Enterprise Mobile News (0416)

In this month's round-up of the hottest topics in mobile computing, we are covering the action packed month of March. There are a several changes in the most popular keywords and vendors from previous editions. First a quick nod to Google & WordClouds and the usual completely unsanctioned ETD (extract, transform, and display) process.

This month HP, HPE and Cisco have moved up in popularity (see word cloud for what I mean). But there is no denying that as usual Apps, Security, and Windows are still pretty hot topics with a large share of news articles.  The key topics in Enterprise Mobility this month are:

• Apps, apps, apps - this month helping to drive 'apps news' announcements Microsoft's bluetooth unlock, Appthority, Okta, Google, and more. If you are talking mobile computing then apps is where its at from a keyword POV.
• Management & security - when it comes to Enterprise Mobility these topics continue to be at the forefront. This month there are plenty of partnership announcements (e.g. Okta & box),  product releases (e.g. Asavie & Radicati), and news including the ongoing encryption topic fueled by the FBI/Apple debate.
• HP & HPE have moved up this month with product releases, partnerhsips, machine learning, security,
• Cisco - are right up there this month with plenty of articles covering: Digital Network Architecture, Enterprise Collaboration, and aquisitions.

Now on to the top of the top, that is the top vendors & solution providers in the area of Enterprise Mobile. (Please let me know if you would like to see additional organisations in this list - this month includes Cisco):

• Adobe - Adobe summit drove plenty of articles this month and Mobility talked up by CEO Shantanu Narayen.
• Apple - several vunerability articles this month, retail product releases for SE & Pro, FBI discussions continue and the news that the FBI gained access without assistance, plus I finally watched the Steve Jobs movie on the plane - quite liked it :)
• Blackberry - driving the Enterprise Management message, PRIV on android, Facebook dropping Blackberry.
• Cisco - New to the list this month with aquisitions of CliQr, Jasper, Leaba. Plenty of news from the Cisco partner summit driving the popularity of the Cisco keyword.
• Google (Alphabet) - N Developer, Analytics, Fi, & mobile payments are making the press this round.
• HP & HPE - product releases (e.g. Elite x3, 380), machine learning, security offerings, investment news, and plenty of analyst articles covering the keywords HP, HPE, and Hewlett Packard.
• IBM - Articles on MobileFirst & Bluemix strategies, Indosat Ooredoo deal, Groupon patent case.
• Kony - product updates e.g. Visualizer, and customer announcements are making the news this month.
• Microsoft - much speculation on Windows 10, AI chatbot made plent of news for the wrong reasons,  SQL Server on Linux,
• MobileIron - mostly analyst articles & custom announcements this month
• Oracle -  plenty of analyst articles & the ongoing Java/Android case,
• Samsung - S7 release, and a wide variety of topics from 6Flags VR coaster to new memory releases.
• SAP - teaming up with Vodafone for IOT, investment news, newly created CSO role.

Disclaimer: Adam works for SAP, his opinions are his own, and all data in this article is sourced from the public domain, thanks Google and WordClouds.

Enterprise Reality

For many people their first experience of a virtual world was at the computer game arcade. Thanks to Google Glass, Facebook's purchase of Oculus Rift, and ever increasing computing power. Augmented, Virtual, and various forms of Mixed Reality are finding a niche in the enterprise. Increasingly for visualisation and use cases where it's 'handy' to be hands free. Displaying and accessing information may make sense via a Virtual or Augmented channel.

Briefly to make some distinctions: Virtual (computer generated), Augmented (computer assisted), and Mixed Reality (anything in between) enable the user to experience and access information that is beyond what their senses can naturally obtain. For example http://secondlife.com is completely computer generated and considered Virtual, whereas http://www.wikitude.com augments reality by overlaying contextual data onto video in real-time.

So if this still sounds all like games and gimmicks how can virtual reality be used effectively in Enterprise? It already is... Consider the following examples:

• Military Applications (Training and simulations such as flight, parachute, and combat along with Heads Up and Head Mounted Displays for various scenarios e.g. BARS)
• Design (Computer Aided Design e.g. VRDL)
• Retail (Try before you buy applications e.g. Ray-Ban and a great augmented pixel article)
• Medical Applications (Remote presence, 3d imaging refer this medical blog)
• Education & Training (e.g. Mining training)
• Real-estate (Virtual tours, walk-through)
• Asset Management

In addition advertising agencies are using Augmented Reality to bring wow factor and interaction to a variety of brands and products with interesting interactive campaigns aimed at the tech savvy generation.

