to architecture designed for elastic public (Twitter, Facebook, PayPal, orchestrate data for the new scale is critical. DropBox, etc.), as well as mobile- specific services such as push app types, just as previous 2 Flexible deployment: The notification. This is where most generations of middleware MBaaS should be deployable to a MBaaS providers fit. did for web applications. public, virtual private or private cloud. This keeps companies in 4 A robust capability for Increasingly, companies are control of all risk, cost, privacy building custom services: implementing this tier via a mobile and regulatory considerations. Of not having a particular service backend-as-a-service (MBaaS). course joining this are the standard available in turn-key form is But not all MBaaS are created considerations for security, forgivable as long as developers equal. A true, enterprise-grade including data segregation and have an easy way to create MBaaS requires the following: the provisions for data both at- what they need. However, this 1 An architecture for elastic rest and in-transit. requires: scalability: mobility guarantees 3 Availability of turn-key a Orchestration: the ability a) anywhere, anytime demand for services: any enterprise MBaaS to collect data from any data data and services which changes worth its salt should also provide source regardless of where it traditional usage profiles and a collection of out-of-the-box resides.

MASTERING THE MOBILE SHIFT: THREE KEYS TO THE NEW ENTERPRISE © 2014 APPCELERATOR, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 6 b Optimization: boiling continue to function offline and look no further than the rise in down the data set to its essential synchronize when reconnected, power of the star ranking system. payload size for consumption without requiring user intervention One-star apps die a quick death, by a mobile app. For instance, or even awareness. while five-star apps go on to rule if a traditional web API returns the world. With the right MBaaS, developers 20 fields, the mobile variant gain greater speed and creativity in But this ranking system is crude. might only want five. app development, while companies It gives very little measurable data c Transformation: converting have a secure, purpose-built tier for what makes an app good or bad. the data format from legacy to manage the explosion in data Consider the guesswork required styles such as XML or SOAP sources and backend connections to diagnose a poorly ranked app: to a mobile-optimized format being driven by mobile. such as JSON. Is it performance? Is it stability? 5 Seamless synchronization: Key #3: Analytics this recognizes that mobile We made the claim at the beginning Is it installation? devices can’t count on a steady that mobility had moved the user Is it confusing design? connection. In the event of a to the center of the universe. For Is it frustration with a specific disconnect, the app should proof of the user’s new found clout, use case?

THE EVOLUTION OF ANALYTICS: Always Sometimes Rare or Never

TARGET MEASURE PC / WEB APPS MOBILE APPS

CRASH / EXCEPTION MANAGEMENT

APP ADOPTION

ENGAGEMENT WITH APP

USER ACTIVITIES WITHIN APP

USER RETENTION

FUNNEL ANALYSIS

COHORT ANALYSIS

APP LAUNCHES / OPENS

VERSION OF APP

TYPES OF DEVICES

USER LOCATION

USER MOTION

ONLINE / OFFLINE SYNCHRONIZATION

DEVICE ORIENTATION MASTERING THE MOBILE SHIFT: THREE KEYS TO THE NEW ENTERPRISE © 2014 APPCELERATOR, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 7 The crudeness of the star system To measure user engagement, Of course, mobile analytics leaves most enterprises blind when it’s necessary to understand the don’t exist simply to settle it comes to understanding their performance of the app itself — bar bets. They provide a mobile apps. Note too that this its stability and responsiveness, quantitative, metrics-based isn’t a problem confined to consumer- its most popular features — as strategy for app improvement. directed apps and public app stores. well as the typical behaviors of This is a chief difference As enterprise app stores become the users. For example, when and from web applications, new norm for software distribution where do they most often use few of which provided the to employees, central IT can expect the app? On which devices? specificity of usage and employees to take the same vocal Effective mobile analytics must context data that mobile stance toward popular (or unpopular) provide insight into both the apps do. corporate apps as they do in the behavior of the app and the Any analytics strategy begins with public stores. behavior of the user. the targets. First establish goals for In short, app teams need a way of But good analytics will do more such things as user download, the knowing the precise nature of even than predict user experience. average duration of engagement, trouble spots in the app, and how to They’ll help the responsible app and even where the app should be resolve these trouble spots before teams to measure their own used. Then, use real-time analytics the user experience can degrade. performance, in areas such as to shed light on deviations and This requires effective real-time rate of release, test coverage, unplanned usage, and to guide the measurements that deliver specific and the like. Crucially, given our appropriate response. This makes leading indicators of user experience API discussion above, good mobile possible true market responsiveness. (response times, crash rates, exit analytics will also provide insight While competitors are parsing user points, etc.) rather than forcing into API usage: total volumes, comments or debating the favorite an enterprise to rely on cruder, which are the most popular (and internal ideas, your organization lagging indicators like the star which should be put out of their is guided by what users want — system or user comments. misery), and in the case of public sometimes even before the users cloud API calls, what they’re themselves know it… Enter mobile analytics. costing the organization.

E N RE H U A S N EA C E M

SOCIAL

ANALYTICS

C ON

D L N I E U C B T 12:00

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TEST MOBILIZE

THE APPCELERATOR PLATFORM

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Today’s corporate mandate to IT is: build great apps that run on a range of devices, and that connect to an exploding set of backend data. It’s a bet-the-business demand, and one that can’t be met by legacy web tools. The good news is that Appcelerator solves for this new reality with a mobile engagement platform to drive great mobile app experiences, quickly and at scale. The Appcelerator Platform speeds time to market with native cross-platform app development & testing, simplified access to data via mobile-optimized APIs, and comprehensive real-time mobile analytics to power user engagement and measure success.

