Mobile Productivity Blog

Summer 2011: BYOD is the new BYOB

Summer time is in full swing, so slather on some SPF and grab your hot dogs and buns because it’s time to barbecue! While you will probably grab some cold beers and hard lemonade to enjoy at the nearest backyard pool, the phrase that is on everyone’s mind this summer is BYOD, not BYOB.

As the consumerisation of IT continues to affect companies across industries, more and more are choosing BYOD, or “Bring Your Own Device”, IT policies this year. Nearly 35% of American adults currently own smartphones, a number that is only going to increase as smartphones continue to outsell feature phones. As employees buy the latest devices for personal use, they are pleading with their IT departments to extend email, contacts and other business apps to their new iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Enabling a mobile workforce increases overall productivity by allowing employees to remain connected to work even while away from the workplace.

Businesses are seeing numerous benefits in implementing BYOD policies, and about 75% of enterprises now have BYOD policies in place. By supporting the plethora of smartphones and tablets that their employees are bringing in, companies are keeping their workforce happy and their costs low. Employees
get to choose the smartphone that is right for them, and companies get to save on expensive hardware and training costs because their employees are already comfortable using their chosen device. While some companies have broad BYOD policies that let their employees choose literally which ever device they want, others let their workforce choose from a list of approved devices. Typically, employees pick up the cost of the new device while the company pays for service fees and data plans.

Employees have been using cell phones and laptops to do work away from their desks for years, but the evolution of smartphones and tablets has created an even more mobile workforce. Smartphones and tablets have the computing power and ease of use to make them every worker’s favorite tool, and companies are realizing the payback in mobilizing enterprise applications for their employees to use on-the-go. Mobile enterprise application platforms, or MEAPs, allow companies to build cross-device, native mobile applications for their workforce without coding or writing a separate app for each OS.

Interested in learning more about building mobile enterprise apps for your company? Check out some of our recorded webcasts to learn the secret ingredients to a successful and agile mobile enterprise strategy. And, don’t forget to sign up for our upcoming webinar with Samsung, “Mobile Tablet Trends in the Enterprise”.

For companies that choose to build mobile enterprise apps for their employees, partners or customers, security is often a top priority. Here are a few tips to protect company applications on-the-go and ensure that sensitive information stays out of the wrong hands, even if a device goes missing at a barbecue:

• Require user authentication- each time a user accesses enterprise apps they should enter a username and password
• Enable remote wiping- the ability to remove corporate data from a device in the event it is lost or stolen
• Keep an audit trail- a record of an individual’s activity including user ID, timestamp, status information, and response time allows a company to keep an eye on how their employees are using enterprise applications
• Require real-time only access for critically sensitive data- make sure that sensitive financial records or reports are only viewable in real-time with a live authentication
• Utilize encryption- complex encoding of both data in-flight and at-rest on device makes sure that information being transmitted cannot be read by outsiders

Looking for something exciting to do after lunch on Thursday? BYOB and BYOD to our upcoming webinar with Samsung Mobile, “Mobile Tablet Trends in the Enterprise”.  We will be discussing real-world examples of enterprises using tablets in their mobile strategy as well as an exclusive look at Samsung’s new tablet, the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Reserve your spot today!

 

Stealing Company Secrets: Immersive iPad User Experience

Marc and Arun once again show the power of the Pyxis Mobile platform by demonstrating a custom iPad app built without a single line of code. Boasting stunning user interface capabilities and custom graphics, m-commerce never felt or looked so good!

Stealing Company Secrets: Immersive iPad User Experience from Pyxis Mobile on Vimeo.

The Freedom of Offline

America recently celebrated another birthday, marking another year of liberty and justice for all. Every year, the Fourth of July holiday reminds us to take a step back from our busy lives and spend time with family and friends, celebrating our country and our inherent freedoms. As we go off on weekend trips to the beach and take time off from work to visit new places, mobile devices are helping us stay connected and plugged in to what is going on back at home and at the office. Whether you are a salesman wanting to stay updated on the latest deals, an executive needing to check on production levels and finances or a marketing associate checking website traffic and social media, smartphones and tablets allow you to get away from the office while staying on top of your work and are more convenient for quick and efficient use than laptops.