Key factors when it comes to Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality are the real-time nature and visualisation of information. Additionally depending on the implementation these solutions often contain characteristics such as: immersion, remote or telepresence, private or social interactions, gamification, and hands free operation. And while mostly obvious, the benefits to the use of these technologies come from increased efficiency, safety, customer loyalty and engagement along with a reduction in costs, manual handling, and errors.

Mobile computing and Virtual reality share some common enabling technologies. Looking back at early Virtual Reality is like reminiscing about old Motorola mobile phones. Both used to be chunky, had only basic user interfaces, and simple display ability. Underlying both of course are advancements in hardware and software. For more details refer to my article on the history of mobile computing. So why then is all this “un-reality” not ubiquitous like mobile phones?

A couple of key factors should be considered. Firstly while technology has advanced to a stage where phones can now act as full mobile computing devices the tech curve is still on the rise when it comes to Augmented and Virtual reality. Secondly, mobile computing by its nature has a wide scope of viable use cases. Many would argue that mobile computing is replacing desktop computing, whereas Augmented and Virtual reality only enable consumption of information in a different way.

So is all this un-reality only for high end computers with dedicated hardware? Thankfully mobile phone technology has reached the level where it can support Augmented Reality. In some ways it is currently the perfect technological platform. With a combination of ready availability, processor power, camera, GPS, connectivity, and display. A modern mobile phone is being used as a virtual platform. Obviously it is still early days with the potential of Augmented and Virtual reality continuing to improve in direct relation to advancements in software and hardware price and performance.

Augmentation applications on iOS and Android are gaining popularity and include a variety of useful and fun features such as product visualisations (e.g. Augment), Translations (e.g. Word Lens), Search (e.g. Google Goggles), Compass (e.g. Play Aid) and many more. While these applications are useful in their own right the good news is that additionally they are all paving the way for further refined use of the technology for real benefits.

So will Virtual Reality now explode into the Enterprise? My guess is probably not. This technology is not necessarily (or perhaps just not currently) sensible for all scenarios. Additionally there can be downsides such as privacy concerns, information overload/filtering, and even motion sickness. Perhaps further advancements in display and user input such as holographic, mind machine interfaces, implants, or contact lenses will enable a more ubiquitous reach for these technologies.

For industries and scenarios discussed that are already using the technologies many where early adopters. This is certainly the case for design based industries such as industrial and automotive. There is now some encroachment for certain products with the influx of 3d printing. However a Virtual world allows for a more immersive experience (take for example a concept vehicle). Additionally aeronautical and military applications such as flight simulations are some of the earliest examples of Virtual Technology. For these types of industries/scenarios the Virtual style technology is only going to improve. But for the vast majority of business computer use a Tron style environment is not likely to be productive! From time to time we've all met or worked with someone that seemed to be operating in their own reality. With continued large technology investments becoming commonplace, it won’t be long before the next great advancements in the Mobile Computing, Augmented, and Virtual Reality. This could really change the meaning of “operating in their own reality”. I can only imagine that with Google not grabbing Oculus and with Augmented Reality contact lenses already in production it must be about time for the Google “HoloDeck” announcement. Please count me in as a “Holo-explorer”!

This article was originally published on Enterprise Mobility Network

Enterprising the Consumer

Time to get on the bandwagon and mention a quick thought for Enterprise Mobility in 2014!
Enterprising the Consumer
Everyone talks these days about the “consumerisation” of the enterprise. However, much of the technology that is now used extensively in consumer devices came originally from enterprise innovation. For example battery life indicators, WIFI, and GPS (to name just a few) came from government and business sectors. It took some great minds and insights to bring together the nexus of available technologies into products that consumers had to have.

