All posts by [x]cube LABS

[x]cube LABS is a leading digital strategy and solution provider specializing in enterprise mobility space. Over the years, we have delivered numerous digital innovations and mobile solutions, creating over $ 2 billion for startups and enterprises. Broad spectrum of services ranging from mobile app development to enterprise digital strategy makes us the partner of choice for leading brands.

Blog, Retail

Indoor Positioning Seems To Have Come Of Age

August 7, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Startups have this theory—The First Mover Advantage—it is the advantage gained by the initial significant occupant of a market segment. Sometimes first movers have huge profit margins and a monopoly, case in point, Twitter and Foursquare. Other times, the first mover is unable to capitalize on the advantage, for example, look at what happened with Indoor Positioning Systems. Most web and social apps are dominated by one or two early players due to the First Mover Advantage. With Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS), however, these startups squandered away their golden opportunity, thus, leaving no clear leader and a cat fight out there.

Indoor Positioning Systems have been an area of interest for more than two decades now. But it is only recently that some major breakthroughs have happened to possibly accelerate the availability of such technology to the masses. Analysts predict that by 2017, the Indoor Location Market will reach revenues exceeding $5 billion in total and will represent over 200,000 installations of infrastructure equipment, including WiFi hotspots, Bluetooth antenna and over 800 million branded application downloads. Those are big numbers.

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Blog, Enterprise Mobility

Decode Your Enterprise Mobile Strategy In 6 Simple Questions

July 16, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

mobile-strategy-3

Every enterprise will benefit from a unique mobile strategy. Understand how you can have all the information needed to define a mobile strategy through 6 simple questions.

“What is the mobile strategy which fits my business like a glove?” that’s the booming question in the board rooms of every enterprise, both big and small. This comes in the wake of companies realizing that mobile is the consumer’s most preferred medium. A simple way to understand mobile’s impact is to check the percentage of traffic that your website derives from mobile.

Despite the mantra that the consumer is the undisputed king, it is interesting to note that only 16% of companies worldwide have a mobile strategy in place. A majority of these companies are still optimizing their website for mobile, and most of those still approach mobile in a piecemeal, tactical way, rather than utilizing it to transform their businesses.

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Automobile, Blog

And a dashboard to rule them all …

July 11, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Take the 2006 STARTECH Chrysler 300C dashboard. Let’s do an approximate count of switches/buttons on it. My tally comes to approximately 40. That includes CD changer controls, AC controls, radio, maps etc. That’s a lot of controls to handle and to use, especially if you are using your vehicle for the 20 mile drive between your home and office. You might not even use some of these controls for years together. Most of the time, you don’t even know what to do with the data that these OnBoardDiagnostic systems (OBD) generate. So, is their space on the dashboard justified? Well, your car isn’t the BatMobile and you definitely can’t get a custom dashboard.

What if I were to tell you that the next battleground for mobile is the dashboard of your car? Unbelievable? Impossible even?

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Blog, Platform

Part 2- iOS 7 Beta review: Apple just made everything interesting again!

July 8, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

(In the first part of this three-part blog, we reviewed Apple’s latest mobile software iOS7 from design perspective. In this post, we will discuss new software features in iOS 7 and improvements from iOS 6. You can read the first part here)

Software features and improvements

iOS 7 brings following new software features and improvements to your iPhone:

All new multi-tasking

iOS 7 brings in a new card based multi-tasking screen wherein the user can scroll through a carousel of thumbnails to switch between the apps. The app icon is displayed for the corresponding thumbnail for the user to identify the app. To switch to an app, the user has to tap on one of the thumbnail or icon. To quit an app from the background, the user has to swipe-up the thumbnail. The new multi-tasking screen works in the landscape orientation as well.

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Automobile, White papers

Mobility in Automotive Industry: The new app-o-mobiles on the road

July 5, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Are you ready to drive the change?

Our cover story this week gives you insights on mobile innovation in the automotive industry.

How mobile is altering the automotive landscape?

How in-vehicle apps are propelling the new advancements in the industry?

What are the challenges in integrating apps to cars?

And, the road ahead for in-vehicle apps.

A study conducted by Juniper Research reveals that 20% of consumer cars in Western Europe and North America will be app-connected by 2017. The report further highlights that, by 2016 there will be 92 million Internet connected vehicles on the road. Through their embedded connectivity and Group telematics (fusion of telecoms and information technologies in vehicles), intelligent cars are supposed to create revenues of $14.4 billion by 2016.”

The vehicle industry is on the cusp of a very big change. As car makers grapple with the multiple challenges presented by innovations in technology, radical shift in lifestyle demands influenced by the mobile revolution and a challenging business environment, there are compelling signs that the industry is set for a major shift. In the process, the central focus, ‘the car’ itself, is set to move beyond being a vehicle of conveyance to being a ‘digital hub’ offering an extended experience by converging devices and technologies. Download the cover story to get more insight.

Blog, Design

No One Reads My GDD?

July 1, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

The problem with writing a well-defined and articulate game design document is that the only one who ends up reading it is the one who wrote the document to begin with – the game designer!

Being repeatedly questioned and asked about game features clearly outlined in the GDD is not exactly a great way to jump start development, if not downright irritating and many times, wildly infuriating.

Since people aren’t going to start behaving according to our game rules (i.e. read the GDD!) any time soon, it is up to us to design creative alternatives to cross this particularly hard level. Here are some pointers that effectively communicate game design and ensure relevant teams are on the same page even if they scored an F on the GDD.

Get a mood board

Put up a mood board and start pinning images. Since pictures speak louder than words, make use of pictures to communicate your design; tag them correctly and structure it in a manner that the viewers can form the relationship between images and understand the game. Let those involved with the game pitch in too with their images, making the entire exercise symbiotic. But ensure it is about the game as it is or is being designed.

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Enterprise Mobility, White papers

Mobile Strategy- The Why, What And How In Creating Your Enterprise Mobile Strategy

May 15, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

In a recently published survey by Accenture of over 400 global executives 1/3rd of the participating executives cited mobility as one of their top two priorities, while 75% put it among their top five. The same survey further highlights that 59% participants say that their company has implemented a centralized company-wide strategy, while 58% say that their mobile strategy is moderately developed.

Mobility has become very big. It has transformed how businesses interact with customers and is now disrupting the way people, processes and the technology infrastructure interact within the ecosystem. What is really compelling though, is the speed and scale at which mobility is being adopted and its emergence as a key strategic initiative. Businesses, at whichever adoption stage they are at, know that there is massive potential with mobility ready to exploit. But, they need a clear mobile strategy that can provide solutions that best fit their needs and can help them realize their business goals, transforming them into a lean, agile and proactive digital enterprise.

But where to begin?

Read our cover story to know-

The need for mobile strategy.

Key elements in designing and implementing a long-term strategy for your enterprise.

Steps towards a successful mobile strategy.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility, Gamification

Consumer-centric Gamification – Make Gamification work for your consumer (Part 2 of 2)

May 14, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

(This post is written in two parts, this being the second one and addresses the concerns that any Retail Enterprise faces while gamifying a consumer-end process or an element of the process.Read the first part here )

Many of my friends check-in via Foursquare religiously. On quizzing them about this preference, I realized that each one of them started checking-in for fun, but doing it constantly has turned it into a habit. The convenience of application design only made it easier for everyone to nourish this habit. “It’s not just about the convenience, though. It is also about having easy access to other users of the application. After I started using Foursquare, my friends were interested in knowing the reviews of all the restaurants I try. They knew that I was a foodie, but it was difficult to keep updating all of them about where I’ve been regularly,” added another Foursquare enthusiast. That brings me to:

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Announcements

Yes! We will be attending WWDC-2013

May 2, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is surely an iOS developer’s rock concert. How else will you describe an event where tickets get sold out in just two minutes? The WWDC-2013 scheduled to be organized from June10-14 in San Francisco is witnessing a crazy rush from Apple aficionados and developer community to participate in the event. Surely, luck was on our side during the on-sale time as we managed to get tickets for the event and are raring to be a part of it. [x]cube LABS will be represented by a delegation led by our COO, Mr. Ravi Korukonda.

If you too are attending the event then please drop by to say “hello”. It will be a great pleasure to meet you all!

You can connect with Ravi on his twitter account @Ravikorukonda or reach us @xcubelabs.

Enterprise Mobility

Visual Note- Mobile Device Management

April 13, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Mobility in enterprises offer several key competitive advantages, but at the same time also poses multiple challenges. There are thousands of devices and hundreds of apps to be managed, monitored and secured. There is critical business data to be secured while making it accessible on smartphones and Tablets. Mobile Device Management or MDM comes across as a popular, reliable solution in answering to the many of these challenges. MDM is critical to any organization that wishes to optimally leverage from mobile technology. At [x]cubeLABS, we have designed a visual note that takes you through the various facets of the MDM and helps you understand- What is MDM and how it works? The need for a mobile device management platform within enterprises and the issues faced while deploying it. Please click here to view our visual note on MDM.

Technology

iOS Programming – Then vs Now

April 12, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

When Apple released the AppStore in 2008, it began a revolution that led to the largest and most vibrant application ecosystem in existence. Objective-C, the programming language for writing apps for Mac OS and iOS, went on to become the third most popular language of modern time after C and Java.

Objective-C has evolved considerably and we have features such as blocks, literals, subscripting, ARC etc. In a span of 3 years, so much of how we program has changed for the better. This article points out some of these new features.

1. Literals

Literals are shorthand notation of writing fixed values. Until recently, Objective-C only had literals for NSString.

// NSString literal
NSString *string = @"Hello";

// The old and redundant way
NSString *string = [NSString stringWithString:@"Hello"];

With Apple LLVM 4.0 onwards, literals for NSArray, NSDictionary and NSNumber were introduced. The following is the old way of writing code:

NSNumber *trueNumber = [NSNumber numberWithBOOL:YES];
NSArray *fruits = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"Apple", @"Papaya", @"Mango", @"Guava", nil];
NSDictionary *params = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:@"Brad", @"firstName", @"Pitt", @"lastName", nil];
NSNumber *magicNumber = [NSNumber numberWithUnsignedInt:25U];

With literals, the same code can be written as follows:

NSNumber *trueNumber = @(YES);
NSArray *fruits = @[@"Apple", @"Papaya", @"Mango", @"Guava"];
NSDictionary *params = @{@"firstName" : @"Brad", @"lastName" : @"Pitt"};
NSNumber *magicNumber = @25U;

Literals are aimed at developers’ happiness and promote readability.

2. ARC

iOS development currently only supports manual memory management. All the projects written prior to LLVM 3.0 were manual memory managed i.e., a developer had to handle memory management manually by calling retain/copy/release/autorelease, following Apple’s Cocoa memory management guidelines. Though the rules were simple, new developers often fell prey to mistakes caused by manual memory management resulting in application crashes. To make things easier, Apple introduced Xcode 4.2 with LLVM 3.0 compiler supporting ARC.

According to Apple’s documentation: Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) is a compiler-level feature that simplifies the process of managing object lifetimes (memory management in Cocoa applications). ARC is a compiler generated step that adds retain/release/autorelease statements invisibly to the code for the developer. The following is an example written using the manual memory management environment:

// Create a user object
PTUser *user = [[PTUser alloc] initWithDictionary:userDictionary];

// Do something awesome here

// Release it when you are done
[user release];

Under ARC, the same code would be:

// Create a user object
PTUser *user = [[PTUser alloc] initWithDictionary:userDictionary];

// Do something awesome here

// Release is not required as the compiler auto-adds this step invisibly to the user.
// [user release];

While long time developers may still vouch for manual memory management, ARC keeps things simpler for beginners and is probably the way of the future.

3. Default property synthesis

Xcode 4.4 was released with Apple LLVM 4.0; it introduced default property synthesis. All the properties that are not @dynamic and do not have a custom getter / setter defined, are now automatically synthesized by default.

For example, have a look at code written using Apple LLVM 3.0 compiler and earlier.

@interface PTUser : NSObject

@property (strong, nonatomic) NSNumber *userId;
@property (strong, nonatomic) NSString *username;
@property (strong, nonatomic) NSString *email;

@end

@implementation PTUser

@synthesize userId = _userId;
@synthesize username = _username;
@synthesize email = _email;

@end

The same code written using LLVM 4.0 and above with Default property synthesis would look like this:

@interface PTUser : NSObject

@property (strong, nonatomic) NSNumber *userId;
@property (strong, nonatomic) NSString *username;
@property (strong, nonatomic) NSString *email;

@end

@implementation PTUser

@end

This not only saves developer time, but also reduces the number of redundant lines of code.

4. Blocks

iOS 4.0 introduced blocks, a language-level feature added to C, C++ and Objective-C. Blocks are like functions, but written inline with the rest of your code, inside other functions. They are sometimes called closures or lambdas in other languages.

^{
    NSLog(@"Executing a block");
}

Blocks are handy in wrapping up a piece of code and effectively storing it for later use. In other words, blocks are excellent for handling callbacks and also acting as inline methods.

A traditional C callback example:

#include 

void callMeBack(void (*func)(void *), void *context) {
    func(context);
}

void callback(void *context) {
    int val = *(int *)context;
    printf("%d\n", val);
}

int main() {
    int val = 5;
    callMeBack(callback, &val);
    return 0;
}

If you look at it, a developer has to think hard to understand the flow in which the code is executed. If you implement the same thing in blocks, it looks like this:

#include 

void callMeBlock(void (^block)(void)) {
    block();
}

int main() {
    int val = 5;
    callMeBlock(^{
        printf("%d\n", val);
    });
    return 0;
}

If you look at the above example, all the context-related arguments have disappeared. Using a block, we have been able to increase cohesion by moving code to where it belongs, making it easier for a developer to understand. Let’s take a look at other example.

Prior to blocks, we used to write it the following way:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
        selector:@selector(keyboardWillShow:)
        name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification object:nil];
}

- (void)keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification *)notification {
    // Do something when the keyboard is shown
}

With blocks, you can implement the same thing as:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserverForName:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification object:nil queue:[NSOperationQueue mainQueue] usingBlock:^(NSNotification *notification) {
        // Do something when the keyboard is shown
    }];
}

Blocks have been added to all the newer APIs and offer the same level of syntactic sugar to the developers.

In UIKit

[self dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:^{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:@"downloadCompleted" object:nil userInfo:nil];
}];

In Foundation

[[NSOperationQueue mainQueue] addOperationWithBlock:^{
    [downloadHistory addObject:imagePath];
}];

In collection classes

[array enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
    NSLog(@"Object at index %lu is %@", idx, obj);
}];

iOS 4.0 also introduced Grand Central Dispatch (GCD), also known as libdispatch. GCD, with the help of blocks, allows developers to write concurrent code. We will cover GCD in an upcoming article very soon. Stay tuned.

5. Storyboarding

Prior to storyboarding, User Interface design was primarily done using Interface Builder’s nibs/xibs. While nibs are nifty, Apple decided to tweak the current workflow of designing apps and introduced storyboarding to the developers with Xcode 4.2.

A storyboard is composed of a sequence of scenes, each of which represents a view controller and its views; scenes are connected by segue objects, which represent a transition between two view controllers.

Storyboarding helps developers visualize the appearance, navigational flow and transitions between scenes of the entire application under one canvas. On top of that, Xcode’s already powerful visual editing tools makes it easier for developers to design, layout and add/remove controls to a scene on the fly.

Enterprise Mobility

Real Time Bidding: The Win-Win Solution for Mobile Developers & Advertisers

April 12, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

With the increase in smartphone and mobile Internet users mobile has become a key focus area for marketers. While mobile advertising has already been explored in various forms and models, it is still an evolving space, striving to meet the challenges and concerns of the advertisers as well as the publishers.

