Some CIOs have it tougher then others in my opinion. Imagine being a CIO for an entire organization of IT experts. That cant be easy. I recently chatted it up with Laurence Hart, CIO of AIIM, for a few questions on enterprise apps.
1) In 2013, what will be hotter internal employee facing apps OR external (market) consumer facing apps?
The answer is a function of the business and their mobile maturity. For AIIM, 2013 is about staff mobile productivity. We are making sure that our key systems provide needed functionality on mobile devices. Employees do not live at their desk and in a world where “work” is not confined to the traditional 8-hour window, the business cannot stop and wait for someone to get back to their computer. When our key decision makers can access all the information that they need to make decisions, we will have hit the sweet spot.
2) What is the biggest issue in enterprise mobility?
While usability is key, I feel we are moving beyond usability being an “issue”. That clearly leaves Security as the largest issue. As a CIO, I don’t worry about what data my staff accesses from their devices (well maybe a little). I worry about what happens when that mobile device is lost or stolen. That is the data that I need to worry about protecting, especially with so many applications saving authentication credentials. Getting Security under control without impacting people’s ability to get things done is my greatest mobile challenge.
3) I’d love to get feedback on Mobile Enterprise Adoption Forumla, before I write my “thesis” on it. What are your thoughts on it?
I think the right factors are in there, but it seems to be the Enterprise’s requirements for purchase. Security is vastly important and without it, an Enterprise shouldn’t consider a mobile app for use. It also has almost no positive impact on adoption. People will use mobile apps that make their lives easy with minimal regard for security. People want an application to be secure, but superficial security is good enough for the average user. You make a good point that too much Security will kill the adoption of an application but true adoption is most heavily driven by Usability and Desireability.
4) Who do you think should head enterprise mobile apps? CIO, CMO or CDO?
Enterprise mobile apps should definitely be led by the CIO. This isn’t to say that the CIO should dictate or make all decisions for mobility. The CIO is simply the best situated to see all the business needs, mobile included, and make sure that the largest impact mobile apps are pushed to the front of the line. That said, the CMO/CDO should be encouraged to fund/lead their own projects. Just because there is a huge need to get the CRM application into a mobile format doesn’t mean that the organization can neglect the external mobile requirements. If an organization needs to maintain the perception that they are forward thinking, a mobile app is absolutely required. In that situation, the CMO should coordinate with the CIO to make sure that everything works together and that no decisions are made that lock the organization into a limited mobile future.
5) Lets talk about AIIM for a second, any updates?
As an association, AIIM is constantly looking for new ways to serve our members. One of the things we’ll be working hard to do in 2014 is to better meet our member’s needs while they are on the move. It is understanding those needs in order to build a useful application that is going to be our greatest challenge. Answering the question, “What do our members need from AIIM that they need immediately?” is key to our mobile success. Once we solve that, we’ll be looking to move forward to serve as a launch point for future services.
AIIM is the global community of information professionals. We provide the education, research and certification that information professionals need to manage and share information assets in an era of mobile, social, cloud and big data.
A big thanks to Laurence, and I highly recommend following him on Twitter | @piewords for the latest updates and enterprise hints.
