Project Managers’ Challenges in Enterprise Mobile Apps Adoption

by Philip Kwa,  PMP

  

Mobile Apps Adoption Trends

In 2012, there were 1.2 mobile app users worldwide and this population is set to grow to a size of 4.4 billion by 2017 (mobiThinking, 2013).  This represents a very impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.7% per annum.  The scenario in the Asia Pacific region is even more impressive.  The mobile app user population will grow from 360 million in 2012 at a CAGR of 41.9% to an estimated base of 2.068 billion in 2017.

Mass adoption of mobile phone and mobile apps will prompt many enterprises to implement location-based services whereby consumers can transact with them through smart mobile phones.  As examples, some mobile commerce engagement and industry statistics provided by digby (digby, n.a.), a mobile marketing solution provider, are listed below to illustrate the momentum of enterprise mobile app adoption:

  • 27% of companies worldwide planned to implement location-based marketing in 2013. (Source: Econsultancy, 2013);
  • Of the 70 percent of shoppers who used a mobile phone while in a retail store during the holidays, 62 percent accessed that store’s site or app and only 37 percent of respondents accessed a competitor’s site or app. (Source: ForeSee, 2013);
  • 65% of U.S. shoppers research products and services on a PC and make a purchase in-store. (Source: Cisco, 2013);
  • The number of available mobile retail applications has increased 350% from 2009 to 2010 (Acquity Group);
  • 7% of Internet Retailer’s Top 500 e-retailers have downloadable mobile apps available to consumers (Internet Retailer, 2010); and
  • 44% of retailers plan to enable a mobile app in 2010 (Forbes Insights). 

Thus it is inevitable that all enterprises will have no choice but to ultimately adopt mobile apps as part of their business strategy in order to maintain their competitive advantages.

 

Project Management Practitioners & Mobile Apps Adoption

The growth in mobile apps adoption will impact Project Management (PM) practitioners in a number of ways, these are:

 1. As a mobile apps user

More enterprises are deploying mobile-enabling their business operations, project practitioners (as consumers) have to change their life-style to embrace the new paradigm where mobile apps are pervasively adopted.  However, this transition will be gradual and natural and it is unlikely to pose much challenges.


 2. As a project management practitioner

As a PM practitioner and a professional, the mobile apps create an excellent opportunity for us to improve our productivity, to raise our professional profile and to collaborate with fellow PM practitioner all over the world.  Some of these opportunities are:

    • The massive storage capacity on mobile devices allows us to store a lot of frequently use data andWe can bring it along to our work place, home and anywhere we are.  Couple with excellent file and sync capability, the mobile apps greatly improves the accessibility of information at the time when we need them.
    • Social media sites, especially the more business-oriented site such as LinkedIN.com, provide excellent platforms for PM practitioners to interact with, learn, share and collaborate with other fellow PMUsed properly, this is a great personal productivity tool.

 3.  As part of project team

As mobile devices continue to infiltrate organizations, the demand for mobile applications is growing rapidly. Employees will request for applications to connect them to enterprise resources, increase their productivity and promote collaboration with employees. Smart organizations provide employees with company-approved public and custom-built internal applications.

As part of project team, a PM practitioner has to streamline the challenge of acquiring, distributing, securing and tracking mobile applications. Enterprises can deploy a mobile application management (MAM) solution to easily manage internal, public and purchased apps across employee-owned, corporate-owned and shared devices from one central console.

The last two scenarios are related to enterprises and they have some business and management implications.  In general, there are six major challenges (Emmanuel, 2013) related to enterprise mobility:

  1. Security;
  2. Policy and compliance;
  3. Usability;
  4. Enterprise Applications;
  5. Rapid Rate of change; and
  6. Cost Management.

As enterprise mobility is not a choice but an inevitable choice, business enterprises have no choice but to grapple with these challenges.  Of these, security related to mobile devices is the most difficult to tackle as it involve devices that are outside of the company.  As PM practitioners, we need to be aware of the solutions for tackling security challenges brought about in the move towards enterprise mobility. A number of techniques to secure mobile applications residing on those devices will be discussed in the next section.

For the reminding challenges, most business already have some experiences in dealing with them whenever new technology is being considered.  These will not be repeated in this article.

 

Securing Mobile Applications

With the rise in the demand for mobile applications in the enterprise, an increased number of organizations are utilizing solutions to secure mobile applications. These organizations not only allowing, but encouraging employees to use apps at work can be intimidating without the right resources. However, resources such as app scanning, app wrapping, application software development kits and app catalogs can be deployed to manage mobile apps within the enterprise. Once an organization is armed with the correct tools for Mobile Application Management (MAM), the company can empower employees with mobile apps while ensuring that corporate data and employee information is secure.