Some of the key concerns that keeps haunting most mobile app developers and publishers:

1. Trade Off: User Experience vs. Monetization. Most developers and app publishers today are focused on delivering a superlative user experience. It is often a concern that incorporating ads for monetization can put the ideal user experience in jeopardy. You definitely don’t want to show a Valentine’s Day gift ad to a man who lost half his fortune in a recent divorce.

2. How Much: It is a common complain amongst mobile app publishers that the revenue from mobile ads is not good enough. Considering they are often times compromising on the ideal user experience to incorporate the ads, which could result in loss of users, one must ask, “what is the real cost?” How does a developer maximize the CPC/CPM (Cost per Click / Cost per thousand Impressions) on his inventory?

3. Fill Rate: While developers are trying to cope with this problem using multiple networks, still they would often times find a part of their inventory not being utilized. Ad inventory is the most perishable commodity for a developer, if he is not able to serve ads to one visitor, that impression is lost for ever. Hence fill rate remains as one of the top challenges for the developers.

Real Time Bidding seems to be the new kid in the block for mobile advertisement that is offering a definite win–win solution for both publishers and advertisers. Let’s understand how Real Time Bidding works.

What is Real Time Bidding ?
Real Time Bidding (RTB) means that every ad impression can be evaluated, bought and sold instantly. When a user opens an app, the users attributes are sent through the RTB Exchange server to the Demand Side Platform (DSP). Based on the perceived value of the users, interested advertisers place their bid to win the ad impression. The highest bidders’ ad is then shown to the user. This entire process happens in less than 200 milliseconds, thereby eliminating any visual delay for the user.

So how does RTB help solve the major concerns in mobile advertisement?

1. Better Targeting: As the user attributes are passed on from the RTB exchange server to the DSP, advertisers get to evaluate each impression and judge the relevancy of the target user before serving their ad, resulting in highly-targeted advertising that the user would easily relate to. While this takes away one of the major publisher concerns, interrupting the user with irrelevant ads, it also delivers better result for the advertisers due to highly specific targeting.

2. Higher CPM: In RTB, each impression is evaluated and multiple advertisers place their bid for the same impression before going to the highest bidder. This process ensures that the publishers get the best possible CPM for each of their impressions and maximize revenue.

3. Fill Rate: With more and more companies implementing OpenRTB (an emerging, open standard for Real Time Bidding communication), it is becoming easier for publishers to connect to multiple DSPs for the same impression, resulting in the highest possible CPM and less untapped inventory (as explained in the point above).

It has been observed that RTB provides significantly better results than traditional ad buying. A report from Adfonic, comparing RTB vs non RTB ads for mobile shows that the click-through rate for RTB ads are 97% higher than non-RTB ads.

RTB provides buyers with more access, targeting and transparency while sellers get a better price for their inventory as multiple advertisers compete for the same impression that is perfectly matched to their targeting attributes.

RTB for Mobile Ads – What’s the big deal ?
Real Time Bidding has been in play for web-based display advertising for some time now, so its eventual progression to mobile isn’t unexpected. So why is everyone going gaga about it? Well, there are few distinct advantages that Real Time Bidding brings to mobile advertising.

1. Location: A consumer carries his mobile everywhere he goes; to the mall, to the coffee shop, to the spa and all this invaluable location data could be made available to the advertiser. Now imagine, if you know the consumer is at the mall and you could push an ad to him with a discount coupon for your brand of chocolates – isn’t that likely to leave your competitor’s brand on the shelf?

2. Better Control and Efficiency: Advertisers have always been leveraging consumer data, but on the mobile it goes to a different level with a lot more consumer data, including location, contextual and demographic data being made available in real time with the ad request, helping the advertiser have better control, deciding whether or not they want to bid on a particular impression and how much would they like to spend on it. Also, such specific control over targeting delivers better results and higher ROI for advertisers.

3. Improving the Mobile Ad Ecosystem: With RTB, publishers are already seeing increased CPM, resulting in larger publishers joining the bandwagon and opening up premium inventory. The advertisers, motivated by the better results and eager to take advantage of this premium inventory, are ploughing more money into RTB ads.

The combination of Real Time Bidding and rich display ads could do wonders for advertisers and with the ever-increasing number of smart phone users and higher Internet penetration, it is providing a golden opportunity for mobile developers to cash in on their users, without any significant disruption to the user experience. While privacy remains a concern, users today are often okay with sharing some information about themselves in order to have a better online/application experience and Real Time Bid Exchanges can successfully leverage the same to facilitate highly targeted advertising, filling the coffer for the publishers.

Enterprise Mobility

Consumer-centric Gamification – Make Gamification work for your consumer (Part 1 of 2)

March 25, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

(This post is written in two parts and addresses the concerns that any Retail Enterprise faces while gamifying a consumer-end process or an element of the process. )

Retail is a volatile space. So, it comes as no surprise that brands struggle to adapt to ever-changing consumer preferences. Mobile has managed to bridge this gap in recent times, because of the “anytime, anywhere convenience” and access to user analytics. Every brand wants to be active in the Mobile space to engage consumers, understand preferences and obtain feedback. The first wave was social; every brand wanted to be on the social space, to follow and engage consumers through social networking.This trend was quickly followed by location-based services; the word on the street was “local,” physical proximity over world-wide presence.

Which brings us to the third wave, Gamification. When carried out the right way, Gamification can engage audiences in ways that traditional Mobile apps cannot. I was in charge of driving the Mobile Strategy for ‘customer engagement’ for a leading retail chain. Like every solutions person, I wanted to apply the recent hot trend and apply it right.

I started with “user/consumer profiling” to understand the behaviour patterns, preferences and pain-points of the consumers in my scope. But, since gamification is a recent trend, my research tools online did not promise accurate information. I wanted to understand the audiences and their pain-points at a deeper level. So I turned to the Solutions team at [x]cube LABS to carry out a field-study. We visited different stores, mapped in-store experiences and talked to people.

During this process, I quizzed a few people in a store about what they thought were the most effective gamified processes in life. I was surprised to hear what they had to say. “ Exams” said one. “Games in school and college,” said another.

It suddenly dawned on me that Gamification isn’t new, it is age-old; it has been an integral part of our lives. Each one of us has psychologically warmed up to the process of excelling in an activity and in turn expecting a reward for it.

That brings me to:

1.Don’t just interpret behaviour patterns. Get to know your audience.

There’s more to understanding user behaviour than decoding analytics. Switch places, instead of sticking to the planning-end of your business, venture out to few of your stores. Be an end-customer for a change. Talk to people and try to understand what bores them, what excites them, and what brand aspects are they attached to? You are sure to have a new perspective on what to gamify in your consumer-cycle.

Over a few cups of coffee, I asked people at my workplace to talk about how they would respond if their day-to-day tasks were gamified. Entering the time-logs could be monotonous; maybe, we could look at gamifying it? Viewing reports in never-ending grids is uninspiring; what if someone comes up with an interesting and engaging way to do it?

People seemed to like these ideas, because every idea was driving fun. We were talking about transforming boring, non-engaging tasks into something enjoyable and gratifying; something one would be self-motivated to do. That brings me to:

2. Pick an area that is non-engaging.

The objective of Gamification is to drive engagement and fun. So, if you choose an aspect in your line-of-business which is already engaging, then the curve of customer engagement would be flat. So start with one of the most boring areas of your process. Try and understand what will make each of these fun. Invite your most-loyal customers to a flash-preview of the gamified process. Document what they enjoy the most. At the end of this activity, you are sure to have your Gamification strategy ready.

One of my female colleagues had an interesting insight to share during the course of these conversations. “It is a known fact that women love to window shop and men don’t like it so much. I would be interested in gamifying such small but challenging areas.” I quickly searched for any Gamification of window shopping and chanced upon Adidas Neo window shopping in Germany.
It’s a universal fact that pretty models catch the attention of men, combine that with a widely accepted fact that any consumer-end solution needs to be simple-that’s Adidas Neo Window shopping for you. A user just has to drag clothing items and voila, the model mirrors your movements just like Tom cat in Talking Tom does. Window shopping cannot get any more interesting than that. Which brings me to:

3. Do not gamify your end-to-end process. Opt for gamifying select touch points.

A majority of the target audience belongs to the ‘Generation C’ (The connected consumer) . One of the defining characteristics of Gen. C. is an affinity for instant gratification. Time and convenience are a customer priority. It is wiser for your business to choose one or two select touch points and -bring them to life as exciting and engaging mobile apps through gamification. Because at the consumer-end, gamification is just not a solution, it’s a statement made by your brand.

Continue to the second part . . .

Technology

User privacy and the ethics of app data collection

March 19, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

“Welcome to Dallas! Special Shopping offers only for you. Check it now”, read a pop-up message on my smartphone screen as soon as I was out of the Dallas airport. I never asked for it though. Being a geek, I always spend my time on researching about apps and their functions. I knew that I have not installed any app that provided me with these functions. I quickly checked in to see what really happened. To my surprise it was a game which took the GPS data. Why would a game that needs no connection to the Internet take my GPS data? How would it help someone make the game better? I reviewed the privacy guidelines issued by the company only to find that the developer has given me a disclaimer but not a choice. His statement was quite clear, if you do not give access to this data, you need not use my game. ‘Thank you so much’ I said to myself and uninstalled the game.

While mobile apps have created a whole new industry and enabled tremendous convenience to the user, it has also raised serious concerns about her privacy. Can privacy be compromised for convenience? Many a times, it has been found out that the app developers themselves do not know what data their app is collecting due to deployment of some third party SDK (such as those from analytics providers/ advertising networks) in the app. Although third party SDKs are easy plug-n-play solutions reducing efforts and costs in app development, the unintended data collection is causing trouble to some developers. With governmental regulation on user privacy getting stricter, the app developers are clearly finding themselves increasingly vulnerable to breaching laws and potential law-suites.

Governments, across the globe, have recognized the importance of privacy of their citizens and are trying to implement stringent rules to guide them. While app developers and publishers are resisting these regulations, they are also failing to realize that customer privacy is at risk and collecting the data without informing her will only be a deathblow to their business.

App developers need data from the user to provide her with more relevant services but ethics must be followed and the user must be informed about it. There are certain guidelines that app developers are expected to follow though they are not legally enforceable. Some of the guidelines are:

1) Be completely transparent about how you are using or transmitting user data.

2) Don’t access more data than you need.

3) Give your users control over uses of data usage that they might not expect.

4) Have a privacy policy.

5) Share new data usage policies before implementing them.

6) Be clear and specific in the disclosures.

7) Delete old data

8) Encrypt data in transit when authenticating users and transferring personal information.

9) Provide users with appropriate communication channels to clear their concerns.

10) Comply with the law of the land.

Keeping the above mentioned considerations while developing an app will not only help developers address privacy concerns but also help them earn respect and trust of their customers. As the saying goes, “Always think of how can you help your customer rather than thinking of ‘How to sell him something?”. The customer will surely appreciate your honesty.

Blog

Calculating ROI of your enterprise app

March 12, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Mobility has emerged as the most disruptive technology in the enterprises today. Businesses are deploying enterprise mobile apps in earnest resulting in a unique interaction between people, process and products. As per a recent survey by Zenprise, 74.7% of decision-makers said they have or will deploy mobile apps to support their line-of-business activities in the next 12 months. However, deploying line-of-business or customer-facing applications requires high amount of upfront investments and substantial recurring expenses every year. As the global economy continues to stagnate, thereby exerting financial pressure on businesses, decision makers are taking a hard look at their mobility expenditure and are asking questions like “How much these mobile apps are benefiting the company?” or “How to calculate the ROI of mobile apps to justify the expenses?” and so on.

In our cover story, this month, we take a look at the process of calculating ROI for enterprise mobile apps by looking at various approaches to measure benefits and costs incurred in deploying mobile apps.

[download file=”http://www.xcubelabs.com/coverstory/Calculating-ROI-for-your-enterprise-app.pdf” title=”Calculating ROI for your enterprise app”]

Mobile ROI

To calculate the ROI of a mobile app we will first need to ascertain two components : benefits and costs.

Benefits: The benefits arising out of deploying enterprise level apps in an organization can be classified into qualitative and quantitative benefits.

Quantitative benefits are those that can be put in numbers such as percentage increase in cost savings, reduction in time to perform specific activity, percentage increase in revenue /profits etc
Qualitative benefits, on the other hand, are intangibles like increase in customer satisfaction, boost in customer loyalty and brand perception etc.

The qualitative benefits may be impossible to measure but form an important consideration in getting the bigger picture of deploying an app. To measure quantifiable benefits, a step-wise approach could be illustrated by the following example –

Sample Benefit Analysis

A mobile app for field service technicians providing access to real-time information on customer complaints, tickets raised/solved and other details can offer benefits in-
• Reducing response time- As technicians are getting real-time information on tickets raised they can quickly respond to the client needs. The time spent on handling each ticket after app deployment can be compared with the previous scenarios to ascertain the improvement.

• Travel savings: Real-time information on devices will also help technicians in reducing their travel time. They don’t need to make needless trips to central office and can plan their schedule so as to minimize their travel. Reduction in travel time not only increases work-time of technicians but also saves on fuel costs.

• Resource management- Your existing staff has more work-time now and also can now handle more tickets with the same resources.
In addition to that, the field service app provides many intangible benefits like quicker and improved customer service leading to higher customer loyalty, boost in brand perception etc.
In addition to that, the field service app provides many intangible benefits like quicker and improved customer service leading to higher customer loyalty, boost in brand perception etc.

Step-wise approach to measure benefits

Increase in productivity of the work force has emerged as a major benefit arising from deploying enterprise apps. Various studies suggest that workers have been able to gain additional work time by using mobile apps. Let’s assume that a technician in a manufacturing unit gains 30 minutes of additional productivity per day owing to mobilized environment in his workplace.
So, if the pay per hour of a technician is $50 then the productivity gain for the organization would be
Productivity gain per day = ($50/2) $25 per day per worker.
Productivity gain per month (22 working days) per worker = $25*22 = $550
If there are 100 technicians operating in the unit,
the cumulative productivity gain per month = $550*100 = $55000
Using this approach, the equation can be extrapolated to the entire organization.
Benefits, no matter how high, must be weighed against the expenses incurred in deriving it. And therefore it is also equally important to look at the costs involved in deploying a mobile app / enterprise mobility strategy and to see whether the benefits-costs equation is profitable.

Costs: The total cost of ownership for an app can be classified into: upfront costs like licensing, app development, hardware procurement etc., and recurring costs involving data plans, maintenance, up-gradation, training for new users and IT administration.

Licensing– Deployment strategies drive the costs incurred in licensing of servers and other software for your mobile app.
App Development– The costs of app development depend on many factors including the functionalities, complexity and the technology used in the app. Also the costs may vary depending on whether it is developed in-house or outsourced. If development isn’t your core functionality, it is always economical to outsource to specialized companies.
Device Procurement– Increasingly BYOD is becoming popular in enterprises, relieving organizations of device procurement cost. However, if you have a policy of providing company-owned devices to employees then the costs will vary depending on the model and manufacturer of the device.
Voice & Data Plans– Every app and mobile device will need voice and data plans to function. These are the costs incurred every year and form a substantial part of overall expenses.
Maintenance & Up gradation– Every application needs periodic maintenance depending on a number of factors like frequency of new version releases, addition/changes in functionalities etc.
IT Training & Administration– The end-user training costs are largely driven by the number of users and the number of apps available to users.

