Are next mobile app expert is Ed Goldman, IT CTO from Intel Corporation.
So welcome to the IT Rockstar club Ed, and lets get started with your introduction for my readers..
I’m Ed Goldman, GM Strategy, Architecture and Innovation, IT CTO at Intel Corporation. My team helps facilitate the future direction of the technologies we use, the systems we will implement and the new business capabilities being delivered on behalf of Intel IT to our strategic business units. Before joining Intel I held many positions, primarily within IT organizations for such companies as IBM, various defense contractors, NASD (parent of NASDAQ), Boeing and Marriott International. During these roles, I have performed or managed most of the roles that are typical within an IT organization.
In 2013, what will be hotter internal employee facing apps OR external (market) consumer facing apps?
I guess I would imagine that both will be, but for different reasons. Internal applications will drive very critical changes within IT organizations as they start to move on par with what our employees are seeing in the various application stores that are online for the different consumer devices being purchase.
I do not see IT organizations going out and trying to compete with the evolution that is already happening in that space, rather, I see them targeting the applications that are going to make sense internally to help continue our pace of employee productivity and business advancements. To date, the majority of companies I talk to have just started this journey and are still looking for evolutions in the MDM, MAM and Applications Stores to arrive that solve the enterprise problems that are key to being able to deliver this capability. In the consumer space, I absolutely think that their evolution will be continuing and we will see the expansion of the capabilities especially as the Internet of Things begins to deliver new capabilities through the new technologies showing up in the wearables market space.
We have only just begun to see what is possible in this space, I would expect to see this evolution continue as we make the devices smaller, more targeted in what they can do and expand the interaction with the cloud capabilities through your devices takes over the art of the possible.
Biggest issue with enterprise mobility or enterprise apps?
I think there are several. First, we need standards to really help here. If you support multiple devices, each type brings their own set of standard to the table. While we all have seen the promise of things such as HTML5, we have also seen the gaps. HTML5 does not solve your security issues (Access,authorization …), you need some add-ons to help enable the features of the devices and really help in the productivity space. To help, there are some wooden bridges necessary, and that is where the Mobile Enterprise Applications Platforms (MEAP) help you out. They are the path that will help you today, and you very well might throw them away in 5 years because the standards get there.
The second area is in User Experience (UX). We have to evolve in creating the UX that is flexible to handle all forms of mobility. Mobility must work from handheld, to tablet, to laptop (and beyond). It cannot be one size for each platform. This is still a gap for most applications today and must evolve.
The third area I see with mobility is seamlessness of the technology around connectivity. Lots of talk of moving everything to the cloud, but it requires seamless connectivity. We have Bluetooth, Wifi, Cell (3G & 4G), WiDi and several other flavors for specific usages (Zigbee for example). Each brings its own flavor of connectivity management and security. I do think the future is one in which best available will become important and the ability to move between is seamless and possible. While there are other areas, these are some of the big ones that will impact over the near term.
I’d love to get feedback on Mobile Enterprise Adoption Formula by another Mobile app Expert, before I write my “thesis” on it.
You are on a good track. I agree with your focus on Desirability and Usability. Be sure to include these steps in your process:
• Business Use, Business Process must come first
• Then understand the User Experience, including each use case/device type
• Then you can move through design and development.
When you get to testing, you must include UX and BPM capabilities.
How is Intel IT planning to solve their enterprise application challenges?
We are putting our focus on accelerating delivery of applications that are enabled for multi-OS, multibrowser and multi-input. But, let me tell you about our challenges first. Employees are increasingly bringing in their device of choice. They expect IT solutions will provide a great user experience and help them get the job done quickly. At Intel we have over 40 thousand employee owned devices connected, and this is growing rapidly. While most of these are small form factors, we see an escalating number of larger screen devices like tablets, convertibles, and Ultrabooks™. At the same time, we have this increased release cadence with browsers and operating systems. Years ago Intel IT defined a common OS and browser strategy that enabled us to execute fast and hold costs low because of the limited platform. What enabled us to move swiftly in the past now increases costs and time to release.
At Intel IT, we are looking to our user expectations and have defined 5 key areas for our applications: Security, User Experience, Platform, Device, and Interaction. Using these we have formalized our effort in what we internally refer to as Intel’s 5 Star Program. The intent is to deliver applications that are designed and deployed to be secure, intuitive, work across multiple platforms, leveraging their device feature sets where appropriate and take advantage of broad interaction models (e.g. touch, voice, gesture). We have to make sure we aren’t designing for today only, but we’re flexible and can rapidly address tomorrow’s needs.
Want more info?
I recommend following Ed Goldman on Twitter: @EdLGoldman