Four techniques of managing mobile apps are employed to tame the security challenges related to enterprise mobility.  These are App Scanning, App Wrapping, Application Software Development Kits and App Catalogs. These techniques are briefly described below:

 

App Scanning

While applications present many benefits in the enterprise, apps also introduce risks if they are not properly secured. IT administrators must implement a plan to block malicious applications and ensure that internal and third-party apps meet their organization’s security standards. In addition to protecting organizations from publicly available malicious applications, administrators should address concerns around apps accessing personal data on employee-owned devices. Organizations should implement app scanning into their mobility initiative to address these concerns.

App scanning allows administrators to identify common app risks, such as access to privacy settings, exposing user contacts or geo-location information, insecure network connections, malicious code and more. IT can run app scans, view app analysis and use that information to assess whether an application is safe for business use or blacklist the application if it does not meet the minimum security standard.

Organizations must know what information an application is accessing to determine if the application is safe for employee use. Every company has different security needs and must evaluate applications based on the needs of the organization. For instance, while some companies may be able to utilize location-based apps, other enterprises may restrict them depending on the sensitivity of the data involved and mobile device policy agreements with employees.

 

App Wrapping

In addition to third-party applications, many enterprises are building internal applications for specific business and employee roles. However, IT must ensure the applications are secured and corporate data isn’t compromised, whether applications are installed on corporate-owned or Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) devices.

Another solution to secure mobile applications is app wrapping, which gives existing internal applications an extra level of security and management capabilities, without further development or code change. With injected code, developers benefit by not spending time coding for additional features.

Possible app wrapping capabilities include, restricting application access and securing data at-rest with data encryption and in-transit. Data loss prevention (DLP) restrictions can prevent copy/ paste, printing, screen capture, Bluetooth and opening files in other applications. Administrators can restrict access to an app based on network connectivity like cellular connection or roaming status. IT can wipe local app data and block app access completely if a device is compromised. Additionally, a simplified user experience can be enabled with single sign-on user authentication. 

 

Application Software Development Kits

Software development kits can provide developers with access to security, configuration and reporting features for developing internal applications. Sample features and functionalities offered by software developments kits include user authentication, compromised device detection, data loss prevention, certificates, branding, over-the-air app configurations and app tunneling. 

Organizations can provide convenience and flexibility to employees by building internal mobile applications that are secure. For example, aviation companies are building unique apps to allow collaboration among cabin crews on routes and schedules, and retailers are developing apps to allow employees to indicate preferred work shifts.

 

App Catalogs

MAM solutions can often be integrated with public app stores such as the Apple App Store, Microsoft Store and Google Play store to allow access to public apps through an app catalog. Enterprises can select which applications are included in the organization’s app catalog and indicate whether apps are reimbursable or non-reimbursable.

Administrators can use the app catalog to push specific applications automatically when users enroll in mobile device management (MDM) or MAM and make applications available for on-demand installation. Users can view, browse, search and install public, internal, recommended and web applications within an app catalog.

 

Concluding Remarks 

When it comes to adopting mobile applications in the enterprise, the lesser the time organizations spend worrying about security, the more they can focus on driving core business strategies. Therefore, understanding how to manage mobile applications is critical to any organization’s mobile strategy.

 

About the Author

 Philip_Kwa

 

Philip is the Regional Sales Lead in Airwatch, the world's largest mobile security and enterprise mobility management provider Prior to the current role, he was the Sales VP, ASEAN with Integralis Services Pte Ltd responsible for the sales and delivery of Integralis’ successful portfolio of managed security, consulting and technology integration services to customers, with the support of major shareholder, NTT. He also held different management positions, providing consulting services to clients in various countries (China, ASEAN, USA, and Europe) and was involved in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) related work in China.

He has served PMI Singapore Chapter as a Board Member and the Chair for Professional Development in 2013/14.


Works Cited

digby. (n.a.). Mobile Industry Statistics. Retrieved 4 19, 2014, from digby.com: http://digby.com/mobile-statistics/#mces

Emmanuel, J. (2013). The Challenges of Enterprise Mobility. (I. In-Q-Tel, Producer) Retrieved 4 19, 2014, from In-Q-Tel, Inc: https://www.iqt.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Enterprise_mobility.pdf

mobiThinking. (2013, 3). Global mobile statistics 2013 Section E: Mobile apps, app stores, pricing and failure rates. Retrieved 4 19, 2014, from mobiThinking: http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats/e#appusers