The upfront costs in owning a mobile can be significantly higher while recurring costs will be lesser but will spread over the years. Also, the total costs involved in deploying an app will vary significantly depending on the scale, scope and functionality of the app. However, calculations (provided in the table below) based on a study by Forester for a BlackBerry solution deployment provides us with some indications on the type and the range of costs involved across various deployment stages.

Costs Of BlackBerry Solution Deployment Captured In The TEI Analysis

Cost Category	Reactive deployment stage	Proactive deployment stage	Integrative deployment stage	Cost Drivers
Blackberry Enterprise Server	$48	$100	$45	Variances are driven by the number of BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, whether the organization has separatetesting,production,orback-upservers, the cost of each server, and the maintenance fees.
BlackBerry smartphones	$639	$739	$741	Costs vary due to the number of BlackBerry smartphones supported and corporate liable device policy.
User support	$66-$73	$71-$75	$171-$206	User support costs increase along with the number of mobile applications deployed.
End user training	$52-$77	$231-$254	$240-$289	Costs driven by the number of users and the number of mobile applications available to users.
Voice and data plans	$2,363	$2,459	$2,079	Voice and data plans are the key driver of costs across all deployment stages.
Mobility applications	$0	$72	$193	Costs driven by the number of mobile applications beyond email
Total three-year cost per BlackBerry smartphone	$3,168-$3,200	$3,672-$3,699	$3,470-$3,552
Average annual cost Per BlackBerry smartphone	$1,056-$1,067	$1,224-$1,233	$1,156-$1,184

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

Calculating mobility TCO can be a challenge in the absence of a standard model or a popular formula. Moreover, a major part of the costs vary depending on the functionalities of the app created, platforms to be supported, scale of users and the mobility strategy adopted by the organizations. The study by Forrester Research Inc. puts the average annual cost per BlackBerry user to be in the range of $1,056 to $1,184 per user per year in all deployment stages.
So continuing the scenario used for calculating benefits where we saw a productivity gain of $25 per day per user or $6500 per user per year and assuming costs to be the average of the range provided above i.e.

($1056 + $1184) /2= $1120, we find that the
ROI= Productivity gains/costs
= $6500/ ($1120)
ROI= 5.8X.

As discussed above, upfront costs like licensing, app development and device procurements etc., will not form part of expenses in the following years and only recurring expenses like data plans, user training (depending on new users added) and app maintenance costs etc., will be incurred leading to lowering of cost per user and further increase in the ROI of the app.

Key considerations

It is important to note while calculating ROI for an enterprise app that not all benefits can be measured. Moreover, not all benefits can be accrued in the first phase or year of deployment. This could be because of the functionality used, scale of coverage or adaptability levels among the users. Similarly, a few benefits of mobile app may end after a few years of deployment.
The costs of owning an enterprise app goes significantly lower after a few years of deployment. There are significant investments upfront but as the scale of adoption increases, the cost to serve per user starts coming down.
Another way to increase the ROI by bringing down the costs of developing an app is to consider outsourcing it. In-house app development requires significant investments in technology and manpower which pushes the cost.
To gain the most from your mobile app, it is important that user-centricity is kept in mind while developing it and sufficient motivation and encouragement is provided for its large scale adoption. The bigger the scale of adoption, the more ROI you can gain.

Conclusion

Quantifying ROI for an enterprise app is challenging but is something that can be very useful in decision-making and can play a large part in developing mobile strategy for future deployments. Although a good part of the benefits derived from an enterprise app remains intangible and hence difficult to quantify, but various case studies, precedents and data available can help decision-makers to judge and justify their investments in deploying an enterprise app.

Enterprise Mobility, Technology

Augmented Reality applications – from the Consumer to the Enterprise

March 11, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Augmented Reality (AR) applications (apps) have recently been enjoying a lot of attention in the mobile world. Companies are increasingly looking to AR apps to provide their customers with a differentiating experience. App developers consider AR apps to be at the cutting edge of the mobile industry.

Location data or Visual Feed

The majority of AR apps either use the device’s geographical coordinates to automatically identify nearby Points of Interest (POIs), or identify the images in the visual feed. Subsequently, the apps show data relevant to the geo-location, or augment the visual feed by overlaying related images, videos or animations.

A common example of an AR app of the first kind is related to tourism. The device knows the user’s location, based on which it can retrieve (from a previously created database), a set of famous landmarks, then “identifies” them on screen by listing out the name, historical data and other details.

The second kind of AR app would find use in the service industry. A technician would train the camera on his mobile device onto a part requiring repair or servicing. The part would be recognized, using pattern detection techniques, and this would trigger either videos, or a set of instructions on how to proceed with the maintenance.

How does an AR app work?

At its core, an Augmented Reality (AR) application seems to do three things:

a) Accepts input, usually in the form of context aware location data, or environmental data in the form of live camera pictures,

b) Processes the input data, typically to determine nearby POIs, or to recognize the images in the camera feed,

c) Displays some output, generally in the form of details of the POIs, or as animations of the recognized image, or related audio or video streams.

Now a typical computer, or mobile, application (app) also does the same three things. The first part accepts user input. The second part processes and transforms the input. In the third part, the processed data is output (displayed) to the user in some suitable format.

So, once we cut through the hype surrounding AR apps, an AR app seems to be the same as a regular app. What then makes an AR app different from a typical app? The differences are subtle and lie in the nuances of user interactions, device responses and the typical use cases.

How are AR apps different from regular apps?

An AR app accepts input usually in the form of location data (i.e. latitude, longitude, orientation, speed etc), or in the form of a visual feed from the camera. In the first case, no user involvement is needed. Devices embedded in the mobile, such as a GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer or other sensor units, automatically get this information and pass them on to the app. In the second case, the user must switch on the device’s camera and point it at the POIs. In both cases, the input is received in a non-traditional way. A traditional app would display a form, and users would key in data as input.

The output generated is also differentiated. An AR app would generally add on (or Augment) a virtual layer of information or animations to the “real” information, which is already available.

So, to summarize, an AR app is characterized by seamless user experience, ubiquitous availability and visual output.

From the analysis done above, it seems that AR apps would be most suited to a retail, or consumer facing, environment, in some kind of a personal use, informative or entertainment domain, with minimal user input and a good deal of visual data is output.

So, can AR apps make an impact in the enterprise? Here are some possible scenarios where this can happen-

A real estate developer is planning to construct a new housing project in a mountainous region. Options exist to start the construction in four or five different locations in the area. The developer wants to select a spot which would present the greatest visual appeal both to potential buyers and residents. To do this, an AR app could superimpose an image of the constructed housing complex on to the possible locations, and based on how it looks, can select the optimal spot.
An airline wants to customize the interiors of the new aircraft which it has ordered. Using AR to superimpose pictures on to a camera feed of the plane’s interior, the aircraft builder can present to the buyer how various seating options (number of seats, colors etc.) will actually cause the interior to look like. The buyer can take an informed decision based on this.
AR apps could revolutionize the print industry. AR apps can view and interpret printed media, then superimpose related video as well as real-time, updated news feeds on it. DIY (Do It Yourself) books can be enhanced by combining the text with an AR app which can overlay complementary pictures and videos.

These types of apps either already exist today, or are in the development pipeline. But it is just the beginning. AR as an enabling technology has the potential to take enterprise level mobile apps to the next level. The future is likely to bring to the fore AR apps of the kind which today looks beyond the realms of possibility. Innovations such as Google’s Project Glass and integration of brain-wave data with the AR environment are sure to give a new meaning to AR apps and make it compatible with much more complex processes, elevating AR’s adaptability level to a higher level in the enterprise.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

Enterprise Mobility in 2013: A Look Ahead

January 30, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

2012 was the year of enterprise mobility as more and more companies, big and small, across the globe, initiated adopting mobile solutions. There was clamor for mobility from consumers as mobile became an indispensable gadget for them and from employees as they witnessed more possibilities for it in work. Early industry adopters like retail, banking and healthcare benefitted by quantifiable results in consumer loyalty, productivity and efficiency etc., further encouraged other sectors to adopt mobility into their ecosystem. Enabling technologies like Augmented Reality, NFC, RFID and cloud computing etc., also opened up new opportunities for businesses to leverage mobile technology. In short, in 2012, mobility was disruptive in enterprises unsettling the traditional people-product-process engagement. From why mobility, the focus shifted on how to mobilize and now enterprises are thinking: what more to mobilize?

There are far more possibilities for mobility beyond its current usage in enterprises. With the start of a new year, it’s worth keeping the ear to the ground and listen to the signals? In our cover story, this month, we look ahead to know how the enterprise mobility landscape will shape up in 2013.

Here’s what to expect this year-

[download file=”http://www.xcubelabs.com/coverstory/Enterprise-Mobility-in-2013.pdf” title=”Enterprise Mobility in 2013″]

Mobility for all – Inside and outside

Enterprises till now have primarily focused on customer-centric apps that enable consumers getting access to products and services. Employees, on the other hand, have been demanding greater mobility in workplace. 2013 will see a giant leap as more and more organizations find greater benefits in mobile solutions catering to the inner needs of the organization. As a result, enterprise mobility, for the first time in many companies will see dedicated budgets, strategic focus and prioritized implementations. According to Yankee Group, “The proportion of companies increasing their budgets for mobile applications has almost doubled in the past year, from 28 percent to 51 percent of all companies spending more, with many looking at different use cases, both internal and customer-facing.” Enterprises will look beyond picking the low lying fruits of mobility resulting into better parity between consumers and employees. So, on one hand we will see apps providing product information to consumers but there will also be apps developed that will help employees check stock status, track product movements and so on. Mobility will also spread itself beyond travel, banking, finance, healthcare and retail etc., to other industry sectors like automotive and manufacturing on a bigger scale.

Apps – We will see more of it

2013 will see more apps in the enterprises. Enterprise apps will move beyond providing mail, calendar, messaging and database access etc. The major thrust will be on line-of-business apps that integrate processes, products and people by bringing more sophisticated functionalities and enabling access to enterprise software and infrastructure. Employees would be able to interact with machines in real-time. Cloud-based technologies like Platform as a Service (PaaS) will provide the right infrastructure to the enterprises to cost-effectively scale-up mobility and provide entire workforce access to it.

Devices – The shift

Enterprise mobility till last year had revolved around smartphone. But the entry of Tablets and its evolving utility in the workplace will mark the shift. There will be diversity in devices as seen in consumer world with Apple, Android further eating into Blackberry’s base. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy which sometime back generated a reluctant and at times a combative response from the decision-makers will be an established norm. Further, mobile strategies will no more be centered towards one particular device type or platform but will look to accommodate as much diversity as possible.

Machine-2-machine – The new connect

Enterprise mobile solutions will not only herald a more robust connectivity between employees but will also witness greater push into M2M communication. Decreasing M2M device costs; permeating wireless connectivity, increasing enterprise awareness and business case feasibility and supportive government regulations will be the drivers for M2M this year. According to a latest study by mobile network operator E-Plus, M2M SIM cards in use in Germany is forecast to grow to over 5 million by 2013, up from 2.3 million currently. The existing market applications of M2M communications are in the automotive, consumer electronics, healthcare, metering, POS/payment, tracking & tracing, remote maintenance & control, and security sectors.

Augmented Reality

The advent of smartphones and Tablets will provide Augmented Reality (AR) with a suitable platform for its mass usage. Till 2012, most of the usage of AR in mobility was limited to location-based and navigational applications. But, evolution of image recognition technologies and further developments in mobile computing will power the development of a wider range of applications that promise to take AR use to next-level and dilate its usage across the corporate ecosystem. Augmented Reality as an enabling technology will spread its wings in 2013 across industries- from media to education and healthcare to entertainment.

Mobile Device Management – The security cover

Among organizations which have not yet deployed an MDM solution, 32% will deploy one in 2013 and additional 24% plan to deploy one in 2014• Enterprise applications with augmented reality elements are expected to account for the third-largest proportion of revenues by 2015. — Juniper Research• The leading factor (34%) cited for deploying an MDM solution was the potential for loss of intellectual property• Among respondents switching to a new MDM platform, 31% indicated that they would likely select a cloud-based solution. Of those, 55 percent said they would choose a private cloud solution for security reasons

• The top three reasons cited for choosing a cloud MDM solution were:
– Simpler administration/maintenance (69%)
– Predictable/reduced costs (39%)
– Don’t want to use internal IT staff resources (21%)

Source: Osterman Research

The proliferation of smartphones and Tablets of all sizes, platforms and functionalities, the gold rush for apps in enterprises coupled with adoption of BYOD strategy has led to deluge of security threats for enterprises. Securing critical corporate data hosted on mobile devices and accessed outside company’s network will drive enterprises to invest more in MDM solutions in 2013. According to Gartner, Inc., over the next five years, 65 percent of enterprises will adopt a mobile device management (MDM) solution for their corporate liable users. However, MDM in its present form will only be a step towards secured environment. As more data related threats emerge, we can see a much robust and broader approach towards mobile security in enterprises.

Mobile Payments – The cashless economy

Google Wallets, Squarebucks and payment services from mobile operators; mobile payments that started to heat-up in 2012 will continue the momentum and gain wider traction in 2013. For consumers, it is getting more convenient paying through mobile and enterprises are willing to meet the new demands of consumers. However, as more and more people use mobile for payments, the opportunities for security breaches and frauds will grow, calling for a fresh approach and robust technical infrastructure.

Consumer Experience – New rules of engagement

2012 saw enterprises adopting mobility to engage with its consumer base. The buyers’ aspirations too have risen to a level where they want their device to help them shop. Till now, for most of the companies, mobility was restricted to providing consumers an alternate access to its products & solutions. 2013 will set new rules of consumer engagement as companies use enabling technologies like Augmented Reality, context based searches, Near Field Communications, and mobile payments etc., to offer immersive experience.

2012 was a pretty eventful year as mobile became a disruptive force in enterprises. 2013 is expected to be a major turning-point in enterprise mobility. An year that can well decide the course for the future. Let’s see how it unfolds.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

Big Data, Small Screen

January 30, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

We are living in a connected age and computing has made information superfluous, organizations are having zeta bytes of data at their disposal and the challenge is how to best leverage those data?

Mobility on the other hand has got the business world addicted to information on the go, executives are getting used to making decisions on the fly.

Big Data solutions help process those zeta bytes of data to get actionable insights and mobile devices make this insights available in almost real time for businesses, effectively increasing the efficiency and decision making process.

As a mobile app development company working with various enterprise clients we have been observing the data centricity in almost all requirements in every possible aspect of business. Whether it’s about designing some marketing campaign, sales force enablement, inventory management for retail units or executive dashboards – data is the key to a successful business app.

It is becoming increasingly important for mobile application companies to develop expertise in big data technologies, as the future clearly spells the convergence of big data and small screens.

At [x]cube, we have been creating apps that integrates and analyze huge volume of business data, however, we realize that there are business that are looking for big data solutions beyond mobile apps. We have now established, [x]cube DATA , a specialized team that will be catering to various industry segments with state of the art big data technology.

At [x]cube DATA We have developed capabilities in all major big data technologies and would be providing custom solutions for industries across a wide spectrum. Leveraging our existing competency in mobile [x]cube is now uniquely positioned to offer big data solutions for small screen.

Announcements

[x]cube LABS to participate in 2013 International CES

January 4, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

The biggest electronics show CES 2013 is just round the corner. From January 8-11, 2013 at Las Vegas, Nevada, the gems, the giants and the newbies from the electronics industry will all gather on one platform to contemplate and deliberate on the latest trends, technologies, products, practices, and upcoming challenges. At [x]cube LABS, we see it as a perfect occasion to interact with the various stakeholders in the mobile ecosystem, understand the swiftly changing landscape and explore business opportunities. We will be represented by a high-level delegation led by our CEO Mr. Bharath Lingam, and comprising other senior executives from the company.
If you too are attending the event, then please drop by and visit us at booth no-25301!