Quickly build and test native Securely mobilize any data Drive ROI with real-time cross-platform apps source, public or enterprise analytics across the lifecycle

By transforming JavaScript The Appcelerator Platform The Appcelerator Platform into fully native apps, only provides a true, enterprise-grade delivers a new breed of analytics, Appcelerator lets developers MBaaS to securely unleash helping to ensure that users create native apps for every data with mobile-optimized of every stripe have a smart, major mobile platform, all with APIs and quickly craft engaging responsive, and memorable app the efficiency and speed of web. experiences using essential experience. This includes both a And the Platform couples this mobile services like push mobile lifecycle dashboard and a development environment with notification and geo-location. dashboard for executive insights robust automated functional This includes the API Builder, for complete transparency of testing. Designers, developers a point-and-click toolkit for activities across the entire mobile and quality engineering teams rapid assembly of custom APIs, app portfolio. can now collaborate together in a alongside prebuilt connectors to Capabilities and benefits: highly integrated and automated both enterprise and public data process to deliver apps faster. sources. • Single ‘pane of glass’ into all lifecycle activities (test, APIs, Capabilities and benefits: Capabilities and benefits: app usage, performance, etc.) • Ready, mobilized connection • Deliver native apps 60% • Instantly see user acquisition, faster using existing web skills to SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, SharePoint, MS Dynamics, engagement, conversion, and • Eclipse-based IDE with fully Facebook, Twitter, and others retention integrated debugger • 20+ turnkey mobile services • 60-90% code reuse • Proactively find and fix including push notification, problems • Increase test coverage by geo-location, photo storage, • Enhance the user experience 10x while decreasing manual authentication, and object based on real insights testing time by 90% storage • No rip and replace: extend your current infrastructure, seamlessly • Elastic scale, flexible deployment options: public, virtual private, or private

Behind the Appcelerator Platform is the world’s largest mobile ecosystem. This includes: • More than 600,000 mobile developers worldwide. • Orchestration of more than 1.5 billion cloud API calls per month. • 220,000,000+ devices running Appcelerator-powered applications • 70,000+ apps built on Appcelerator • Hundreds ISV integrations and third-party modules available through our Open Mobile Marketplace. • Over 100 solution partners trained and certified to implement using our technology, including Accenture, Cognizant and CSC. • Better than 1,400 customers, including eBay, TUI Travel, Merck, Mitsubishi Electric, ZipCar, and Pay-Pal.

With the Appcelerator Platform, companies can eliminate point tools to scale mobile across the enterprise, drive innovation by unlocking backend data sources for new app capabilities, and measure the overall usage and success of the entire mobile app portfolio.

AS OF JUNE 2014:

601,243 225,379,525 28,434,221,521

APPCELERATOR DEVELOPERS IN DEVICES RUNNING TOTAL APPCELERATOR 185 COUNTRIES APPCELERATOR POWERED APPS PLATFORM API CALLS

1,400+ 100+ 70,105

APPCELERATOR CUSTOMERS SOLUTION PARTNERS APPS BUILT ON APPCELERATOR

MASTERING THE MOBILE SHIFT: THREE KEYS TO THE NEW ENTERPRISE © 2014 APPCELERATOR, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 11 ISV A Vision for the New Enterprise B2C B2B We began by looking at how mobile pressures had changed the ANALYTICS Dev LoB business-IT relationship. It seems fair to say that any future visions for the enterprise won’t include a return to the world of old, where Dev B2E IT was responsible for everything. The lines of business don’t want it,

A P P S I

E P and neither do most IT departments. C A O IT N S E Y P ST O B2E EM B2C Instead, we see IT becoming increasingly a broker of best-of-breed capabilities, rather than a single, centralized provider of all. In this B2B Dev ISV view, IT manages what might be called an “innovation exchange.” This means IT focusing on a few, core things and doing them really, INNOVATION EXCHANGE really well, while working to empower and broker a broader ecosystem of contributors.

How might this work? For one thing, having a collection of open, mobile-optimized APIs means that other participants, even external developers, could create innovations around enterprise systems and capabilities. In this model, IT becomes the enabler even of accessing new markets that the business may not have touched. (We do exactly this with our Open Mobile Marketplace.)

Analytics also play an important role, becoming a way of monitoring the effectiveness of the exchange. Think of analytics in this model like a stock ticker: metrics that evaluate which apps, providers and services are performing and who’s falling short, all published to the enterprise so departments could make their own decisions about where the next app capability should come from.

This may sound a little far reaching, but we don’t think it’s utopian. You can get there, and we can help.

SHARE THIS WHITEPAPER: RECOMMENDED READING:

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Mobile apps are fast replacing web applications as the way we buy, share, search, learn and collaborate. Appcelerator® helps companies solve for this new reality with a mobile engagement platform to drive great mobile app experiences, quickly and at scale. The Appcelerator Platform speeds time to market with native cross-platform app development & testing, simplified access to data via mobile-optimized APIs, and comprehensive real-time analytics to power user engagement and measure success. Appcelerator also provides an award-winning open source mobile development environment, Titanium™. With over 70,000 mobile apps deployed on 225+ million devices, Appcelerator’s solutions are backed by the world’s largest mobile ecosystem, including better than 600,000 mobile developers and hundreds of ISVs and strategic partners, among them Accenture, Cognizant and CSC. Over 70% of Fortune 100 enterprises count on Appcelerator for their mobile success.

For more information, visit www.appcelerator.com. Mastering the Mobile Shift: 3 Keys to the New Enterprise