iPhone 4 - The Business Opportunity

Consumers love the iPhone. That much is clear. Much has been written about the adoption of iPhone and the massive apps eco-system now surrounding it. But what about business? What happens to my iPhone when I go to work? Do apps still matter? With iPhone 4, the answer is a resounding “Yes”.

Apple used the expression ‘Think different’ for a compelling advertising campaign some years ago, and businesses would do well to adopt the same slogan when considering iPhone 4. The iPhone was the first mobile phone to convince end-users that mobile data was as important, perhaps even more important, than voice. Apps are now at the heart of the iPhone. With more than 200,000 applications available in the App Store, the platform has clearly captured the imagination of both developers and users.

But mobile business apps have held productivity promises for many years, without evolving much outside of employee-facing wireless email and field service apps, or customer-facing branding and event-based apps. With iPhone 4, all the pieces seem to finally be in place to kick-start this evolution.

• Powerful development environment - everyone wants to, and can, build an iPhone app
• Wireless app distribution - no longer dependent on iTunes, IT teams can control iPhone apps end-to-end 
• Application security - iPhone data protection APIs now provide additional layers of application data security
• User demand - individuals don’t need to be convinced to use iPhone apps – they already love them

 So iPhone 4 is poised to be a catalyst for mobile apps development for businesses. But are IT and corporate application development organisations truly ready? The answer to this question is almost always “Not really”.

Democratisation of mobile apps
Mobile apps, whether internal or customer-facing, will force IT organisations to rethink their apps strategy, development, and deployment models. The reason is simple: you’re not the only one in the company thinking of building apps.

The traditional enterprise application model is monolithic - large, feature-rich applications built or deployed by central IT organizations. But the mobile application model is completely different pple’s App Store is filled with small, focused applications that took weeks to get to market instead of years, and that each deliver only a limited number of functions, but do them well.

Lines-of-business will not wait for central IT to build their mobile apps. They will moonlight as developers or hire contractors to build simple point applications targeted to their particular needs.  Because iPhone apps are easy to build and compelling to use, development projects known and unknown will quickly proliferate through an organization. Some of these will be for internal apps, others for mobile marketing apps. But all will proceed quickly and create high anxiety for the CIO staff.

The task for the CIO, then, is to identify the appropriate governance model for this type of organic, decentralized development. CIOs need to ask themselves: What is allowed? Who will build? Who will support? Who will fund? And how will it foster innovation, while avoiding chaos?

Not only that, but the CIO also now has to define a policy model for end-users within the company. Which apps will be supported officially? Which will be only tolerated or denied? Which apps will be reimbursed? Who will make these decisions? What is the impact on employee satisfaction? What are the consequences to an employee or department of breaking policy?

Black and white policies
Most businesses lack policies along these dimensions. Or if they do have policies, they are very black and white: “nothing allowed” or “everything allowed”. The reality, however, is shades of grey, because the user fights back against the former, and the IT and security team are not comfortable with the latter.

As a result, most IT departments find the democratisation model uncontrolled and unpredictable. But it could very well be the natural, organic progression of business application development, moving from command-and-control to cooperative mobility, where IT sets policy, but the users and lines-of-business set the apps agenda.

iPhone 4 and its expanded apps development model lay the groundwork for this to become a potential option for the development of business apps. One of the strengths of the iPhone (now branded “iOS”) platform has been to open doors that were previously closed, and drive innovation across a broad set of developers. In the past, those have been developers outside the company focused on mobile consumer apps. Now they can be developers (or wanna-be developers) inside the company, looking to help their teams get more productive with mobile business apps.

The next generation of mobile business apps is coming. Time to get ready.

Kees van Veenendaal is vice president and general manager, EMEA, at MobileIron