Enterprise Mobility, White papers

Augmented Reality Apps: The future is real + virtual

January 1, 2013 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

A study by Juniper research predicts enterprise applications with augmented reality elements to account for the third-largest proportion of revenues by 2015.

Augmented Reality (AR) has gained a lot of lot of traction, in recent times, as an enabling technology in the mobility space. The proliferation of powerful smartphones and later tablets has presented AR with the right vehicle to take center stage in enterprise and consumer mobility. As a result, we are witnessing a huge interest in AR technology and its growing adoption in enterprise-level app development and there is much more in the near future.

Our cover story, this month, focuses on Augmented Reality with specific reference to enterprise mobility and endeavors to explore the seismic shift, drivers, opportunities and challenges of adopting the new technology. We also look into the future to understand how AR will shape-up mobility in the coming days.

What is Augmented Reality?

Ronald Azuma’s widely referenced definition of AR explains Augmented Reality as systems that have the following three characteristics

1) Combines real and virtual

2) Interactive in real time

3) Registered in 3-D.

In simpler words, AR refers to a technology that blends real and virtual world in real-time through suitable computing interfaces. For a user, it offers a real-time view of the immediate surroundings improved or enriched with digital information. One example of Augmented Reality use in enterprises can be a medical equipment manufacturer launching an app that allows its sales team to provide 3D demonstrations of its entire product range to doctors on a smartphone or a Tablet. Similarly, AR can be used by car manufacturers to visualize and design a car body and engine layout. A mobile AR app can be built that allows employees to try and build digital mockups of the car body and work on its design, share it with other relevant people and then arrive at the final design.

The Transformation

Augmented Reality failed to took-off in enterprises for many years due to lack of supportive infrastructure. The advent of smartphones and Tablets provided it with an appropriate platform for its mass usage. But still, most of the usage was restricted to location based and navigational applications. However, evolution of image recognition technologies and further advancements in mobile computing powered the development of a wider range of applications that promises to take Augmented Reality in enterprises to next-level and dilate their usage across the ecosystem. Today AR has its usage across every industry vertical- from military to industrial, and from education to entertainment.

The Key Drivers

There are several factors that are driving the AR usage in enterprises.

The advent of AR-supportive smartphones and Tablets in enterprises is the major driving force that provided the necessary infrastructure for the technology to grow.

With the costs of AR capable mobile devices going down and advancements in the AR technology, the costs of employing AR into apps has also considerably reduced, further encouraging enterprises to try it out.

Increasing mobile internet speed and adoption is another factor that is encouraging the usage of AR apps beyond limitations of time and space.

In the last few years, we have also witnessed the rise in m-commerce with every big and small brand making its presence felt in the mobility space and providing consumers with access to their products and services. Brands in search of providing interactive and superior shopping experience to consumers are leveraging on AR.

The Benefits

Provides rich, interactive and engaging user experience.

Aids in boosting brand perception among customers.

Helps in customer buying decisions.

Provides access to the soaring smartphone markets.

Relatively economical in comparison to other media alternatives.

Detailed analytics and data to understand user behavior.

SELLING WITH AUGMENTED REALITY

Likelihood To Buy?

After viewing the 2D printed display advert, out of 100 parents, 45% would consider buying the toy for a child. Out of those who viewed the augmented reality experience, 74% of the parents would consider buying the toy for a child.

Attitude To Price?

Out of those parents that viewed the printed advert, the average price of £5.99 was attributed as the estimated retail value of the product. Of those parents that engaged with the augmented reality experience, they estimated a higher average price of £7.99.

Advertising Engagement?

Parents spent an average of 12 seconds actively engaged with the print advert. Those parents using the augmented reality experience did so for an average of 1 minute 23 seconds.

The Challenges

There are, however,a number of social,economic and technical challenges that need to be addressed for AR apps to gain any significant traction in enterprises. It is early days for AR apps in mainstream and hence there is little public awareness on its usage and benefits. Brands releasing AR apps have to educate its audience so that they can make complete use of the AR capabilities in apps. Secondly, AR is heavily hardware dependent i.e. it requires good-quality cameras and sensors; which in a fragmented smartphone market with varying device sizes and capabilities would be difficult to standardize. Moreover, to boost the usage of AR apps, challenges like user interface, demand for engaging content that can provide value to consumers etc., too need to be addressed so that AR moves beyond the gimmick to fully engage the customers.

The Opportunities

Augmented Reality offers tremendous opportunities for enterprises to leverage from it both, internally and externally. Here a few ways through which enterprises in different sectors can use mobile AR apps

Travel & Tourism: AR based GPS apps can provide directions to tourists. Translations apps can help them read and interpret signboards and menus in foreign locations. Sightseeing apps can be built that provide location-based information on the display of the device. The tourists can walk through historical sites and museums with key facts & figures presented on the screen of their smartphone or Tablet.

Source: Androidcentral.com

Healthcare: AR apps can enable medical students to use surgical techniques on virtual body parts of the patients. 3D visualization aids in the apps can be used to see and explain complex medical conditions. AR can also be integrated with other medical equipment like X-ray, MRI scanners etc., to provide comprehensive details of a patient’s condition.

Source:augmentedrealitytrends.com

Manufacturing: AR can help in creating a simulation environment that can assist in product designing process. Simulated environment can also be used to train employees. The maintenance team can get superimposed images and relevant information to help detect defects in big machines.

augmentedrealitytrends.com

Education: AR capable navigation apps can provide directions to various places in the campus. Schools can use AR generated 3D visual models to explain science and mathematical concepts. Markers can be used in text books which provide additional information or play supplementary videos when scanned with AR capable smartphones.

Source:personal.kent.edu

Commerce: AR apps can provide complete preview of products and customization of options. For example, apparel stores can provide preview options through which buyers can actually see how a particular apparel design looks on them. For promotion, AR supportive materials can be designed which when scanned through a mobile device provides additional information about the product.

Source: augmentedrealitytrends.com

Sports & Entertainment: In sporting events, AR can be used to overlay advertisements into the playing area. AR imagery and markers can be used to explain the techniques and strategies involved in the game. AR based games can provide gamers with real-life experiences in combatting an enemy or while racing cars. The use of AR in movie-production can result in a unique viewing experience with viewers finding themselves amidst the characters.

Source: augmentedpixels.com

Our Recommendations…

AR is the future: Be it for internal usage or external , enterprise apps will surely become AR capable in the days to come.

Understand the technology: AR apps have their own advantages and limitations. Build an effective strategy that optimally and effectively utilizes the technology without compromising on your brand strategy.

Focus on user experience: Ensure an engaging, user-friendly and interactive experience.

A long-term roadmap: AR technology and its application in enterprises are swiftly advancing. With time, the benefits from it will also improve. Allow it to gain critical mass.

The Future

Being an enabling technology, AR can take enterprise level apps into the next level. In the next few years, as the usage grows and further advancements in the technology are made, novel ways of deploying AR in enterprise mobility will be explored and experimented with. In the future, innovations like integrating brain-wave data with the AR environment, Google’s Project Glass etc., if successful, will give birth to more meaningful and effective utilization of AR in mobility. What we are seeing today is just the tip of the iceberg. There is much more to come.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

Mobility in 2012-The year that was.

December 27, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

The world of mobility is evolving at a rapid pace. Each year it’s getting speedier, powerful and better. 2012 was no different where we have witnessed mobile devices and solutions take many steps forward. Our latest infographic “Mobility in 2012-the year that was” visually summarizes the highlights of the year in the mobile landscape, the growth story and the gainers and losers. The infographic tells you with facts and figures on how the mobile ecosystem has grown this year.

To view the complete infographic and for a high resolution image click here. Re-tweets and feedback will be highly appreciated!

Our other infographics-

mHealth-Mobility in Healthcare

Enterprise Mobility

The Mobile Employee

Enterprise Mobility-Apps, Platforms and Devices

The Android Story

The evolution of mobile operating systems

Smartphone and Mobile App Usage

The smartphone app-o-graphic

Education, White papers

Mobility for Education: The new paradigm in learning

November 19, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

“Going to School” has been re-defined over the years with swift advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT). The learning behavior has also undergone major changes necessitating educational institutions to periodically re-look and take a fresh approach to pedagogy. The massive proliferation of mobile devices coupled with soaring usage of smartphone and tablet apps herald new opportunities to various stakeholders in the ecosystem to break existing barriers and make use of mobile technology to make learning more meaningful, impactful and take it beyond the existing boundaries of time and place; in sync with the contemporary requirements. For the citadels of learning, it offers exciting opportunities to expand their reach; make learning accessible to remotest locations and successfully fulfill their social responsibilities. And all this, without being too heavy on their finances.

Our cover story, this month, focuses on Mobility for Education and endeavors to explore the transformation, approaches, benefits, opportunities and challenges of adopting mobility solutions in the learning sphere. We also take a step ahead to look into the future and understand the long-term prospects of mobility.

Classrooms are transforming…

Mobile devices and apps have entered schools and colleges in a big way as more and more students and teachers adopt mobility to take advantage of the various benefits it offers. Smartphones, Tablets, e-readers and millions of apps, right from teaching alphabets to new languages to lucidly explaining advanced mathematics and science, are taking centre stage and are rapidly becoming the tool of choices in the ecosystem. And it is very easy to see why.

Several factors are at play. Growing smartphone and tablet ownership, soaring usage of apps among the student community, high-speed bandwidth coverage in most of the schools and colleges are providing the necessary infrastructure for adoption of mobility solutions in the educator sector. Armed with smartphones and tablets, students are round-the-clock connected to their schools and colleges and are getting access to learning materials and other relevant information on their fingertips. Educators are finding mobile solutions as an effective collaborator in the teaching process allowing them to explain concepts in an easy-to-understand and interactive way. Educational institutions faced with several challenges such as competition, student & staff preferences, rising administrative costs, and in the search for better pedagogical approaches, are enthusiastically leveraging mobility solutions for education. Various benefits like convenience & relevance in learning, low investments, reduced costs, personalized and flexible approach to learning etc., are making mobile devices and apps effective tools to impart education.

A survey by Pearson Foundation finds that tablet ownership has tripled among college students (25% vs. 7% in 2011) and quadrupled among high school seniors (17% vs. 4% in 2011). Moreover, 63% of college students and 69% of high school seniors believe that tablets will replace textbooks within the next five years. Most of the college students find tablets to be valuable for educational purposes and around half say that they are more likely to read textbooks on a tablet because of embedded interactive materials, social networking features, and access to instructors’ comments in the reading material. Three-quarters of college students participating in the study say they use tablets daily for academics-related activities.

Mobility helps students and educators

Mobility Benefits

Students	Institutions
Freedom from time and place.	Contemporary pedagogical approach.
Empowers learners to control activities.	Personal attention & high engagement with learners.
Personalized lessons and assignments.	Quick assessment of learner’s requirements.
Utilization of ‘dead time’ like travelling, waiting etc.	Better utilization of resources. Reach to more students with same faculty strength.
Rich multimedia content that makes learning fun & engaging.	Cost-effective adoption. Requires relatively less investments.
Personal interaction with faculty.	Analytics for decision support.
Convenient doubt-clearing sessions.	Support for distance education programs.
Supportive for students with special needs.	Enables imparting education to students with special needs.

The opportunities for schools and colleges

The invasion of mobile technology into education has opened up new possibilities for schools and colleges. Mobility solutions can successfully touch upon every element of the learning ecosystem to make it more effective and transformative. Here are a few possibilities

Study material for smartphones & tablets: tudents can access these learning materials from their devices and study anywhere and anytime thereby making better use of their time. Mobile based tests and questionnaires are used to quickly assess student’s understanding of the concepts.

Real-time information sharing: Mobility offers quick data-sharing that can help educators in accurately assessing the learner’s requirements and his activities that can help in better designing of course modules and curriculum.

Admission process: Schools and colleges are meeting students where they are. During the admission time, institutions are developing mobile apps that not only give access to application forms, college brochures and results etc., but also take students on virtual tours to get a glimpse of the campus.

Voice, text and chat based faculty-student interaction: Mobility offers one-to-one interaction between a student & his teacher which not only helps him clear his doubts on a particular subject conveniently but also devoid of any inhibitions.

Mobile based roaster: Institutions with higher student population and bigger campuses can move from time-consuming manual attendance-recording procedures to mobile supported roasters.

Mobile payments: Mobility also help colleges in collection of fees wherein students and parents get an easy alternative to make payment through the college app.

Mobile alerts: Information on surprise quizzes, assignments, health services or any other event can be effortlessly relayed across to the student population through mobile apps and texts.

Social media on mobile: Embedded social media features on the learning aid can help students interact with their mates as well as teachers to ask questions and share notes.

Data collection: Mobile solutions can be a huge asset in research-oriented learning as students can collect data on their device from the field and then use various tools to share & process the data and further the process.

Mobility for School Management: Mobile apps for administrative usage can be developed wherein information on availability & utilization of resources like labs, conference halls can be uploaded and shares. The teaching staff can be provided with time-tables of lecture sessions, academic calendars and scores of various assessments and other desired information can be uploaded.

Approaches to education through mobility

On-campus: Allowing students to use mobile devices in classrooms to enhance collaboration among students and instructors. Students can get access to reference materials and other learning resources.

Distance Education: Mobility can be very helpful in distance-education programs. Less costly than a PC or a laptop, a mobile device can be the effective learning medium for students who are unable to attend residential courses.

Off-campus: Schools and colleges can also use mobile solutions to enhance learning in class environment. Lectures, learning materials can be made available for students to revisit and revise whenever required.

Challenges

While mobility solutions for education offer numerous benefits, there are still key challenges, both technical and social, that need to be adequately responded to in order to maximally benefit from the mobile initiatives and attain desired goals through it. Mobile devices differ in form and functionalities and the challenge is to develop learning content that can have a compatible presentation for all. Secondly, bandwidth latency and coverage is an issue that needs to be addressed if education has to truly free itself from time and place constraints. With most reputed schools and colleges already using e-learning methodologies, transforming the existing learning material to a mobile-friendly format would be a big exercise. Copyrights and intellectual properties also need to be safeguarded as they move from restricted to open environments.

Educational institutions also need to come-up with the right mobile strategy that keeps the entry-costs of education through mobility low for students while developing an appropriate teaching process that understands learner’s requirements, supports different learning styles and provides accurate assessment of the learning activity.

Our Recommendations

Embrace mobility: Mobile solutions can be a long-term answer to many of the external and internal challenges faced by your institution.

Understand the medium: Mobile devices have their own strengths and limitations. Build an effective teaching strategy that optimally utilizes the medium without compromising the learning process.

Focus on learner experience: Understand your audience is young and new to technology. Create smooth, user-friendly and interactive mobile content. Look to continuously engage with your students.

Get ready for the future: Hand-held devices will soon emerge as primary devices for learning. Start preparing ground for full-scale usage of mobility solutions.

Future

Mobile solutions offer exciting opportunities for both, students and educators. However, we are still plucking the low lying fruits of the tree. As devices get powered with advanced functionalities like 3D display capabilities, sensors and accelerometers and emerging technologies like cloud computing, surface computing, augmented reality, NFC tags etc., get further established, we will witness a large-scale adoption of mobile solutions in education. The advancements will pave the way for the next-level of mobility in education through haptics (science of communicating through touch, gestures, and force feedback) and location and context-aware learning while providing extra fillip to the existing mobile learning initiatives. In other words, mobile solutions are set to be involved in education for long-term and therefore it makes a perfect case for schools and colleges to first adopt mobile technology as an enabler and collaborator and then be prepared for its wholesome adoption. The places of learning are on their way for a massive transformation. Are you ready?