More and more companies are realizing the value in building customized, native mobile apps for their employees to use on their smart phones and tablet devices. Customized mobile apps give employees anytime, anywhere access to critical business solutions, allowing them to quickly and easily access the information and applications they need while on the road, on vacation, or at home. In a recent enterprise mobility survey conducted by Pyxis Mobile at Collaborate 11, we found that 80% of companies currently deliver or plan to deliver mobile apps to their employees, partners, and customers. When it comes to the types of mobile apps companies are investing in, 64% of companies surveyed are planning to build mobile applications for business intelligence while close to 40% are planning to provide mobile applications for sales and distribution, field service, as well as customer-facing apps to extend their company’s brand.

Businesses and their employees depend on mobile apps to give them access to the information they need everywhere they go, even when they don’t have wireless service. With so much demand for this advanced technology, Pyxis Mobile is excited to announce the newest version of our mobile application development platform, Application Studio 7.3, which features enhanced offline capability, as well as enhancements to each of the supported device clients. Our MEAP now supports entity based caching, freeing users from the constraints of needing wireless connectivity to reach data-heavy applications. Users now have the capability to create or edit records when disconnected from the network that are automatically updated when the user is back online.

Some companies consider building web based mobile apps rather than native applications because they need to support a variety of device types and don’t have the resources to build multiple versions of an app for each mobile OS. Web based mobile apps not only offer a less intuitive and integrated feel than native applications, but they are rendered useless when a user is out of the range of wireless service. Our MEAP makes it possible for companies of all sizes to build complex, cross-device native mobile apps that require no coding when building a different version for each device type. Native applications with offline support make it possible to enter records in real-time while on a plane, underground on public transportation, or even in the most remote areas with poor wireless service. This technology gives users the ultimate freedom to travel wherever they may choose without losing access to the information they need. America has always been the land of the free, and now that sentiment is extended to mobile apps. Mobile freedom, enabled by offline capability, allows you to travel to even the most remote places or industrial settings where wireless service isn’t available without worrying about your apps being unusable because the information you need is cached locally.

Has losing wireless service affected your ability to be productive on-the-go? Was it while you were on a plane or in a remote area? Leave a comment and let us know what your most frustrating experience losing wireless service was. 

Check out our latest press release and the “What’s New in Pyxis Mobile 7.3” section of our website for more information about the newest version of our MEAP.

 

Mobilizing Software Allows for Anywhere, Anytime Access

Consumers and businesses are using a widening array of mobile devices to complete countless tasks. As tablets and smartphones continue to gain popularity and cannibalize an increasing portion of the PC market, software providers face the challenge of adapting their products to sustain in a mobile-dominated society. While mobilizing software may seem daunting for many software providers, there are solutions to help ease the burden of building applications for the plethora of mobile devices in use today.

As mobile devices continue to increase in popularity and technical ability, it will be imperative for companies who sell software, or offer a software component as part of their solution, to mobilize their offering and take advantage of all that apps have to offer.  By mobilizing your software, you can reach a wider customer base or possibly a more tech savvy demographic, add an additional revenue stream to your core offering and allow for easy and convenient use. The benefits of building a native mobile app version of your software are clear, but actually building the app may not be as simple.

It seems like every few weeks new devices and OS updates are announced, leaving the programmers who build mobile apps scrambling to support and write code for multiple versions of a mobile app. Mobile enterprise application platforms (MEAPs) simplify the process of providing cross-device support by giving companies the ability to mobilize their software in-house without having to hire a team of programmers specialized in coding applications for each mobile OS. Choosing to use a MEAP to build native mobile software allows companies to focus on developing their core solution rather than spending time, money, and resources on trying to support all of the devices people are using to access mobile applications.

One company that has had success using a MEAP to mobilize their solution is Pyxis Mobile’s customer, Healthrageous, a personalized connected health technology startup based in Boston, Massachusetts. Healthrageous has taken advantage of the widespread use of smartphones by building a mobile application, h!GO, to extend their product offering. They help people live healthier lives by measuring various aspects of a person’s health, such as blood pressure, blood glucose, and physical activity, using a biometric device that sends data to their Personal Health Intelligence Platform. They then use this data, along with a person’s input on their health habits, to develop a personalized health plan aimed to continually help make health a priority. Users can access their data and health plan information through the web, email, or a mobile device.

Check out a customer Case Study video featuring Healthrageous!

Healthrageous knew that including a mobile app version of their core platform would allow users ­anywhere, anytime access to all of their critical health information and enable them to stay on track with their health plan by keeping them connected while on-the-go. Smartphones are self-sufficient,

encompassing many of the tools and access to the information we need in our day-to-day lives, and are (almost) always with a user. h!GO allows easy access to all of the information that Healthrageous’ customers need, and is designed to be easy and fun for non-technical users. Deciding to build a mobile version of their software platform was a no-brainer for Healthrageous.

