Tag: Artificial Intelligence

B2B ecosystems constitute the backbone for several critical functions in the enterprise including supply chain optimization, sales, marketing, product development, knowledge management, and even innovation. Such B2B ecosystems thrive on the exchange of information and uninterrupted collaboration.

The growth in popularity of mobile devices is all-pervasive. It is not just retail customers who prefer mobile devices for shopping, but also internal enterprise users, who prefer to get things done through the convenience of their smartphones. The proliferation of the BYOD culture, where employees access the corporate network through apps downloaded on their mobile devices and get the job done even when on the move, has further fueled the growth of mobile services in the enterprise.

In such a state of affairs, the business-to-business (B2B) segment is also seeing a surge in mobile services, side-by-side with the much-publicized business-to-customer (B2C) segment. With mobility now becoming central in the scheme of things for B2B ecosystems, here are key trends in the future of B2B enterprise mobile services.

Mobility Solution Management to Mature from EMM to Seamless Integrated Experience

Enterprises are moving to enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions to gain control over their ever expanding mobility ecosystem. EMM facilitates laying down policies and structures for mobility management, offering a unified, integrated place for the management of devices, apps, and content, and also to enforce security.

In today’s fast paced tech world, organisations have started moving beyond such traditional EMM functionality as well. Enterprise apps, dealing with distinct processes such as procurement, sales, and more, are still independent to one another, existing in silos, without any functional integration between them, and not factoring in conditions relevant to the user. This is changing, with mobile devices now slowly but surely becoming a central node in a connected ecosystem. In such a changed scenario, B2B app users transition from a broken to integrated frictionless experience, with the mobile experiences evolving in terms of channel, context, and construction.

In response to the changing scenario, EMM is evolving from simple device management, to incorporate advanced features such as user credential distribution, single sign-on (SSO), access control, and more, deeply integrating itself into the core IT of the enterprise. Advanced EMM also offers software development kits (SDKs), enabling app developers to offer content control, encryption, data loss prevention policies, and other security-enhancing features.

Artificial Intelligence to Become Well-Entrenched

All the hype surrounding artificial intelligence and automation notwithstanding, most mobile devices still rely on direct user instructions, forcing business users to move in and out of apps to get things done. However, the spread of AI technologies means many tasks now done manually, even with the convenience of apps, will soon be automated, requiring no human intervention, or at best only validation. The proliferation of new AI inspired technology such as Google Glass and more would also decrease the dominance of apps in the scheme of things, offering users more touch points to get things done in a much easier way. The key to such next generation B2B enabling devices is present and upcoming technology innovations.

Rise of Rapid Application Development and Containers

The latest trends in mobile app development, such as the use of low-code and no-code option for rapid application development, the use of containers, and other trends will apply equally in B2B space, just as it shakes up the B2C space. Mobile app development is increasingly becoming agile as well, with greater thrust on design reuse, modular approach, and more.

In the quest for efficiency, the thrust of application development will not just be on creating new apps and solutions, but also on ensuring online workflows work seamlessly with offline mobile contexts. There will be a greater focus on innovation as well, by applying in-vogue and emerging concepts such as mechanisation, machine learning, natural language,  immersive analytics, and more. There will be increased integration of voice, video, and images in B2B apps as well. The application of MVP (model-view-presenter) architecture will improve user experience significantly, and drive the application of new technology to spur innovation.

B2B Enterprise Seek Increasing Value from Mobility

In an interconnected ecosystem, the real value of mobility goes beyond the value of a particular function or app. The true value realizes when the app completes a piece of the jig-saw, or enabling well-timed business moments that enables the continuation of a relationship, and or opens up additional value. In such a scenario, the focus shifts from data models to service models, where customer or client experience is the overriding concern as opposed to the data or asset the enterprise holds. What the enterprise has is no longer relevant. Rather, what they do with the available resources makes all the difference.

Enterprises are now forging a tighter integration, and even merging mobility with IT team, to ensure the agility brought about by mobility rubs off on the rest of the enterprise.

In the quest for operational excellence, improved engagement with customers and clients, and also a competitive advantage in an increasingly tough business environment, B2B enterprise mobile services are embracing big changes. Those who miss out stand to lose out big time. For instance, mobility-lagging organizations face the risk of key employees becoming frustrated with the lack of productivity enhancing apps, and resigning.