Blog, Healthcare

Infographic: mHealth- Mobility in Healthcare

November 14, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

As we are letting mobile technology embrace every nook and corner of our lives, then why leave our very own health behind? The healthcare industry is getting all the more mobile-empowered with the advent of technologies like Wi-Fi, RFID and NFC etc. At [x]cube LABS, we focus on mobile solutions for multiple challenges confronted by enterprises. With our latest infographic on mHealth, we take a lead to discuss the trends involving mobile apps, devices and solutions that encompass adoption, opportunities and the future of mobile healthcare. The infographic also takes a look at consumer perception towards this distending industry and finds out how mobile health solutions can make healthcare affordable. Check out our infographic for numbers that support these facts.

To view the complete infographic and for a high resolution image click here. Re-tweets and feedback will be highly appreciated!

Our other infographics-

Enterprise Mobility

The Mobile Employee

Enterprise Mobility-Apps, Platforms and Devices

The Android Story

The evolution of mobile operating systems

Smartphone and Mobile App Usage

The smartphone app-o-graphic

Media, White papers

Mobile Entertainment – Mobile is the new media

October 30, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

The proliferation of smartphones and the subsequent entry of tablets have resulted in a major shift in mobile entertainment and mobile user behavior. Streaming media and video services, mobile TV and games etc., have re-defined digital entertainment ushering in a fresh experience for mobile users. The result is an unprecedented shot in mobile content availability and consumption. The perpetual increase in games and app downloads, average TV viewing times on mobile, and an expanding base in the mobile entertainment audience signals towards a substantial demand for such services currently and projects a steady growth for it in the future. The entertainment industry too is fast realizing the potential and benefits of adopting mobile as a key media to not only reach to a growing tribe of audience but also make content production and distribution agile and cost-effective.

So, what’s causing the ripples in the entertainment sector? What are the factors catalyzing the mobile entertainment boom? And how the mobile driven environment is taking shape? Our cover story this time focuses on mobile entertainment and studies the drivers, barriers, opportunities and the future ahead.

Mobile entertainment grows big

A few years ago, the concept of mobile entertainment just entailed ringtones, wallpapers, a few full tracks and video downloads and sharing the same with friends. You could of course carry a good amount of music, images and videos on your mobile phone, courtesy the memory card. But it has gone past that mark.

Latest studies by Juniper Research reveal strong growth among games and infotainment applications will drive mobile entertainment revenues from $36bn last year to over $65bn annually by 2016. It also finds that growing satisfaction with mobile TV on tablets will raise average monthly viewing to 186 minutes per month in 2014. Mobile users who pay for music content will more than triple to reach 178 million by 2015. Mobile devices are challenging other entertainment mediums to be the preferred choice. And this change has touched upon every key function of the industry; from content production to promotion and distribution.The advent of mobile devices with large screens, rich multimedia functionalities supported with speedier bandwidth have led to democratized access to content anywhere and anytime. The consumer demand too has shifted. Now he wishes to get access to his favorite movie, sitcom, news or any other TV program on his primary device which is either a smartphone or a tablet. Mobile apps, on the other hand, have revolutionized the way people discover and view content. Every major movie, music and game studio today has released or is releasing an app which is becoming the access point for users to explore and enjoy their content. Entertainment has moved beyond a fixed slot and closed doors to on-demand and streaming.

A new research study from TVGuide.com finds that people are watching more TV now than ever.Forty-two percent viewers are watching more streaming content than last year, and 89 percent of respondents said that they discovered new shows on demand or online after episodes or seasons aired. Further, Thirty percent of respondents who pay for video said that they are watching more paid video than they did in 2011. And, 68 percent of respondents are watching one to five hours of video per week via apps on their mobile devices.

The factors driving

The ubiquity of mobile devices, the growing ownership of smartphones, rise in mobile internet adoption and speed; and realization of mobile as a major distribution channel by content producers are the key drivers behind the massive growth in mobile entertainment. Furthermore, app stores provided a perfect platform for content producers to promote and distribute their content cost-effectively which led to massive upsurge in the usage. Brands too have realized the importance of mobile devices as a perfect distribution channel and the result is the availability of thousands of free apps and games making the audience hooked to their devices.

Opportunities in mobile entertainment

Gaming: Sophisticated features of mobile phones and tablets have resulted in immersive games with engaging game-plays. There has been a significant change in the gamer profile as gaming no more is restricted to teenagers. A typical mobile user is aged between 20 to 25 years and we are witnessing a significant interest for games in the 40+ age group. Mobile social games have gained tremendous traction of late.

Music: Mobile entertainment is also bringing tremendous opportunities to the music industry. Mobile apps are aiding the industry in reaching to a new audience, drive-up paid content and retain customers by continuously engaging with him. The success of apps like Spotify, Last.fm, Pandora and Shazam etc., serves as a good example for other players to reach their audience via apps and benefit from it.

Gambling: Mobility is also serving as a potent tool for the gambling industry. Mobile apps serve as a great medium for casinos and others in the gambling industry to reach to their audience and allow them to place their bets from anywhere and anytime.

TV: For the TV industry, mobile apps have emerged as successful enhancement. In addition to allowing viewers to watch their favorite programs on-the-move thereby increasing eyeballs and TRP; the apps are also great tools for the channels to engage their audience through social media sharing, recording, information on stars, upcoming programs, teasers, reminder alerts and polls etc.

Movies: The movie industry, struggling to attract people to the theatres and multiplexes, has found mobility as a great solution to create buzz before the release of a movie. A mobile game based on the movie characters and mobile app with trailers, star cast interviews, release updates etc., have proven to be immensely successful in luring the audience and getting the cash registers ringing.

Content Production: Mobility is also playing a great role in the production phase with apps developed to connect and monitor recording devices, pre-visualization composers for storyboards and set-designing etc.

Brand Promotion: There is tremendous scope for brands to use mobile entertainment to engage with an exploding mobile connected consumer base and interact with them. And, businesses are slowly realizing the potential of promoting their brands through games and cater to their instant gratification for products and services. Early adopters like Coca-Cola, Nike etc., had reasonable success through it encouraging others to make mobile games a key element of marketing and branding.

The mobile entertainment market

The mobile entertainment market has changed radically, in scale and shape, over the past few years. Mobile content once driven by value added services like ringtones, caller tunes, wallpapers etc., is now being driven by streaming videos, high-end gaming, social media tools and other entertainment apps. According to Juniper Research, the global mobile entertainment is estimated to reach $65.9 billion in 2016 from $36.1 billionin 2011, registering a CAAGR of over 12%. Mobile gambling is predicted to grow by a CAAGR of 29% from $1.2 billion in 2011 to $4.3 billion in 2016 fuelled by soaring usage of tablets. According to the research report, adult content is estimated to grow at a CAAGR of 19%. The mobile music sector, which as recently as 2008 accounted for nearly 42% of revenues in the industry is still expected to remain the biggest sector in the industry. However, the sector will see a decline of CAAGR 2.2% over the forecast period with games and social media occupying twice the worth of mobile music market.

The challenges

While mobility offers great benefits to various players in the entertainment industry to reach to a wider audience, engage with them and improve profitability, there are still many challenges that the industry needs to address to realize full-scale benefits from mobility. Mobile is a different medium which is still in its early years and therefore finding the right user-interface to optimize user experience and easy facilitation to discover and view content is a challenge which many mobile content producers are struggling to answer. Secondly, mobile devices differ in form, capabilities and functionalities, calling for a content format and delivery mechanism that will be suitable to all devices. While many parts of the globe are experiencing speedier bandwidth in 4G LTE, still there remains a large area which is only covered with relatively slower internet coverage. The content produced and distributed should also be compatible with varying internet speed without compromising the quality. Moreover, mobile entertainment consumes a lot of data making it expensive to enjoy it on their devices for users. The high cost data services are a big impediment in the wider adoption of mobile entertainment services. Also, security in mobile payment transactions for paid-content services needs to be addressed to gain the confidence of users and push the volumes for it.

Our Recommendations

Embrace mobile entertainment: The common assumption that people watch a video or play a game on mobile only when they are on-the-go is quickly changing. In fact 47% of people play games on smartphones and tablets at home. So, mobile is fast emerging as the preferred device for entertainment and that’s why it makes perfect sense for you to adopt it whole-heartedly.

Understand mobile as a medium: Mobile devices have their limitations. And mobile users have very little attention span. Create content that syncs well with the medium.

Understand mobile users: A large part of the mobile entertainment audience particularly the gaming audience is different from what we have seen traditionally. This population is into gaming to have instant fun for a few minutes. They want simple games with easy goals to achieve yet compelling game play with no time commitments. Reaching the next level doesn’t give them as much high as spending a few minutes and achieving a few goals. The huge popularity of ‘Angry Birds’ can be a good case in point in understanding how a simple game play can be a huge success.

A long-term roadmap: Adding new features to your app will keep the excitement level up compelling users to return. Also, keep it in sync with the changing times. Technology is moving faster and so is the audience.

Monetizing it: What will be your revenue model? Mobile entertainment services offer plentiful opportunities to earn revenues. You can either offer free content and earn from advertising or earn through paid content or do both. Decide before you begin.

The days ahead

Mobility is the future of entertainment. As the technology evolves further and costs of mobile devices and data services go down, we will see an upsurge in mobile content consumption particularly the video-rich services and mobile TV. Newer technologies like Augmented Reality, Mobile Peer to Peer (P2P), Near Field Communications (NFC), 3D in mobile etc., which are at nascent stages, will further gain traction to make entertainment services richer and engaging. Mobile entertainment, which is still a luxury for a large part, will soon join mainstream. And that’s where the audience and money is. Get ready to tap it!

Blog, Healthcare

Healthcare goes app-(h)ealing!

October 10, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Mobile devices and apps have significantly impacted the healthcare delivery model across the globe. Faced with the challenges of soaring costs, fast-changing regulatory environment, increasing error-rates, decreasing profitability, and demand for quality healthcare; healthcare providers are adopting mobility as an essential tool to make their services agile, efficiently utilize their resources, reach a wider population cost-effectively and elevate the quality of their services So much so that we are witnessing the influence of mobility solutions in every sphere of healthcare; right from patient care to hospital administration to remote monitoring of patients post-discharge from the hospital. Huge stacks of papers and traditional machinery are giving way to smart and slick devices arming the staff with real-time data on-the-go. Healthcare institutions that have adopted mobility and made it a part of their delivery model are reaping the benefits in terms of streamlined processes, efficient manpower usage and reduced administrative tasks thereby positively impacting quality of care and boosting customer satisfaction.

The acceptance is swiftly surging…

Various studies suggest a soaring acceptance of mobile devices and medical apps among healthcare professionals. A study by Manhattan Research reveals that around 62% of physicians are now using tablets, with over half of them using it at the point-of-care. Similarly, survey by Wolters Kluwer Health’s Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), found that 71% of nurses are using smartphones at work. And there are numerous motivators behind it. According to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute (PwC HRI) –

56% of physicians believed m-health could help expedite decision-making.
39% said it would reduce the time it takes for administrative tasks.
36% said it would increase collaboration among physicians.
26% said it would increase time spent with patients.
40% said they could eliminate 11% to 30% of office visits through the use of mobile health technologies such as remote monitoring, email or text messaging with patients.

Apps encompass all…

Apps for patient care – Mobile apps like CA MOBILE providing mobile access to EMR systems ( GE – Centricity Advanced), and ‘PATIENT TRACKER’ are providing all critical data to medical professionals on-the-move saving their time, increasing effectiveness and allowing them to cover a large number of patients. Physicians can now access EHR of the patients on their devices through an app, go through their appointments schedule, check metabolic standards of the patients and if required raise drug requisitions, all remotely without being tied to a desk. Nurses similarly are able to positively identify patient by scanning their wristbands, receive physician instructions, patient-wise, know their medical history, get medication alerts, check daily job schedules, and remotely control various machines through an app-to-machine interface. Post-discharge from the hospitals, patients can access the prescription and instructions for their care through an app enabling better adherence to advice.

Apps for lab results and medical imaging- Mobile apps like LabCheck GO (by Ascend Clinical) are also providing various lab results like EEG (electroencephalogram), ECG (electrocardiogram) etc., to the healthcare staff allowing them to take timely, on-the-go decisions and administer required care to the patients. Smartphone apps can also be used to provide access to medical images from various modalities like CT, MRI, X-ray and Ultrasound etc., when there is no access to workstation for physicians to quickly assess and review a patient’s health.
Apps and Smarter Devices- There are also many apps developed in recent times that can help convert a mobile device into a medical device. A blood pressure arm cuff can be integrated with a smartphone to record the blood-pressure values or an app that turns a smartphone into an ECG machine to check heartbeats of a patient. The data so collected then can be shared in real-time for consultations and monitoring purpose. Healthcare is also best suited to progress in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication wherein two wirelessly connected devices will be able to exchange information with each other without human intervention, taking remote patient monitoring to another level.
Apps for administration- Then there are apps that help in administrative tasks like patient coding and tracking, billing, asset management, bed management and supply chain management etc., by storing and sharing real-time information with concerned stakeholders so as to streamline and speed-up the entire process. A dashboard that provides overview on the availability of medical equipment and its location can help the staff to easily locate equipment in urgent situations.
Apps for training & development- Mobile apps also have enormous potential to be an effective training tool for young physicians, surgeons and nurses in a hospital. They can consult senior physicians through video, voice and text; access to reference literature through apps like LAB VALUES on the move and hone their skills and knowledge in patient care.

There’s more to come in days ahead…

Mobile devices and apps have encompassed the entire healthcare ecosystem. But still there are enormous potential areas which are still to be covered using mobile apps and devices. Mobile based emergency response systems, mobile synchronous (voice) and asynchronous (SMS) telemedicine diagnostic and decision support systems, and clinical care and remote patient monitoring will be the areas of interest to watch out for as mobile technology gets more sophisticated and the costs of mobility solutions shrink. Moreover, leveraging technologies such as M2M, cloud computing etc., will further lead innovative visions and role of mobile apps in the healthcare delivery model. The available and the foreseeable benefits arising out of using mobile devices and apps in patient care makes for its definite inclusion in the healthcare delivery model.

Enterprise Mobility, White papers

Mobile Device Management: Enable, manage and secure your mobile environment

September 27, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

One of the significant technological trends in recent times has been the huge proliferation of mobile devices and apps into the workplace. From smartphones to Tablets to wireless add-on devices like sensors, scanners etc., mobility in enterprises has reached a critical mass and is all set to occupy a dominant position in the overall organizational setup. While enterprise mobility solutions bring myriad benefits to organizations in aiding transformation, boosting efficiency, increasing customer satisfaction and eventually leading to better margins and revenues; it also poses a range of serious challenges in terms of managing, monitoring, collaborating and securing an ever increasing pool of mobile devices and apps, loaded with sensitive data, which needs to be answered to optimize the benefits arising out of mobility. A few years back, enterprise mobility was predominantly occupied by Blackberry devices and a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) was sufficient to manage and secure the environment. However, in recent times, consumerization of IT and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy has led to entry of devices of all types and sizes making it impossible for the IT departments to manage and monitor it and posing a serious threat to the security of corporate data. Mobile Device Management or MDM can be one such solution that can prove to be an effective answer to most of the challenges arising while implementing mobility. Our cover story, this month, takes a detailed look at MDM and discusses why and how it could be a solution to various challenges faced by enterprises in their mobility adoption.

