Appsolute value art of apps

Appsolute Value: The Art of Apps

Larger Financial Institutions are still looking for the right Mobile Strategy. Most Banks now have
successfully passed the first ‘Launch’ stage (see figure 1). This first generation of mobile apps
holding basic business functionality did provide IT of FI’s with a quick ‘stop the gap’ solution to
meet first business requirement to provide their customers mobile access to financial services. To
enable expansion, Financial Institutions (FI’s) are now looking for a scalable, more robust set of
tools that can transform mobile app development to an industrial, repeatable and end-to-end
mobile lifecycle best practice. We have gathered in this point of view all our mobile project
experience, know-how and lessons learned to enable you to select the most viable mobile app
development approach.

Challenges for the best Mobile
(apps) strategy

A lot of executives we meet ask us over and
over again the same question: should we
build web apps (HTML5) or Native apps (SDK-
built) going in the next stage (scalability) of Figure 1
mobile app development (see figure 1).
Unfortunately this is the wrong question
stemming from an almost religious clash of Your answer to these questions however
two tribes of app developers (web vs. native should not be approached from a single
developers) which seem to dictate even the perspective, the User Interface, in this context
executive room claiming what delivers the mostly meaning how customers want to use
best or fastest User Interface on smartphones apps) but also from other perspectives like
! Integration effort, security, performance,
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and last but
not least requirements for new emerging
vendor/suppliers of mobile development &
management software environments from a
single code base and an integrated
middleware component (MEAP).

Especially developers tend to decouple the
mobile thin client from these other
perspectives which are as important for larger

Appsolute Value, © 2013 All Rights Reserved

companies. As FI’s (and large companies in 2. Multi-channel: Many FI’s have spent large
general) begin to tackle more complex, amounts of money to adopt a multi-
transaction and revenue oriented applications channel approach (branch-ATM-CC-web)
by adding more functionality, risk of failure is and create a seamless customer
rising with the same rate as the opportunities. experience. Instead this resulted in highly
The ‘Launch’ stage apps which have been siloed organizations and complex SOA
created mostly in a monolithic, silo-oriented architectures. Now with a Multi-OS
way have resulted in largely un-integrated, mobile environments and social networks,
stovepipe, disposable pieces of code that two additional digital channels have
need to be updated every few months or emerged rapidly. A multi-digital-access
underperform and are un-intelligent (the challenge have emerged with seamless
latter two apply mostly to first web-apps). switching between various platforms,
Mobile apps which require rendering business even for the former ‘pure players’! Hybrid
functionality bring unprecedented business apps is the likely app style FI’s should
growth to business managers and allow address building a new digital access
business operations to move from hardwired model. Cloud technologies will play the
business processes to task-oriented mobile other key role.
customer/employee engagement, come with
a number of multi-multi complexities to be 3. Multi-device: ever since Apple brought
addressed in the next generation of mobile the first real smartphone to a mass-
market level, many, many smart phones
(app) strategy:
and later tablets have flooded your
1. Multi-platform: While the transition to consumer pockets and employee standard
the first online channel, the web, forced employee utility elbowing out the PC and
most applications to conform to a single, laptop.
basic HTML client, embracing the
potential of mobile (including enterprise 4. Multi-apps & device Management (MAM
& MDM): With the proliferation of apps
mobility) entails development for a
multitude of mobile Operating Systems, and mobile devices, demand is soaring for
iOS, Android, Blackberry OS and Windows solutions that can help enterprise manage
phone are now the mostly adopted. Each apps & devices. Corporate Appstores are
OS requires specific developer capabilities emerging to control the usage and own
(including specific integration matters) deployment of apps and the Bring Your
whether you like it or not. Own Device phenomena.

Entering the second stage of scalability and
depending on a company’s mobile strategy,
an accelerated entrance of the ‘aggressive
growth’ stage of the mobile roadmap (figure
1), a transition to a more sophisticated
development tool is unavoidable. A mobile
app development ecosystem that supports
robust back-end integration with enterprise
source systems, databases, enterprise
security, version control, multi-device
detection, not sacrificing the UI richness, will