Rather than building a native mobile application for each of the leading operating systems (OS) one-by-one, Healthrageous decided to use a mobile application development platform to build one app that could be optimized for each device type. This method of building one app that runs natively across OSs greatly reduces the amount of time and number of employees needed to support each of the leading devices and allows for you to focus your efforts on daily business functions rather than writing code. There are a few mobile OSs that have a steady hold of the market, and software companies that are looking to mobilize their applications should look for a solution that provides cross-platform support to allow for the greatest potential app audience. Companies don’t want to waste any time or money when they decide to build mobile apps, and using a mobile application platform to build apps allows for the fastest speed-to-market, cutting the time needed to support iOS, Android, and BlackBerry, along with the leading tablet devices, down from a year or more to just months, or even weeks depending on the scope of your application.  The best MEAPs are agile and allow for changes to be made at anytime, in real-time. So if you decide to update your software, you can easily update your mobile app without any code generation and minimal regression testing. 

Are you ready to take your software into the mobile era? To learn more about how Healthrageous used a MEAP to quickly and easily mobilize their software and integrate mobility into their core business, attend an upcoming webinar hosted by Pyxis Mobile, view the Healthrageous video, or download a copy of the Healthrageous Case Study.

 

Application Studio 7.3 Feature Updates

Check out our new video for a preview of the new features in Application Studio 7.3!

Application Studio 7.3 feature updates from Pyxis Mobile on Vimeo.

The Future of Enterprise Mobility is Looking Cloud-y

According to the most recent IBM Global CIO Study, CIOs are increasingly viewing both mobility solutions and cloud computing as top priorities. As IT decision makers reassess their current processes and look to the future, both mobile technology and cloud computing are revolutionizing how businesses access, store and secure critical business information. Advancements in mobile device hardware and operating systems, along with the development of mature mobile enterprise applications, have allowed companies of all sizes and industries to increase productivity and enable real-time access to vital information and processes from anywhere and at any time. While mobility solutions have been accepted as an important part of the future of enterprise technology, cloud computing, or “The Cloud” is just starting to make its way into the enterprise.

What is “The Cloud”?

Cloud computing leverages remote, often virtualized resources, enabling users to access applications and rich content without a reliance on local device storage and processing power. This concept is not new; we have been using web-based email, photo storing and other services for years. Cloud computing furthers the concept by enabling access to more sophisticated web applications and richer content. As the speed and ubiquity of internet connections have increased, so to have the complexity of remote applications. The cloud makes it possible for many users to access and alter the same material from anywhere there is an internet connection available. The cloud eases collaboration, and eradicates the need to worry about how much memory and computing power there is on a device because applications and data can be stored and executed in the cloud rather than locally. Companies that host data or applications in the cloud don’t have to worry about maintaining multiple physical servers to handle drastic changes in traffic. Virtualization in the cloud allows companies to scale their resources according to their needs at a particular time.

Some benefits of the cloud:

• Reduced overhead: While some companies have the resources to host their own cloud services, many find it to be beneficial to outsource their needs to a cloud provider. Outsourcing your cloud allows you to rest easy and not have to worry about buying new hardware to meet increasing traffic demands or huge traffic spikes. That means if your application goes viral or your marketing efforts pay off and your website traffic goes up 300%, your cloud will be able to expand to handle it without the need for expensive hardware and a dedicated IT team.
• Agility: Another great benefit of the cloud is the speed at which servers can be launched. Cloud servers can be deployed in a matter of minutes, giving you the ability to be agile as traffic fluctuates. Increasing the memory of dedicated servers not only takes significantly more time, it typically requires new hardware purchases, contracts, and other overhead costs.
• Security: IT decision makers often rank security as a top priority, and there are various levels of security that can be put into place to ensure that your data and applications are safe, whether you host your own cloud or outsource it to a cloud provider. Dedicated, secure VLANs, firewalls and IDS/IPS can be put in place for any set of cloud servers, delivering the same highly secure, dedicated network environment found on traditional solutions.
• Affordability: Another important benefit of cloud computing is affordability. The cloud can expand and contract according to your needs at a particular time, and you only have to pay for what you use. That means that you don’t have to worry about paying for or planning to install a new server and you only have to pay for the amount of space you need.

So what does all this mean for mobility?