In such a scenario, it pays to rope in a strategic partner who is competent in the mobility space and has solid experience helping enterprises roll out highly successful mobility campaigns and implementations. We are the right partners for you, as evident from our list of satisfied customers, cutting across sectors.

About 71% of enterprises regard mobility as a top priority, and Nasscom estimates the global enterprise mobility market to be worth $140 billion a year, by 2020. Such widespread adoption of enterprise mobility solutions come as no surprise, considering an employee gains 240 hours a year on average, in terms of productivity, if they use cutting edge mobility solutions at work.

However, mobility is still an emerging technology and an extremely fluid space. New paradigms emerge by the day, and there is no standardized way to apply or govern technologies. Success requires a lot of trailblazing, adopting the latest trends, and tackling challenges head-on. Here are the latest trends to follow, and the challenges to overcome, in 2017.

1. The Rise of Companion Apps

Enterprises are scrambling to develop enterprise apps for both their internal functions and for their customers. Rather than generic apps, there is now an increasing shift to companion apps, or apps aimed at making a specific thing or function easy, rather than try and replicate every single feature of a desktop app.  

Research major Gartner estimates the demand for enterprise mobile apps outstripping available development capacity by five times. The pressing challenge before enterprises is to solve the grave talent crunch, and develop the required mobile apps, or run the risk of losing out big time in productivity and new possibilities. Enterprises also face a far daunting challenge of unlocking data silos to ensure mobility solutions work optimally.

2. BYOD Becomes Much More than a Trend

The Bring-Your-Own-Devices (BYOD) culture is already well-entrenched in the corporate world. The tremendous productivity and efficiency benefits it brings out, coupled with the rising popularity of mobility apps have graduated BYOD to much more than a trend. BYOD is fast becoming the established norm in many enterprises.

BYOD however brings new challenges in its wake. Employee devices rarely feature the required enterprise-grade security features, and the enterprise IT team remains hard-pressed to manage the wide range of BYOD devices that operate within the corporate network. Mobile device management (MDM) solutions, implemented to ease out potential pain points often hinder the productivity or fluidity of the work carried out on the devices.

Enterprises need to devise effective mobility policies that secure employee-owned devices. Centralizing the management of mobile devices, akin to remote management of PC and notebook desktops enable enterprises to have control over the devices in use.  The trick is to roll out such policies without compromising the privacy of employees.

3. Accelerated Migration to the Cloud

The increased maturity of cloud services, the easy availability of affordable and reliable cloud services, and the game-changing possibilities with big data has accelerated migration of enterprise solutions to the cloud.

The increased popularity of the cloud notwithstanding, security remains a pressing challenge. Enterprises seeking to reconcile the security issue increasingly opt for hybrid solutions, hosting mission critical apps on premises and other apps on the cloud. The increasing stakes of security mean regulatory security controls may not be too far away.

4. Personal Assistant-Friendly Features Go Mainstream

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has already made its mark in computing. More and more enterprise apps are now becoming “smart,” leveraging features such as those offered by Siri, Google Now, Cortana, and other smart personal assistants. There is a boom of “smart apps” that allow users to control lighting, heating and security systems using Siri.

As AI makes the enterprise more and more dependent on technology, security becomes even more important than before, and security breaches run the risk of bringing down the entire enterprise. The onus is on the enterprise to guarantee effective security.

A key focus of enterprise network security now is effective threat management, or identifying potential vulnerabilities and operating system-specific threats. A multilayered approach that authenticates enterprise applications, reinforced with agile device management solution is the way to go for most enterprises.

5. The Rise of Citizen Developers

The growing demand for enterprise apps has resulted in the rise and popularity of cross-platform low-code and no-code app development platforms, which offer easy drag and drop options and accelerate the app development timeline greatly. Side by side with such new app development technologies is the rise of citizen developers, who can leverage such platforms to develop apps on the fly, with little or no coding knowledge.

Accelerated app development and the rise of citizen developers present its own challenge of half-baked implementation and serious vulnerabilities in the developed software. Native apps, developed for the platform, are generally more feature-rich and deliver a better user experience, over the HTML5 based cross-platform app development. Native apps also allow administrators more control.
Your best bet to overcome such challenges, while tapping into the latest trends at the same time, is to partner with a sound professional developer like us. Partnering with us allow you to leverage our wealth of experience and expertise in rolling out highly intuitive enterprise mobility solution that meets all your objectives, in a cost effective manner.