Author: Michel van den Berg
Appsolute Value, © 2013 All Rights Reserved |2

be at every company’s doorstep, sooner or Make a plan to minimize mobile
later, when mobilizing your business becomes
app development tools, not
the core of your strategy.
war….
To make such a strategy is robust and
pragmatic , companies need to step away
from the development of disposable mobile Much of the current debate on mobile apps
apps but rather should make an extensive development tools (including HTML5 and
scrum exercise of all requirements and quickly native SDK’s) and app architecture is
pair them with the appropriate toolset and dominated by mainly two camps, HTML5
management practices. Still many (IT) developers and native developers. HTML 5 is
executives rely in these stages on the an unstructured pile of code still growing
available resources in the current company. It today as it is an open standard.
is tempting to take a web approach and rely
just on HTML5 and web development Native app developers optimize apps to API’s
for a specific mobile OS allowing a superb
capabilities. However especially as security
and performance have been and still are customer experience often enforced by
marketing, making it however difficult to
dominant requirements, it makes mobile app
development a very daunting exercise. We reuse code across platforms. Since the
have seen many larger FI’s trying this but they fragmentation of customers amongst the
came all out on a more expensive and very many mobile operating systems, marketing
wants to provide access to more customers.
frustrating exercise.
Native apps also allow deep access to offline
A mobile strategy would also link into the processing, storage capability, most device
more technical complexities and pair mobile (and still growing) features and sensors, in-
apps with new (solution) architecture with app frameworks (like push notifications, ad
many new architecture principles. serving, content), all very common
requirements in a typical business context.

It forces IT to invest largely in new app
development capabilities making cost rise
steeply. Forrester suggest to budget for a
50%-70% of the cost of the original native
implementation (mostly iOS). So if your choice
is to provide access to customers on all 4
major OS’s an increase of client development
Part of the mobile strategy and new costs will be 150% to 210%. Also web apps
architecture principles is enablement of however have a 20%-25% increase in porting
accelerated apps development (fast to costs of 20%-25% to tweak UI for different
market). Agile methodologies (scrum) and device form factors. Mind that post-
onshore resourcing should figure prominently implementation costs (for managing apps and
in the mobile project and operations teams. devices) are not even calculated for in above
cost increases.

Unless you have deep pockets and a strategy
not sensitive for a growing TCO as app


development and tooling matures, more
companies look at hybrid applications. Hybrid
apps (or sometimes also referred to as
‘wrappers’) union the best of both worlds
(native and web apps).

Libraries like the popular Phonegap and Among multi-platform framework and their
Appcelerator have bridging capabilities for the vendors are large differences. The most
multi-platform exercise (but not all of them). advanced ones not only cover version
They are open source and therefore less management but also advanced enterprise
popular with larger companies and for those mobility services like apps maintenance
( business) app developers working within a (MAM), corporate appstore and MDM. One
secure business environment however some of the most enhanced frameworks (Kony)
have taken these libraries for further enables development of native, web apps and
customization and turned them in licensed hybrid apps, making the previous mentioned
frameworks (like IBM’s Worklight) however debate obsolete and enabling support to
most of them are more proven than others legacy mobile platforms.
and some focus on specific business
industries. Hence the need for a robust and future-
proven mobile strategy since larger FI’s like
In the Financial Services industry the hybrid Citi, Nationwide, Allianz, RBS and Standard
app development approach is chosen by those Chartered have embarked already on multi-
banks (HSBC, Unicredit) which want to reuse platform app development tools.
their large online banking infrastructures
especially when they are built on portal So in reality, by monitoring how banks travel
technology. up onto the higher stages of the mobile
roadmap the need for either a hybrid or an
Similar to the hybrid approach is the fourth multi-platform approach is evident* where
mobile app (development) style, the multi- mostly all FI’s have started from a cheaper
platform (or cross-platform) style web-based approach and/or (UI) rich single
native approach.
Differences between the hybrid frameworks
and the multi-platform frameworks (Kony, * References to:

Antenna, Service2Media, etc.) are the adding - Forrester, Building Next generation Mobile Banking report
of a server/middleware component. The
- MGI Research, mobile Apps Platforms Buyers Guide
server-side component allows for adding
enterprise connectivity and security enabling
a secure communication path and encryption The Mobile Ecosystem
of data in flight. Other features are
disconnected use, synchronizing of local data,
push notification/SMS and device detection If one counts up all changes taking place on a
for the hundreds different devices. customer, technology and business model
level based on the anticipated proliferation of
billions of apps, hundreds of devices and
zettabytes of (personal) data, the accelerated
emergence of the Apps economy is on every