Mobile enterprise applications and cloud computing are enabling companies to unplug and give their employees, partners and customers access to critical information from anywhere they have internet connectivity. Traditionally, companies have hosted their mobile applications on dedicated servers, requiring them to plan ahead for how much data they would need to store. The elasticity of the cloud allows for companies to easily and cost-effectively expand their server space, allowing them to scale the scope of their mobile initiatives over time. Cloud computing offers a new level of sophisticated, fast collaboration. Companies that are focused on agility and productivity should consider hosting their mobile apps in the cloud because it allows them to be flexible and react to changes as they occur.

There are many hosting options available and it can be overwhelming to decide which one is the best for your business. To learn more about hosting in the cloud, as well as the many other available options, contact one of our expert team members by emailing sales@pyxismobile.com.

Pyxis Mobile Pricing Made Simple

Building native applications for all of the leading device types can be expensive and time consuming. Pyxis Mobile's Application Studio is a mobile app development platform that allows users to build cross device native apps in a fraction of the time it would take to build native apps from scratch for each of the leading device types.

Check out our new video to learn how our CPU based pricing model makes it possible for companies of all sizes to afford building native apps, and how it allows you to scale your mobile strategy over time:

Pyxis Mobile Pricing Made Simple from Pyxis Mobile on Vimeo.

Mobilizing the Higher Education Experience

Colleges and universities are expected to prepare their students for life after graduation by giving them the tools and experiences they need to be productive, thought-leading citizens. Today, that means integrating the latest technology into your students’ daily lives and making use of the advancements in digital communication and social media that have taken place in the past few years. Students are more plugged in and connected than ever, and colleges should take advantage of their widespread use of mobile devices as a way to connect, interact and engage with them. If higher education institutions want to be considered at the top of their class, they need to have a mobile strategy in place.

Smartphone and tablet usage rates are only going to continue to rise, and colleges and universities should take advantage of their students’ affinity for apps. While many schools have caught onto this trend and have started building mobile apps for their students and faculty, the majority of schools are still falling behind the curve. The most advanced colleges and universities have started to go beyond the basic student and faculty apps and have even begun to build unique workflows and functionality for parents, alumni, and prospective students. Apps that are optimized for each user group will soon become an expectation, and colleges should act fast to implement a mobile strategy.

Consider what different user groups will want from their mobile applications:

• Today’s college students have grown up using technology to learn and interact, and they have high expectations for mobile applications. They want an app to check their schedule, see their grades, and access class rosters and office hour information. Additional features applauded by students are access to campus maps, a tool to find the closest buses and campus shuttles, as well as the ability to check out extracurricular and athletics schedules and the dining hall menu. To take advantage of their adoption of social media, colleges should consider integrating Twitter and Facebook feeds into their apps to help students connect with each other. Schools can also use notifications to alert students of class cancellations, weather alerts, and campus emergencies.
• Campus staff and faculty want applications that connect with their schedules and keep them up-to-date on departmental information, classroom content, as well as many of the on-campus information that students want access to.
• Parents want an app that they can use to check on their student’s tuition fees and grades, as well as campus news and account card balances. Colleges can even mobilize their parent portal so that busy moms and dads can check in with other parents right from their smartphone.
• Alumni want to use a mobile app to stay connected with their peers through social networks, track campus happenings, enable job opportunities, and donate money to their school. Colleges that don’t optimize an app for alumni that includes a way for them to donate funds are missing out on a huge opportunity to drive revenue to the school without spending resources on calling alumni or sending out direct mail.
• For prospective students who have not yet decided which school they are going to attend, mobile applications provide an augmented sense of community and can provide greater insight during a campus tour or throughout the admissions process. Colleges can integrate GPS to enable a virtual tour, include a photo gallery of campus hot spots, and keep a calendar with notifications to make sure that applicants have all of the information and important dates they need at the push of a button.

While many colleges realize the value of deploying mobile applications, not everyone knows the best way to do so. There are a few solutions on the market for colleges that want to go mobile, but not every solution offers the same product. College students expect native apps that connect to all of the data they need and have an interesting and intuitive UI. If an app doesn’t work well, give them the information they need, or look well-made, they aren’t going to waste time using it. This means that before you invest in your mobile initiatives, you need to choose a solution that will give you the most control when building your application, allows you to be responsive to the changing needs of your students and faculty, and enables you to make changes in real time.

Every college is unique and their mobile apps should reflect their individuality. You shouldn’t use a cookie-cutter application development tool to build a higher ed app. The most technologically advanced schools that are leading the way in mobility understand the need to use a mobile application development platform that provides them with the ability to plug in to all of their backend data sources, like BlackBoard and athletic schedules, while building applications for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, as well as the leading tablet devices.