What is MDM?

According to Gartner, Mobile device management (MDM) includes software that provides the following functions: software distribution, policy management, inventory management, security management and service management for smartphones and media tablets.

Mobile Device Management solutions can be deployed on-premise or as a cloud-based service. There are a few vendors who also offer MDM as managed service wherein routine updating and maintenance is outsourced to third parties. Most mobile device management solutions enable organizations to manage and provide end-to-end security to mobile devices, apps, network and data through single software whereas some MDM solutions also incorporate expense management to provide more elaborative coverage to the management of mobile devices.

How MDM works?

Whether deployed as an on-premise server or as a cloud solution, a MDM lets you manage all the mobile devices deployed across your enterprise. Every device that has to be controlled and managed in your enterprise and hence enrolled into the MDM has to follow an authentication and provisioning process through which it is registered in the MDM directory. An authenticated and encrypted connection is then established between an enrolled mobile device and the MDM gateway server enabling all traffic to and from the device network to be redirected through it and the Gateway Server. A registered device can interact with the MDM server after it successfully authenticates itself. The device management server collects information about the smartphone or tablet and then sends the applicable settings and applications to it. MDM allows administrators to enable or disable any functionality of the device; decommission inactive devices, blacklist and whitelist applications or selectively wipe data from a device as per the mobile policy and the user cannot override it. It also supports remote location of any device and provides troubleshooting services to any device. The MDM also regularly checks and evaluates for newly published software package distribution.

Most of the MDM solutions offer customizable, on-click dashboards for administrators to get information on all the enrolled devices in the enterprise network.

Whether deployed as an on-premise server or as a cloud solution, a MDM lets you manage all the mobile devices deployed across your enterprise.

Configure: Configure device and application settings, restrictions etc., as per policy.

Provision: Facilitate automated and over-the-air user device registration and distributing configuration check and evaluate software package distribution.

Security: Secure devices, apps, and data by enforcing security measures like authentication and access policy, enable or disable device functionalities, blacklisting and whitelisting apps.

Support: Help users by remotely locating any device and providing troubleshooting services.

Monitor: Keep a track on device, app and data usage; check unauthorized user access; abnormal device behavior etc.

De-activate: Decommission lost or stolen devices; block user access, wipe out data from compromised devices.

Why MDM?

The widespread proliferation of mobile devices and applications caused by consumerization of IT and the popularity of BYOD policy has enabled unprecedented mobility and data on the fingertips of employees while boosting productivity and efficiency of the organizations. However, while providing multiple benefits to enterprises and employees, mobility has also posed several challenges to the IT department. From selecting platforms to support within the network to dealing with loss or theft of devices to securing critical corporate data on thousands of devices; IT departments have a lot to consider. MDM software helps IT department in answering all these challenges by providing control over devices, applications and data flow. Administrators can monitor and control the apps installed on devices, keep a track on user behaviour, enforce security measures so as to create a secure mobile ecosystem within an organization. Moreover, MDM solutions also go a long way in optimizing the functionality of the mobile network in an enterprise as well as minimizing costs and reducing downtime. In other words, MDM paves the way for implementation of both device and platform agnostic security policy and supports enterprises in mitigating business risks by protecting data and information.

Mobile Device Management can help an enterprise

Enable sophisticated security mechanisms to prevent corporate data stored on devices from being leaked, stolen or compromised.

Ensures central control of registered mobile devices by providing real-time overview on each specific device via dashboard.

Safely manage & distribute recommended apps, blacklists risky apps.

Provides single, comprehensive infrastructure to manage devices and apps.

Minimizes total cost of ownership (TCO) with a scalable, dependable solution.

Meeting service level agreements (SLAs)

Adheringe to key compliance obligations like HIPAA, FISMA etc.

Implementing a standard mobile management & security policy.

Improvinge user experience and thereby sustaining worker’s productivity.

Reduces IT burden with self-service portal for employees.

MDM Usage and Adoption Trends

Among organizations that have not yet deployed an MDM solution, 32% will deploy one in 2013 and additional 24% plan to deploy one in 2014

The leading factor (34%) cited for deploying an MDM solution was the potential for loss of intellectual property

Among respondents switching to a new MDM platform, 31% indicated that they would likely select a cloud-based solution. Of those, 55 percent said they would choose a private cloud solution for security reasons

The top three reasons cited for choosing a cloud MDM solution were

Simpler administration/maintenance (69%)

Predictable/reduced costs (39%)

Don’t want to use internal IT staff resources (21%)

Source: Osterman Research

When is MDM required?

When should you consider looking for a MDM solution? The answer depends on many factors including the type of devices being used in your enterprise to types of apps and the kind of data accessed through them. You may not require an MDM solution in case you provide your employees only BlackBerry or iOS devices or in case the devices don’t access any critical data. However, if you have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) mobility culture wherein employees bring their own devices or you approve multiple OS devices like iOS, BlackBerry, Android, Windows etc., then a MDM solution becomes a necessity to prevent your device and data from theft or being compromised. In addition, there are various other questions like- Does data and sessions need to be encrypted? What would be the business impact of a security breach? What and how much control do you wish to have on the devices and apps? In other words, a comprehensive assessment of your organizational risk profile with respect to mobile devices will answer your need for a MDM solution.

Players in the MDM market and their position

MDM vendors are somewhat limited in the control that their specific MDM solution can exercise on the APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) of the devices which means that while each MDM is different, the core functionalities and features remain same. MDM platforms may differ from each other in deployment choices-traditional in-premise versus cloud based, the platforms-iOS, Android, Windows etc., it supports, integration with security and service management platforms, telecom expense management and enterprise content management system etc.

The market for MDM solutions is competitive with many big players involved in it. According to Gartner research, the MDM market is dominated by a “big 5” group of vendors consisting of Good Technology (which alone accounts for 20% of the total market), SAP, AirWatch, MobileIron and Fiberlink Communications that controls about 60% of the market.

Issues with MDMs

Deployment: MDMs can be deployed on-premise or as cloud-based service. On-premise installation would require in-house capability and resources for maintenance and trouble-shooting while cloud-based solution would make you completely reliable on vendor’s capability and services.

Costs: There are significant expenses involved in installing MDM solutions. While on-premise installation requires significant upfront costs with low recurring expenses, cloud-based solutions require low upfront expense but have high recurring expenses every year. Companies have to do a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis before opting for a MDM solution.

Adaptability: Every organization has its own set of niche requirements that a MDM solution must be able to address. Allowing sufficient customization and tweaking choices is a challenge for a specific MDM.

Recommendations on choosing a MDM solution

Choosing the right MDM platform becomes critical due to security implications and high costs involved. Here are a few key points to consider while choosing a MDM platform-

Mobile Policy: Your MDM platform should best cater to your mobile policy. Does it have sufficient functionalities to provide the level of security that your business needs? Does it support archiving of mobile content?

Security Mechanisms: Data security is an on-going process. Make sure that your MDM platform supports advanced data security measures.

Remote configuration & control: Your MDM platform should enable remote configuration, updating of OS and apps. Moreover, it should also provide you control through locking/wiping of devices in case of loss and theft.

Scalability: The types of platforms and devices it can support is also a key consideration while choosing an MDM. Does it offer flexibility to add more devices and platforms in future?

Compliance obligations: Your MDM platform must be able to help you in fulfilling compliance obligations related to data security, customer privacy etc., of the country.

Analytics: MDM solutions must provide real-time, comprehensive analytics on registered devices and apps.

MDM Buying Guide

Any good MDM must have following security features

PIN/password enforcements

Functionality to remotely lock/wipe device in case of loss or theft

Data encryption

Jailbreak detection

Data loss prevention mechanisms

i. Device Management

Over the air configuration

Remote operating system and application updating

Remote control of devices

Real-time analytics on usage

ii. Application Management

Whitelisting and blacklisting of apps

Management of enterprise app stores

App security features

Remote data wipe of applications

Real-time analytics on apps downloaded, data accessed on registered devices

Conclusion

The massive proliferation of mobile devices and applications in enterprises has posed a serious threat to the IT department in securing critical corporate data. Moreover, with huge diversity in devices and multiple platforms, it has indeed become burdensome and resource-taxing for organizations to monitor and control devices, apps and their usage. Also, there is a regulatory requirement call for sufficient data protection mechanisms. In such a scenario, MDM solutions become a necessity for organizations to optimize their mobile initiatives and mitigate business risks associated with it. A centrally controlled and real-time monitored mobile environment will be the defining feature of most of the enterprises, in times to come.

Blog, Platform

Is your app, iPhone 5 ready?

September 24, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

iPhone 5 is launched and in its first week of sales is set to break many records. Apple has brought many changes to the latest iPhone. One of the major changes in the latest iPhone is the screen size which has been increased from 3.5-inch, 960 x 640 pixel display, to 4.0 inch, 1136 x 640 pixel retina display. While the bigger display comes as good news for iPhone aficionados, however for iPhone app developers and brands that have built apps, it means more work as apps will get displayed in letter-boxed format in iPhone 5 robbing the fun and experience of a large, vibrant display. On the newly launched iPhone 5, the older apps will show up on screen at the same size as on the iPhone 4S with two black strips placed along the left and right in landscape mode and in top and bottom in portrait mode. While Apple claims that iPhone developers and app sellers can make their apps compatible to iPhone 5 with simple updates very quickly, it doesn’t seem to be so easy. Here’s why-

The larger screen provides app developers opportunities to maximize their use of screen real-estate and adopt the new resolution which is 16:9, a way ahead from previous 3:2 resolution. Moreover, the new dimensions also provide more space to add more content to your apps. So, there is more to do than simple updates to optimize the large screen in iPhone 5.
– From the perspective of coding, developers will now have to use Xcode 4.5 with iOS 6 SDK. In addition to that there are many things to consider while updating the app-

1. All apps must stick to Cocoa Auto Layout Strategy so that the existing apps scale properly on the 4-inch iPhone 5 / 5th generation iPod Touch devices. In other words, every developer should refrain from writing hard coded rects such as CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 460) and should use self.view.bounds.size instead.

2. viewDidUnload has been deprecated. Using it would still work but, the support would be taken down in the future releases. Developers should move their existing code from viewDidUnload to didReceiveMemoryWarning from now on.

3. If your apps have a dependency on Contacts, Calendars, Photos & Reminders, don’t expect to get the data always. These things require user permissions in iOS 6, and we have to be prepared to handle errors when the user denies permissions.

4. shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:, willRotateToInterfaceOrientation: and didRotateFromInterfaceOrientation: are no longer called and are deprecated on iOS 6 devices. However, if you are still supporting earlier iOS devices, the code would work.

To support iOS 6 devices, you have to implement additionally these methods – application:supportedInterfaceOrientationsForWindow: in application delegate and shouldAutorotate method in view controller.

If your view controller has this:

-(BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {

return (interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait);

}

Replace this to the following in App Delegate:

– (NSUInteger)supportedInterfaceOrientations {

return UIInterfaceOrientationMaskPortrait;

}

If your view controller supports auto rotation, add this:

– (BOOL)shouldAutorotate {

return YES;

}

For view controllers that have custom layout logic for each orientation, developers have to implement UIView’s viewWillLayoutSubviews instead which is available from iOS 5.

5. If a landscape-only app launches a portrait-only view controller such as GameCenter login view controller, the app crashes. Workaround is to also add portrait orientation for the window in supportedIntefaceOrientationsForWindow: method.

So, games and apps that use interactivity, large size graphics, motion and sensors etc., will need more than a simple update and a major revamping to provide the same experience to users as in iPhone 4S. Moreover, app developers should also have to delicately balance between iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 users. There will still be a large population which will continue to use iPhone 4S and therefore developers have to come with two different versions as apps for iPhone 5 will not be compatible to iPhone 4S.

With millions of apps in app stores going for the updates and in queue for approvals, it makes perfect sense to opt for revamping as early as possible so as to seize the bountiful opportunities offered by iPhone 5.

According to Fiksu, around 10 million people are likely to buy the new iPhone 5 in the next 10 days after it hits stores on Sept. 21, 2012. In addition, according to The Wall Street Journal, analysts predict Apple to sell as many as 23 million new devices by the end of 2012. The growing iPhone market will present a huge opportunity for brands to engage with their customers through apps. But, to make the most of the opportunities on the offing, your app needs to be iPhone 5 ready. Are you ready yet?

Blog, Healthcare

Healthcare Mobility: A Way to Go

September 24, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

A decade ago having a mobile with basic features symbolized reputation but, today, it is these devices around which the entire world of any individual, or for that matter, any industry revolves. The evolution of these simple devices into smartphones has had its impact on enterprises, just as good as the consumer segment and healthcare industry was no different. With the emergence of these advanced gadgets and new technologies like Wi-Fi and NFC (Near Field Communications), the individual and enterprise today have access to systems and information anytime, anywhere, resulting in increased efficiency. The hospital industry players have also embraced mobility by providing real-time access to Electronic Health Records (EHRs) that comprise of a wide array of information right from demographics to patient health charts to billing details, on the physician’s device, aiding her in better treatment of their patients from any place in the world.

Over a period, we have seen the healthcare industry come a long way, from treatment that involved paperwork to hospitals, where patients have RFID tags, furnishing the staff, real-time info about the patient. The industry had tackled the issue of paper based data collation from umpteen resources, for years, a process that involved more time and errors. There were a couple of other challenges too. Every member of the caregiving team held information that somewhat varied leading to improper coordination within the team. The rise of smartphone led enterprise mobility solutions has been aiding the physicians and nurses with accurate and up-to-date information on inventory and assets that help them take better decisions for their patients, resulting in heightened productivity and revenues.

The introduction of mobility into healthcare operations can create an opportunity for the caregiving team to communicate with each other on an instant basis, decreasing the response time by increasing access to data, anytime, anywhere. This kind of unified communication system with better user interface and user experience across multiple devices provides a platform where a team of physicians, specialists, pharmacists and nurses can coordinate with each other to render quality service. The medical equipment with built in Wi-Fi modules are now gaining momentum with data sharing becoming indisputable. Mobility has hit the healthcare education system as well and resident trainees are developing their skills by adopting this technology to support lab and clinical education and accessing real-time answers to their queries by using relevant apps on their tablets. Although physicians, concerned with the interface and security issues might be reluctant to adopt mHealth solutions, apps developed for the enterprise are gaining traction and the competition seems agonizing as the number of solution providers is inflating, giving an extra elbow room for the healthcare mobility market.

Taking a leap from the current scenario, cloud computing can be predicted as the future of the healthcare industry as it promises to gather data in an effective and effortless manner, bringing in a change in the process. This cost-effective technology can prove to be more pertinent for small clinics and hospitals as it does not require a huge IT staff to maintain and service in-house infrastructure. Healthcare service centers adopting cloud-based applications will have a competitive advantage as these resources can focus on other issues which impact business operations and prove to be efficacious in delivering better care to the patients.

Mobile solutions in the hospital industry enable faster information flow and can be utilized by the caregiver, without any hindrance, for efficient operations. With the metamorphosis that mobility has brought in the way hospitals run their businesses, it is beyond the shadow of a doubt that mobility is soon going to remodel the enterprise physiology.