With a more general release of Google Glass expected in 2014 the spotlight will be on consumer uptake and associated unit sales volumes. However to make Glass a success it might take the enterprise sector to drive innovation into practical applications and use cases of the new form-factor. We are already seeing trials in police and military applications. Expect to see:

• Retail Shopping experiences, gift registry, along with retail employee facing applications
• Conference and event location awareness for attendees, organizers, & booth bunnies
• Real-estate and Tour applications for customer's and employees
• Logistics and Asset Management applications

Enterprise Mobile Tips and Tricks

Download a copy of the free eBook Enterprise Mobile Tips And Tricks. This book covers a wide spectrum of information pertaining to enterprise mobile projects. To support the widest variety of reader formats, the index contained in the book has been kept as simple as possible. However to get a good idea of what is covered, the full table of contents is listed below:

Introduction

• What is this book about? 
• What is enterprise mobility? 
• Key concepts 
• Categories of enterprise mobility 
• HTML5 or Native 
• Online or Offline 
• Who is this book written for? 
• History of mobile computing 

Why a mobile enterprise 

• Starting the mobile journey 
• Mobile business case 
• Drivers and Principles 
• Gathering requirements 
• Benefits of enterprise mobility 
• Employee Self Service 
• CRM / Sales 
• Service / Plant Maintenance / Asset Maintenance 
• Stock Take 
• Proof of Delivery 
• Mobile Training & Documentation 
• Mobile Inventory/ Warehouse Management 
• Retail Loyalty Application 
• Customer Self Service Application 
• Calculating the ROI 
• Benefit Calculations 
• Cost Calculations 
• Risks 
• Mobile Tender 
• Request for Quote 
• Evaluation and Selection 

Mobile Project 

• Project Initiation 
• Prototyping and/or a Proof of concept 
• Design & Blueprint 
• Business Process 
• Mobile Application Screens 
• Data Model 
• Integration 
• Infrastructure 
• Communications 
• Security & Authentication 
• Device Selection 
• Requirements Traceability 
• Building the solution 
• Testing 
• GUI, Screens, & Integration 
• Mobile Devices 
• Communications 
• Infrastructure & Performance 
• Authentication & Security 
• Roll-out 
• Data Migration 
• Training & Change Management 
• Final Prep, Pilot, & Rollout 

Mobile as Usual 

• Support 
• Managing Change 
• Measuring Benefits 
• Glossary & Acronyms

Multiple formats of the book are available from Smashwords additionally you can download it from Apple, Google, and Amazon. I'd love to get some feedback for inclusion in the next version.

A Clear Pulse

Some years back while working on a project I was asked to provide a monitoring/performance tool that would enable the support desk to proactively monitor the end-to-end network performance of the mobile workforce. The requirement included the ability to temporarily track the network performance of one or more existing users. And to use standalone devices or emulators to continuously monitor performance.  It measured round trip time of a data payload through the following components:

• Device (Motorola, HTC, and laptops)
• 3G Network (or wifi if so connected)
• Firewall
• Middleware/Relay
• Back End System (SAP)
• and back again!

At the time this performance tool was built as a one off for the customer. So I was excited to hear from Shara Evans at Market Clarity. Shara is passionate about the telecommunications industry and has a wealth of knowledge in this space. Market Clarity is the Australian and New Zealand partner for Mobile Pulse who won a 2013 FierceWireless Fierce 15 Award. Mobile Pulse enables the collection of location and time based network performance information across operating system and device platforms. It collates the information into a powerful dashboard for analysis.

Network performance changes over time. Different operating systems and device models may achieve different network performance due to software patches and hardware intricacies. When a subset of mobile users have a problem how can you effectively pinpoint the cause? With a tool like Mobile Pulse you can:

• Understand telco performance for your mobile user groups
• Understand wifi performance for your mobile user groups
• Differentiate performance between carriers
• Differentiate performance between operating systems
• Differentiate performance between device models
• Gather data for improvement discussions and negotiations with Telcos

This kind of tool enables a better user experience, reduced cost of support, a proactive approach to troubleshooting, and empowers you with the facts rather than relying on Telco provided coverage map. To find out more have a look at the services Market Clarity provides including:

• Research Publications
• Custom Research & Consulting
• Telecoms Infrastructure Database
• GIS Based Demographic Analysis
• Strategic Advice
• Research Database Extracts
• Benchmarking
• Market Tracker
• Tender Management
• Training & Seminars

For full information refer to Market Clarity's website or contact Shara.