One of our customers, Indiana State University, built "ISU Mobile", an app that mobilizes information their students need. Young people use their smartphones countless times throughout the day to text their friends and use various apps, and now Indiana State students have the ability to use their phones to access athletic updates, faculty and staff directories, emergency phone numbers, campus news, student alerts and a buildings guide. Because of the agility of our platform, which allows trained users to easily make updates with minimal regression testing and no code generation, they can listen to their student’s feedback on how to improve and are planning to add on additional features in time. Check out these screen shots of their app:

Building mobile apps for your current and prospective students, as well as parents and alumni, will help you take your institution into the next era of digital communication and help foster a sense of community and connectivity. To learn more about building apps for higher education learning institutions, check out our recorded webcast “Mobility on Campus” or check out an upcoming webinar to learn more about mobile application development using a platform.

 

Stealing Company Secrets: Offline Capabilities

Interested in learning how native applications built on the Pyxis Mobile platform work offline? Two of our employees, Marc and Arun, share with you the offline capabilities of the Pyxis Mobile platform using cutting edge "Store and Forward" technology. Check out the video!

Stealing Company Secrets: Offline Capabilities from Pyxis Mobile on Vimeo.

 

Questions? Leave a comment or send an email to sales@pyxismobile.com!

Brands Miss Out By Not Offering Cross-Platform Apps

With 74.6 million people using smartphones in the United States, it is clear why brands are investing in mobile marketing. While app-hungry smartphone users can make a great audience, engaging them and inspiring them to participate in your mobile campaign takes a commitment to building rich, native apps that have an interesting and intuitive UI. At first companies were releasing apps for only the iPhone, but the iPhone no longer dominates the mobile market. According to the latest figures released by comScore, Apple claims 26% of smartphone users, Android owns 36.4% and RIM has 25.7% of users. In addition to smartphone users, there are expected to be an additional 50 million tablet users in the United States by 2012. Releasing an iPhone app is no longer enough to please the wide spectrum of mobile consumers, and brands are starting to realize the importance of supporting all of the leading mobile operating systems and device types when they build mobile applications.

Two companies that have enjoyed success in the mobile marketing arena are Facebook and Starbucks. Facebook has released native apps for their social networking platform for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android, and have announced a native app for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet this summer. While there are plenty of independently developed Facebook apps available for iPad, Facebook has yet to release one of their own. By not releasing a native app for iPad, Facebook is missing out on hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of app downloads. More pressingly, they are risking their brand’s reputation and their user’s privacy by allowing for so many un-endorsed apps to be marketed before they release one of their own.

Starbucks has made a similar mistake in their approach to mobile applications. iPhone and BlackBerry users can download the Starbucks Card mobile app, which allows users to load money onto their Starbucks Card account and pay for coffee using their smartphone. Starbucks tweeted back in May 2010 that they were working on apps for all platforms, but it has been over a year and Android users are still left without an official app. A former Starbucks employee took it upon himself to build the unofficial “My Coffee Card” app for Android, which has recorded more than 160,000 downloads. Android users represent 36% of the smart phone market, a segment large enough that Starbucks should have made an app for them in the first place.

Both Facebook and Starbucks are huge companies that have the financial means to build great apps, but for some reason they have fallen short on supporting all of the leading device types. This shows that a company that commits to building native apps for each mobile OS is biting off more than they can chew. New devices and operating systems are popping up just about every week, and users are rushing to the app stores to download all of their favorites. It is important for companies to release apps, but it is equally important to release apps that work on each device. Starbucks and Facebook, two very well known brands with huge fan bases, missed out big by not offering cross-platform native apps.

Do you know other brands that are making the same mistake? Leave a comment and let us know who else is alienating a segment of the mobile market by not supporting all of the leading devices.

Building an app for each OS one at a time is comparable to doing your laundry one piece of clothing at a time. If you put all of your clothes in the washing machine at once, you save time, water, detergent and energy. Take the washing machine approach to building apps. Don’t waste time, money, and resources building an app for each OS one at a time. Instead, use a mobile application development platform, also known as a MEAP, to build one app that runs on each OS.

Make sure that your company doesn’t fall short on its mobile initiatives by making the same mistake as Starbucks and Facebook. To learn more about more about the fastest, easiest, most cost-effective way to build native apps for all of the leading mobile operating systems, attend an upcoming webinar hosted by Pyxis Mobile. Also, check out our resources page for videos and webcasts that further explain the value of using a platform to build mobile applications for your employees, partners and customers.