Blog, Healthcare

mHealth apps: Mobilizing care and wellness

September 11, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Mobile devices and apps are swiftly changing the face of healthcare across the globe. While consumers are increasingly using apps helpful in curing common cold to weight management to chronic diseases like Asthma and Diabetes, healthcare providers, on the other hand, are coming-up with new apps and mobile-compatible devices, motivated by its various benefits like reach to larger population, improved service quality and lower costs. As per a research2guidance survey, the market size for mHealth app market is going to double this year following a significant jump last year. Despite this substantial growth, the survey notes, mHealth market is still in an embryonic state when compared to the US$ 6 trillion global healthcare market clearly highlighting the opportunities available and reasoning the need for healthcare providers and suppliers to adopt mobility on a larger scale.

As per a research2guidance survey, the market size for mHealth app market is going to double this year following a significant jump last year. Despite this substantial growth, the survey notes, mHealth market is still in an embryonic state when compared to the US$ 6 trillion global healthcare market clearly highlighting the opportunities available and reasoning the need for healthcare providers and suppliers to adopt mobility on a larger scale.

mHealth Benefits
Patients	Healthcare providers and suppliers
Health information on fingertips.	Lesser costs per patient.
Better personal health and quality of life.	Improved quality of service and efficiency.
Improved service levels and reduced waiting time.	Reduced manpower requirements.
Lesser visits to doctor’s clinic or hospitals.	Coverage to bigger population.
Self monitoring and diagnosis.	Real-time information access and sharing.
Regular medication and adherence support.	Better monitoring of patients.
Freedom from multiple documents.	Optimum utilisation of resources.
Lesser treatment costs.	Easy access to patients.

The numbers are encouraging…

A study commissioned by Telenor Group and the Boston Consulting Group in first quarter of 2012 revealed: 30% of smartphone users are likely to use “wellness apps” by 2015 and secondly, mobile is the most popular technology among doctors since the stethoscope. The survey further revealed- costs in elderly care can be reduced by 25% while maternal and prenatal mortality expenses can be reduced by as much as 30% through mobile solutions. As per a recent PwC Global Healthcare survey, 59% of the consumers using mHealth services reported that these services have reduced the number of visits to the doctor. The increasing enthusiasm among smartphone armed consumers for medical apps has made service providers to include apps in their delivery mechanism and provide services through it. Currently, there are around 20,000 to 25,000 apps that fall into the health & wellness category in app stores with each day adding a new app into the kitty.

“In a survey, respondents ranked more convenient access to their health-care provider, the reduction of out-of-pocket health-care costs and having greater control over their health as the top three reasons to use mHealth.”

Source-Foxbusiness

There’s an app for that…

From ‘BodyBugg SP’ (by 24 Hour Fitness) counting daily calories intake to monitoring blood sugar levels through ‘Glucose Tracker’, mobile apps are doing everything. On the other hand, there are physician / healthcare provider centric apps like CA MOBILE providing mobile access to EMR systems ( GE – Centricity Advanced), and ‘PATIENT TRACKER’ providing all required information on fingertips and aiding them in monitoring patients remotely. To compliment these apps, there are medical devices that can be integrated to smartphones and help read/record patient’s vitals and detect ailments.

A few popular application areas for medical apps include-

Education & Awareness Apps- To promote health awareness among consumer through information and tips through articles, tips, videos etc., on diets, exercises, lifestyle habits, latest research results etc.
Point of Care Support- Help patients in diagnosis of any ailment, clinical care, patient records etc.
Patient Monitoring- Support patient adherence to appointments, medications, precautions etc.
Emergency Medical Response- Help patients with necessary care during emergencies, accidents and disasters.
Health Insurance- For insurers, to provide help to their customers by providing policy related information on the app and enabling claims/reimbursements etc., through it.
Pharmacy- For drug manufacturers, to provide help to their customers in ordering medicines, reminder alerts etc.
Physicians- Book appointments, read patient’s history, provide medication online.

Mobile apps are the future…

While mobile healthcare apps are booming in usage, both by consumers and providers, but its early days yet for the consumer healthcare industry. There is a huge potential of mobile apps in patient care much beyond what we are witnessing today. In future, we will see remote app-to-app or app-to-machine interaction and data collection through wireless sensors that will be relayed real-time to doctors for quick response. App-to-app interaction and wireless sensors is already introduced in a few areas and as the technology further evolves and benefits become more evident, we will see more advanced usage of these technologies in the coming days. According to a PWC survey, 64% of doctors believe mHealth market to be full of exciting possibilities in the days ahead. For consumers, evolution in healthcare apps means more control and better management of their health at lesser costs. In other words, mobile apps are set to occupy a dominant position across the ecosystem.

Manufacturing, White papers

Mobility in Manufacturing: Driving productivity and transformation

August 21, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

The manufacturing industry worldwide is reeling under tremendous pressure to increase their output, improve quality and do it at lesser costs to expand their global footprint and reach to newer markets. To match up to the soaring expectations of the customers and other stakeholders in the ecosystem, manufacturing companies have initiated a stream of strategic and innovative measures with the objective of becoming competitive and, at the same time, cost-sensitive. Mobility in manufacturing is one such recent adoption that is enabling manufacturers to match their capability enhancements and resource mobilization with critical improvement in business processes. The convergence of mobile technology with manufacturing processes makes for a fascinating study with mobility playing a game-changing role. What we are witnessing is a major shift swiftly gaining the form of revolution that promises to reshape the manufacturing landscape by making it more lean, alert, and agile.

Our cover story this month takes a detailed look at mobility in manufacturing and understands the drivers behind adoption of mobility, the benefits achieved, the challenges in-front and the future ahead.

The Makeover

Shop floors are set for a makeover with the entry of mobile phones, apps and devices. While the last decade gave industrial units a new look with PCs, laptops and automated solutions, the current decade is adding a completely new dimension with the advent of mobility.

Machine-to-Machine or M2M solutions are wirelessly connecting diverse devices like turbines, heat monitors, vending machines and trucks etc., to a network, enabling two-way communication and facilitating sharing of real-time data through radio signals. Engineers and technicians are no more tied to their machines. They are all over the floor, remotely managing and monitoring their machines via M2M and taking instant decisions, right on their feet. Mobility is reducing the unplanned downtime in the organizations via mobile eKanBan solutions. The solution enables manufacturers to place a call button at every station which when pressed will instantly transmit the call for inventory to a mobile device in the hands of warehouse personnel for his instantaneous response. Mobility is reducing manual processes, lowering errors by providing real-time visibility for better and cost-effective management of inventory. Floor supervisors are armed with time and attendance data of their entire workforce resulting effective labor management. Mobility solutions via RFID are enabling automatic real-time tracking of assets thereby reducing human effort, theft and wastage. Managers are carrying real-time Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on their mobile to keep a close track on it. Processes, be it Production or Quality Control, are slowly getting mobilized and mobile devices like smartphones and Tablets have become the all important tools in the entire manufacturing ecosystem. In short, mobile apps and solutions are aiding transformation and bringing competitive advantage to the adopters by adding agility and precision. Manufacturing has got a new M- mobility- to add to its other three M’s- men, money and machines. Welcome the new wave in manufacturing!

The Factors at Play

Several factors are converging to enable manufacturers to gain competitive advantage through mobility. Manufacturing companies, of all sizes, are looking to newer markets to boost future growth. Zero-defect manufacturing has become essential to be competitive and cost-effective in the current business economy. Resources are geographically getting dispersed and hence require anytime, anywhere collaborative mechanism. Employees used to the convenience of mobility in personal lives are bringing their own devices and want to use them at work. Mobile devices are fast emerging as the premiere channel for customer engagement. And, organizations are looking for virtualized operating models that enable real-time collaboration round the clock and on the move.

The mobile technology too has greatly evolved in recent times to emerge as the promising solution provider to many of the organizational concerns. Smartphones have become more powerful, Tablets with its various features are tailor-made for enterprise use and moreover, enterprise level app development is flourishing, providing a galore of choices in apps for manufacturers to pick and customize to best of their requirements.

Possibilities and Opportunities

Mobile technology has the potential to play a role in almost every step in the manufacturing cycle, right from raw material procurement to supply chain to delivery. From mobile ERP and mobile Business Intelligence to QC reports to PO/ requisition approval, we can see multiple points across processes wherein mobility can be a lean enabler.In other words, mobility doesn’t limit itself to simply shifting work from PCs to mobile but promises more through role-based applications, device integration and process synchronization.

The Benefits

There are several benefits associated with mobility adoption in manufacturing. Instant access to critical data on-the-go not only helps in taking quick decisions but also helps enterprises engaged in manufacturing to deftly manage their resources and prevent wastage contributing to cost-efficiency. Smooth and real-time flow of data and information improves response time to all stakeholders including suppliers, vendors and customers etc., helping organizationd resolve key internal and external issues in shortest possible time thereby boosting brand image and perception. Mobility also helps eliminate redundant activities, enhance collaboration within various units thereby speeding-up processes.

A study conducted by BlackBerry to examine a company’s ROI in adapting BlackBerry solutions came out with interesting results

Productivity: The study revealed that, on average, employee’s productivity increased by one hour per day because of using a smartphone. In monetary terms, on an average yearly salary of $100,000, it provided yearly benefit of $12,500 per user to the company.

Workflow: The workflow efficiency increased by 38% as employees were able to maintain their contribution in team workflow even when they were outside the office. Based on the average annual productivity of $88,500 determined by National Competitiveness Council, the company gained $33,630 per employee annually due to boost in workflow.

Immediacy: As per the study, employees on an average sent and received 24 emails/ day and approximately 9 of these emails were time-sensitive. On a conservative value of $5 each time-sensitive email/day provided an annual benefit of $4,400 per user to the company.

The total benefit of adopting BlackBerry solutions in the company was over $50,000 per employee per year.

The Challenges

While there are many critical business benefits associated with mobile adoption for manufacturing companies, they however have to encounter a few hurdles in their journey. There are a few critical challenges that has to be addressed by manufacturing organizations as they embark on the path of mobility. Security of data and information is one major challenge faced by the industry in its endeavor to mobilize processes. Enterprises have to create a formal governing policy which will define how mobile devices will integrate and interact with men and machines in the ecosystem and provide a secure mechanism to monitor and prevent data theft and fraudulency. Choosing the best technological infrastructure is one major factor which organizations have to consider. Diversity in devices and platform fragmentation only adds to the challenge as decision-makers sit to lay the blueprint. Organizations also need to consider mobile bandwidth and latency issues as the world moves to 4G networks. Meeting up internal and external demands and making mobility a hassle-free and smooth experience should also be factored-in to enable comprehensive adoption and usage of mobility within the organization and to derive desired benefits out of it.

In Future

Most organizations today are only picking the low lying fruits of mobility. And therefore we see the role of mobility limited to a communication & information channel with a few exceptions of device integration in a process. Complete synchronization of operational processes with mobility solutions and comprehensive integration of mobile devices and apps with the manufacturing ecosystem, are still in its early days. However, as organizations move in to the next level of adaption and the mobile technology further evolves, we will see much bigger role for mobility in manufacturing. Factory floors will be remotely controlled with mobile access to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Distributed Control Systems (DCS). Machine-to-machine (M2M) and human-machine interfaces (HMI) will also enable supervisors and managers to supervise and control shop-floor activities from anywhere via their devices. Emerging technologies like NFC and RFID will be used to tag and track the movement of products, right from the production stage to inventory, logistics and store. Real-time business intelligence dashboards via blue-tooth enabled mobile devices will also see large scale adoption. GPS-sensors and accelerometers will be used to update controller’s dashboard, expediting maintenance-related responses. Augmented reality (AR) applications on mobile will also become a norm to train technicians in using various instruments and tools. The future will see more such experiments and innovation in mobile adaption.

Our Recommendations

Enable mobility broadly: Mobility is the future and offers tremendous opportunities to manufacturing organizations. Explore how you can leverage mobile technology to transform your organization and bring agility and innovation to it.

Think big: Build a mobile strategy that optimizes your organizational capacity and the mobility advantage. Think beyond simple mobile usage and plan for wide-ranging implementation of mobility.

Manage the Risks: Mobility has risks associated with it. Understand those risks and then deploy an effective security mechanism to mitigate those risks.

Be Patient: It takes time to get returns on your investments from mobility. So be ready for a long haul.

Lay down the groundwork for next generation of mobility. Be prepared to leverage from emerging technologies like RFID, NFC etc.

It’s Just the Beginning

Mobility is more than mobilizing existing processes or providing mobile access for your employees to the corporate network. The application of mobility, we are witnessing today in manufacturing enterprises are just the tip of iceberg. There is much underneath to explore and leverage. A long-term mobile strategy with sufficient ground work for future up-gradation and improvements therefore is the right way to approach.

Mobile devices and apps can be a key enabler for the industry seeking to answer many challenges like quality improvement, cost-efficiency, improved margins and to be competitive in the current business environment. Now is the time for manufacturing organizations to seriously consider mobility and make it a part of the overall business strategy. Invest in it today to prepare your organization for tomorrow.

Blog, Education

Mobility in Education

August 8, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Mobility is influencing every part of a human’s life. As the technology evolves, we are witnessing increased adoption of mobile technology in various spheres of life. Learning and educations has also not remained untouched by it. Here’s an interesting infographic from Online Colleges that showcases the influence of mobility in education with interesting data like- Smartphone ownership among adults aged between aged between 18-24 years have increased from 49% in May, 2011 to 67% in February, 2012. And, 60% of students in a survey say that they are willing to spend up to $7.80 for an app to support their learning.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

Infographic: Near Field Communication (NFC)

August 2, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Mobile phones have become an integral part of a human being’s life and with an emerging technology like NFC, the reliance on these devices is just getting more fervid. Mobile posters, mobile coupons and mobile tickets – NFC is making all that possible. Here is an infographic on NFC that encompasses its history, roadmap, its comparison with other wireless technologies, adoption across industries and the challenges confronted. A technology like NFC is a big sigh of relief to any individual or business as it gives a face-lift to the day-to-day operations allowing for easy sharing of contacts, photos, videos and files. Research says, NFC enabled phones will grow from just 7 million in 2011 to 203 million in 2015, taking its CAGR to 208%. Check out our exclusive infographic for more interesting facts on NFC.

To view the full infographic click here.

Blog, Marketing

Mobile Advertising: How Enterprises Are Clicking It?

July 19, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Mobility through its various features like location-tracking, user profiles etc., offers an opportunity to brands to cut the clutter and distinctively target their audience. Consumers with an urgent need engage with the brands while on the go through their mobile devices. Brands can reach out to such audiences, influencing their decision-making and meet their well-defined needs. Mobile has re-defined the contextual point-of-purchase marketing, an effective strategy to know the needs of a consumer and then immediately present your product or services as a solution to his needs. Add mobile payment to the context and you have really shortened the sales cycle allowing users to satiate their needs, while on the move. Contextual marketing and its resultant effect, in soaring brand engagement, while trimming down the cost per sales, has made mobile a key channel in advertising. Needless to say, we are witnessing many enterprises following the mobility route to connect and target their audiences. A study by IHS estimates the global mobile ad spend in 2011 to be over $5.3 billion. So how exactly are brands engaging with their consumer base through mobile and how effective it is?

The vertical mix

A look at the mix of verticals across the globe shows that entertainment, media, technology and telecom brands are most active participants in the mobile advertising space driving 67% of the total spend.

The device mix

Studies suggest that consumers are more likely to click on a search advertisement when using a smartphone or a Tablet. The CTR or click-through rates is found to be 72% higher on smartphones and 32% higher on Tablets when compared with searches on computers. However, a key indicator for the success of any campaign, the conversion rate- the percentage of users who took the desired action by advertiser after they click an ad- is found to be highest in computers followed by Tablets and then smartphones. The lowest conversion for smartphones highlights the role of screen size in the success of a campaign.