company’s doorstep. At the same time orientation make a natural demand
extrapolating trends and movements to the for enterprise apps (B2E and B2B).
future, a holistic view on mobile is surfacing: E.g. the Blackberry Z 10 is a nice
example of how our private, social en
working lives gets integrated into one
device.
4. With more added functionality and
more governance required by the
company over all those apps we will
see the growing demand of enterprise
services like MAM, MDM and
corporate app stores.
5. Continued fragmentation of
architectures, strategies, OS, mobile
Solution: Coming to MEAP app styles gives an advantage for
platform agnostic tools
6. Whilst more companies sign up for
the MEAP product, the mobile
In dealing with larger companies we see more provider is able to prove their track
and more companies selecting a Mobile record, build their number of so-
Enterprise Application Platform tool (MEAP). called vertical apps (‘off-the-shelf’
Various research and forecasters* see a 70- mobile software), increase their API
80% preference for MEAP engine, increase their multi-platform
development community and in the
MEAP is a mobile software development end lower their license prices.
environment that builds code once for all (however one should note large
differences in vendors regarding this
types of mobile apps and renders it to many
point)
devices and connects with various operating 7. Companies will be better able to
systems, networks and back-end server structure their mobile development
environment. Why the MEAP product is on discipline, understand a more realistic
the radar of many companies and it is budget expectation and overcome
predicted a significant number of companies their current concern of vendor and
will own a MEAP product in 2013/2014: lock-in risks (after first having
business case and security risks
1. Larger companies need to provide around mobile app development in
their services to a larger number of general
customers and employees (Bring Your 8. As larger companies are on the
Own Device) forefront to integrate a MEAP product
2. Where requirements around with their larger and more complex
performance and security (specific for organizations, medium companies will
most of the FI’s) are dominant, native follow suit to benefit from the
apps are commonplace. Based on the growing number of best practices and
roadmap we assume native apps will growing number of specialists.
become more complex or will
multiply.
3. The proliferation of apps is eminent.
The ‘apps economy’ was first mainly
consumer facing (B2C) but now start
to enter also our working life’s.
Simplicity, collaboration and task-


Our Services – Art of Apps

These first set of drivers to select a future-
proven mobile app development tool will help
you to set the scene for a first high level
selection process and define your apps
strategy. Appsolute Value has in-company
Varying speed of mobile development, the experience with building the four different
impact of internal different point of views and styles of Apps – web apps, native apps, multi-
the still unfolding mobile technology (fastest platform apps en hybrid apps. Our people,
growing technology ever) cause still lots of having done this at a variety of clients, are
confusion. However with so many companies now working together in the Mobile Solution
understanding better the impact of the apps Network (www.mobilesolutionsnetwork.com).
economy on increasing revenues, business
growth, brand enhancement and even cost The mobile strategist can help you selecting
efficiencies, they now determine faster the the right apps strategy as part of defining a
selection of the appropriate mobile app larger, more comprehensive mobile strategy.
development tool. With a clear focus (outside-in view) on the
customer, we translate your business goals
Hence the rising need for a sound mobile into mobile concept matching your
strategy based on a mobile roadmap so customer’s needs.
companies are getting enabled to follow a
more thorough mobile software development Our mobile designers and mobile developers
too selection process. realize those mobile concepts into actionable
apps so you can go to market fast having
If a company sees mobile apps as a tactical, chosen the right app development tool.
low functionality, B2C and low cost
opportunity and just another digital channel
References – Pure Mobile
(so an add-on to their current infrastructure) a
single platform toolkit is a better choice.

If mobile technology is an enabler of strategic Appsolute Value successfully performed the
initiatives (strategic differentiator/generator), Art of Apps at several medium and large
a MEAP product could be used organizations in Europe and North America.
You can be next.
In the long run (the higher stages of the
roadmap) one can even expect an IT
organization which can tap into all four
different mobile app style development tools
and capabilities.

Some of our gigs can be found at our website.


www.mobilesolutionsnetwork.com

If you want to sit back and watch a video. Go
to our YouTube channel
www.youtube.com/appsolutevalue

If you want to share something interesting
with us on mobile. We are very interested
since we can’t know everything about billions
of Apps, right?! So pin it at

www.pinterest.com/appsolutevalue

That ‘s all you can find on the web about us.
For all the rest we are pure mobile. Oh, you
want to like us, use your Smartphone, just
call. You don’t want to tell it to us out loud…
send us an email:


Appsolute value art of apps

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