The Price-Performance Mix

The price-performance comparison suggest that Automotive, Style & Fashion, Social & Dating and FMCG & Retail industries have been in the lead in converting their mobile add campaigns into real sales validating that mobile advertising is yet to realize its true potential. But then, the m-advertising market is still in its early years. As it evolves further, we will see greater value generated by enterprises in terms of converting consumer interests into real business.

Retail, White papers

Retail Mobility – Welcoming the consumer on mobile

July 9, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

The retail industry has witnessed a massive change in the recent years. While the internet revolution of the last decade enabled shopping anytime, anywhere; the mobile revolution led by smartphones and applications propelled on-the-go shopping and made a radical shift in the way brands, consumers and retailers interact with each other. As consumers use mobile devices and apps to research, browse, compare and shop, mobility solutions are poised to become a significant business channel in retail.

Retailers too are realizing this and hence are adopting mobile, quite enthusiastically, resulting in Tablet catalogs, mobile billings, mCoupons, mobile apps and much more. The growing surge in mobility usage,both at the consumer and the retailer’s end makes for a riveting case study. Our cover story, this month, focuses on retail mobile solutions and endeavors to decipher the reasons behind retailers taking the mobile plunge, the seismic shift in the consumer behavior, the growth engines behind retail mobility, opportunities, challenges and advantages for various stakeholders and a look into the days ahead.

The Seismic Shift

Walk into a store, search for the product, compare between various brand choices, pay the bill and walk-out with the desired item in your bag. A few years back, it used to be the only way to shop. The advent of e-commerce made a major shift in the way people shop; allowing consumers to shop from anywhere, sitting in-front of their computer and without leaving their work or home, dismantling all the boundaries and giving them access to a global marketplace.

Online retailers, armed with a new, low-cost business model created a competitive marketplace giving a run-for- money to their brick and mortar counterparts. The arrival of mobile devices, the transformation from feature phones to smartphones, the arrival of Tablets and a galore of applications simply changed the order. Starting with SMS advertising to mobile websites and then to exclusive apps for branding and retailing, m-commerce brought a sea-change to the consumer shopping, in-sync with the new mobile lifestyle. Today, using advanced mobile applications, retailers have a direct communication channel to interact with their target audience, inform and convince them about products and influence their decision making.

Research shows that mobility is slowly gaining traction in retail. In United States, mobile commerce is predicted to generate more than $31 billion (from $3 billion in 2010) in sales making for over 7 percent (from just 1% in 2010) of all e-commerce sales in 2016. The mobile retail channel is swiftly moving from being an alternate communication channel to being a primary channel for interaction with consumers.

The Engines

Several factors are at play to drive the mobile retail boom. Mobile devices (smartphones and later-on Tablets) and applications have become part of a shopper’s life. With today’s shoppers embracing mobility as a way of life, retailers have no choice but to sync their strategy with the changing mindset.

Mobile apps allow retailers to make their interactions with the consumers, engaging and responsive, creating an appealing brand impression and occupying mind space of the prospective buyers. Moreover, retailers are adapting to mobility solutions buoyed by other business factors as well. The competitive retail marketplace and recent economic downturn has compelled retailers to look for low-cost, agile and innovative solutions that provide them with broader and faster reach-to-the market. Mobility solutions, when integrated with the existing ecosystem, can also play a big role in accentuating the shopping experience. A product demonstration on a tablet or price-comparison with a scan of the product not only helps to shorten the buying cycle but also helps the consumers take informed decisions.

The Opportunities for retailers

Today, mobility in retail has not only become a vital channel for branding and advertising but also is an enabler that can act as a force multiplier, in near and long-term future, to the overall operations in a retail organization.

Retail mobility solutions are making processes leaner and swifter not only with their own capacity but by also complementing other technologies. In short, mobility is creating new possibilities for retailers to manage their stores and make shopping effortless and pleasurable. From helping their consumer locate their nearest stores, to browsing catalogues on-the-go to read reviews of products and compare prices, retail mobility solutions have the power to integrate various components of the buying cycle into a seamless and fun exercise.

The big gains

One of the key factors behind the huge enthusiasm within retailers to adopt mobility is the game-changing business benefits it brings to them. Studies show that mobile applications not only play a huge influencing role in creating positive brand image outside the organization but also boosts worker productivity within the enterprise,thus decreasing asset failures, reducing operational costs and improve real-time decision making to help organizations improve their processes and potential.

Research also shows that by adopting retail mobility solutions, business can get a major lift in their various activities and make it more effective, culminating to significant financial benefits. A CISCO IBSG survey in 2011 shows that mobility adoption could bring as high as 10% boost to net margins for retailers.

Challenges & Advantages

While there are many exciting reasons for retailers to adopt mobility the path however is not so smooth. There are several critical challenges facing the retailers as they move on to leverage mobility in their business. Device diversity- with the availability of varied devices- and platform fragmentation- with multiple mobile platforms- brings up the challenge to look for solutions that can fit all. Internet connectivity and bandwidth concern can be a huge block in reaching to a vast audience in certain geographic markets. Privacy of customer is also a growing concern that has to be adequately addressed. It is also important for retailers to keep an eye on the reliability and scalability of their mobile infrastructure as the usage grows (in peak shopping seasons and times). And, above all, there is a huge challenge in rising and meeting up-to the consumer demands and making shopping via mobile a hassle-free and engaging activity.

Looking ahead

The future for retail mobility looks very exciting. As mobile devices evolve further, new technologies emerge and adoption grows and a lot of such innovation in the ways mobile technology will be leveraged in the retail businesses will be seen. Already there are talks of virtual shopping malls owned and managed by multiple retailers. Other key innovations that are most talked about and are gaining traction in recent times are the Near Field Communications (NFC) and Augmented Reality (AR).

Near Field Communications: NFC will allow shoppers to simply wave their phone to a tagged item in a store shelf, and get all the information about the product like prices, reviews, availability and even download discount coupons. NFC will also allow them to make payments via their mobile and also redeem reward cards.

Augmented Reality: AR is another technology, in use in its introductory phase, which when further evolved will change the shopping experience. AR will enable consumers get live view of a particular product, say how a particular garment will look on them or how painting a particular color will affect the ambience. In the days ahead, as retail mobility matures, there will be countless possibilities for its use.

Our Recommendations

Embrace mobility: Retail mobility is the future. And offers tremendous value to both, retailers and shoppers.

Engage with your customers: Mobility brings tremendous opportunities to engage and be responsive to consumer needs.

Focus on consumer experience: Create a smooth, user-friendly and enjoyable mobile shopping environment. Allow consumers to interact with your brands using techniques like Gamification etc.

Pick the right platform: Diversity in screen sizes, functionalities and operating system necessitates businesses to adopt a multi-platform approach.

Keep an eye on analytics: Monitor consumer behaviour. Customer intelligence will be the guide for future.

Lay down the groundwork for next generation of retail mobility: Emerging technologies like Augmented Reality, NFC, RFID etc., promises more opportunities. Be ready to seize them.

Final Thoughts

Retailers have to explore and adopt solutions that can help them reach their target audience, inform and influence their buying-decision process. Shoppers, on the other hand, would want the retailers to provide them with tools and solutions that play a role in their shopping decisions. Retail mobility solutions have emerged as an effective answer to myriad challenges facing retailers and will empower them to respond swiftly to the changing market dynamics and consumer lifestyle. However, right solutions beget expected results when employed at the right time. The time is ripe to go mobile. A revisit to the recent history exemplifies how early movers in e-commerce benefitted while laggards were found catching-up. A new model of retailing is emerging. It’s time to embrace it with full hands!

Enterprise Mobility, White papers

Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) – A solution to myriad challenges in enterprise mobility

June 6, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

As per Gartner CIO Survey, 2012, 61% of respondents plan to increase their mobility capability during the next three years, and 48% believe they will become leaders in their industries by fully adopting innovative mobility solutions. Truly, mobile devices and apps are changing the way enterprises interact with their processes, customers and employees. However, an important element in any mobility adoption process is the platform that hosts the mobile applications. Enterprises need to select a platform which provides an optimum mix of features and capabilities to ensure that they are able to mix and match devices, applications and can integrate it with their processes as per their budget, business goals and mobile strategy. MEAP or Mobile Enterprise Application Platform is one such solution, which is gaining considerable traction in recent years, as an effective way to design, deploy and manage enterprise apps.

Our cover story, this month, takes a detailed look at MEAP and will help understand why and how it could be a solution to myriad challenges in mobile adoption for enterprises.

Today, mobile application developers spend roughly

20 percent of their time on actual application development

80 percent of their time on adapting applications for deployment across multiple handsets and networks.

Companies must flip that ratio to fully realize the benefits mobile applications can bring.

Source: AT&T

What is a MEAP?

MEAP is an acronym coined by Gartner in its 2008 Magic Quadrant report. A Mobile Enterprise Application Platform is an integrated development environment that provides tools and client/server middleware for building, deploying and managing mobile applications.

MEAPs address the challenges of mobile app development by managing the diversity of devices, platforms, networks and users. It allows an enterprise to develop an application once and then deploy it to a variety of mobile devices.

A MEAP brings following capabilities and support for mobile software-

Complete integrated development environment.

Support for design, develop, test, deploy and manage mobile apps.

Graphical WYSIWYG development.

Run-time middleware server to handle back-end systems of the enterprises.

Robust security capabilities.

local and remote data handling capability.

Ability to integrate external devices like credit card readers, scanners, printers etc.

Benefits of MEAP

Faster app development and deployment: MEAPs address the challenges of diversity in devices and platforms thereby eliminating the repetitive, resource-intensive tasks of building applications for each device type and OS. This enables companies to spend less time on adapting applications for specific devices.

Multiple feature integration: MEAPs allow easier integration of mobile apps with the unique features and capabilities of mobile devices and peripherals like credit card readers, printers and barcode scanners.

Management: MEAP interfaces with client middleware server and back-end infrastructure to provide high visibility and control via web-based console over the environment. This makes it easy for the businesses to centrally manage devices and apps, and install and update mobile software over the air.

Security: MEAP enforces guards against unauthorized access and helps in data security, in the event of loss or theft of device. It also enables constant monitoring in the mobile environment by generating detailed reports on user usage, devices and apps. The reports can not only be used for surveillance but also to manage various issues in the environment.

Off-line Connection: Mobile apps, as smart clients in a MEAP environment, can work independently of a central server connection, allowing users to continue to work off-line.

Robust back-end connectivity: MEAP provides strong connectivity between back-end infrastructure and mobile devices through mobile middleware thereby ensuring smooth flow of data to specified device.

Support for scalability and new technologies: MEAP provides a highly scalable infrastructure to support dynamic increase in devices, apps and users. Being an open, flexible architecture, the platform also enables easy integration with emerging technologies.

What are MEAPs trying to solve?

Write app once, run on any device and platform

Write application in single language and re-compile for native platform

Take advantage of device hardware

Provide abstraction layer to take advantage of the device hardware

Integrate with different data sources

Set of adapters for XML, databases, web services, SAP, Siebel etc.

Deployment of applications

Hosting of application, manage updates and analyze usage

Management of devices

Asset management for devices and restrictions for trusted devices

Source – Neudesic

When is MEAP a right solution?

Analyst firm Gartner proposed The Rule of Three, whereby enterprises are encouraged to consider MEAP as a solution when they need to support

Three or more mobile applications

Three or more mobile operating systems (OS)

To integrate three or more back-end data sources

1. Multi-platform deployment
Is your business planning to deploy mobile capabilities on two or more operating systems? If yes, then a MEAP will be the right solution to your needs. A MEAP will provide you with the ways to leverage a single development capability to build mobile apps across a wide variety of mobile platforms like iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, etc.

2. Multiple applications in the environment
Is your enterprise’s mobile strategy includes 3 or more apps? If so, then adding a MEAP to the mobile environment is a necessary step for sustained monitoring and management.

3. Connecting to Multiple back-end systems
Your sales team wanted mobile access to CRM. Now your inventory team requires real-time data on mobile. The requests simply don’t end! The minute you feel the need for integration and connectivity from multiple back-end systems, it’s better to have a MEAP in place. A MEAP will not only ensure smooth data flow across the mobile environment but will also enable safeguards for its security.

Issues with MEAPs

On-premise installation: MEAPs are on-premise software and therefore would require in-house expertise for development, maintenance and trouble-shooting in the long run. This means costs in training personnel or recruiting MEAP experts.

Expensive: There is significant expenses in license, hardware, maintenance of a MEAP making it difficult for enterprises with limited financial resources to adopt it into their ecosystem.

Adaptability: Each organization has its own set of requirements and therefore a standard solution like MEAP needs to have customization capabilities to align with the mobile strategy of the enterprise. Meeting the customization requirements of an enterprise and extending all its benefits is a challenge for the MEAPs.

Recommendations on choosing a MEAP solution

Selecting the right MEAP solution is of critical importance to enterprises as it can not only impact the entire mobile strategy but also business efficiency and the finances. Here are a few major points of considerations while picking the right MEAP solution

Productivity: Is the MEAP solution answering to your mobility requirements? Is it helpful in reducing app development efforts of your organization? The MEAP solution you pick must satisfy most of your needs and mix well with the objective behind adapting mobility in your enterprise.

Support: The MEAP you choose must also provide end-to-end solutions in app development efforts. Some solutions don’t provide complete support through the full mobile app lifecycle and may require further developer interventions in native coding, debugging and other manual tweaking.

Flexibility: Ask your vendor whether the said MEAP solution only supports mobile apps or can also support desktop or web apps? Some MEAPs are restricted to supporting mobile apps only and have no capabilities for supporting other types of applications. This means you have to build apps for other environments on your own.

Integration: Does the MEAP enables complete and easy integration with back-end systems? Smooth integration to enterprise systems, databases and processes will help you save time, efforts and make your mobile environment efficient.

Emerging technologies: With technology continuously evolving, it is of utmost importance that your MEAP solution must also support emerging technologies such as HTML5 to make your mobile environment sync with changing times.

In addition to above, the expertise and experience of the vendor should also be considered while buying the MEAP solution.

Conclusion

Use of mobility devices and applications in enterprises is growing at a brisk pace. While mobile adaption is bringing considerable benefits for organizations but is also posing challenges in terms of efficient management of devices and applications, platform fragmentation, data security and higher costs etc., which calls for innovative and functional solutions that can reduce app development efforts, lower costs and bring efficiency in the systems. MEAP can be a solution that can help an enterprise in answering the myriad challenges and can help it adopt mobility in a secure, organized and efficient way.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

Infographic:Enterprise Mobility

June 5, 2012 [x]cube LABS Leave a comment

Mobile devices and apps are quickly becoming essentials tools in enterprises. Today’s enterprise hinges on mobility solutions to inspire innovation and facilitate transformation. Anytime, anywhere access to valuable information has become critical for business organizations at a time when the lines between professional and personal space are blurring and when, there is an unprecedented pressure on organizations, to be nimble-footed, cost-sensitive and innovative in their approach.

We, at [x]cube LABS, view mobility as a long-term solution to myriad challenges facing the enterprises. Our latest infographic ‘Enterprise Mobility’ presents before you critical data and information on how organizations are adopting mobile solutions, the business benefits driving mobile computing, the device policy of organizations, platform preferences and many such vital components of the enterprise mobile ecosystem. Check out our infographic for interesting insights and astonishing facts on mobility in enterprises-

To view the complete infographic and for a high resolution image click here Re-tweets and feedback are highly appreciated!

Our other infographics-

The Mobile Employee

Enterprise Mobility-Apps, Platforms and Devices

The Android Story

The evolution of mobile operating systems

Smartphone and Mobile App Usage

The smartphone app-o-graphic