whitepaper calculating your investment in … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... ·...

14
CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN ENTERPRISE MOBILITY WHITEPAPER

Upload: others

Post on 07-Jun-2020

1 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN ENTERPRISE MOBILITY

WHITEPAPER

Page 2: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

redhat.com

facebook.com/redhatinc @redhatnews

linkedin.com/company/red-hat

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE COST OF MOBILITY: HOW LONG IS YOUR PIECE OF STRING?.............................. 3

STEP ONE: PRIORITIZING WHAT TO BUILD AND HOW................................................. 4

STEP TWO: CULTIVATING A NEW MINDSET.................................................................. 5

STEP THREE: EVALUATING DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS ................................................ 6

STEP FOUR: CONSIDERING BACK ENDS AND FRONT ENDS ....................................... 7

STEP FIVE: DEPLOYING AND MANAGING APPS .......................................................... 9

BREAKING DOWN THE COST COMPONENTS OF MOBILITY........................................ 10

EXAMPLE OF A FIELD SALES MOBILE APP PROJECT ............................................... 13

FINAL THOUGHTS...................................................................................................... 14

GET IN TOUCH............................................................................................................ 14

Page 3: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

redhat.com

facebook.com/redhatinc @redhatnews

linkedin.com/company/red-hat

THE COST OF MOBILITY: HOW LONG IS YOUR PIECE OF STRING?

Enterprise mobility is maturing. To date, most organizations have deployed some form of

initiative, often in sporadic projects or by buying prefab applications, to solve common business

challenges such as expense management or customer relationship management (CRM).

Organizations further along the maturity scale are moving away from the basic “we need to

build an app” mindset and are looking in earnest for return on their investment (ROI) by creating

business value or decreasing costs. But many are struggling to win support for mobile app

development due to the difficulty in quantifying the lifetime costs and benefits of enterprise

apps when building the business case.

WHAT DOES IT COST TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN AN APP?

Just as “house” could mean a hut with a tin roof or a Jacobethan manor like Downton Abbey,

trying to work out the exact cost of an app is full of uncertainty. For example, a small custom

app might have only a handful of screens, such as a simple information app with minimal

functionality. A medium app might be comprised of six to 10 screens to meet the requirements of

the specific use case or business process that is being mobilized. Large or complex custom apps

typically have numerous features and more sophisticated functionality, with multiple screens,

click points, and integrations to back-end systems or services.

Every organization is unique in terms of its use case, resources, mobile maturity, legacy infra-

structure, and development processes. As such, there is no one-size-fits-all way to calculate the

cost of mobile apps. But we do know two things for certain: 1) There is an opportunity cost of

doing nothing, whether that is lost revenues or falling behind competitors; and 2) Building apps

tactically is generally more expensive as it does not take advantage of efficiency gained though

the centralized sharing of resources, practices, governance, and code.

GETTING STARTED WITH CONFIDENCE

In the face of known unknowns, the key is to reduce the cost of mobility over time with a

development approach based on prebuilt components, processes, tests, and templates. This

results in faster and more reliable delivery of applications and updates, which ultimately

translates into achieving ROI sooner.

This whitepaper offers practical advice and an indicative scenario to help you win support for

your mobile app initiatives.

There is an opportunity cost of doing nothing,

whether that is lost revenues or falling

behind competitors. And building apps

tactically is always more expensive.

CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN ENTERPRISE MOBILITY

WHITEPAPER

Page 4: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

4redhat.com WHITEPAPER Calculating your investment in enterprise mobility

STEP ONE: PRIORITIZING WHAT TO BUILD AND HOW

It is easy to be seduced by the myth of the “killer app” — the next big thing that will transform your

industry or life-as-we-know-it. But it is indeed a myth — to build sustainable value you need to take

an open-ended approach to enterprise mobility.

If you are looking to develop a custom app (or buying off-the-shelf apps), the key is to identify your

business priorities. Resist the temptation to take a technology-first approach and trying to figure

out where you can apply mobility to your business or industry.

Instead, you need to ensure your mobile strategy is aligned to your business goals, so that whatever

you build will make a real impact. Here is how:

1. Identify your three most pressing business objectives. These might be revenue growth, a new

product launch, improved productivity, cost reduction, better customer engagement, or

reduced response times.

2. Get a handle on your business ecosystem. This includes employees, customers, suppliers, channel

partners, and anyone else with which your company has significant dealings. Try to determine

how this ecosystem developed and what typical interactions look like today.

3. Identify your most valuable source of insight and inspiration. This is often your team, whether

your goal is to understand where current processes break down, or you are trying to find

opportunities to justify mobile investment. And often, the best sources of innovation come

from the people who know your business best — employees and end users.

4. Identify user groups with high mobile potential. Look at each user profile, and with some form of

scoring process, determine how each user can impact a given business objective and how mobile

they are (i.e., how much time do or could they spend away from a fixed location). User groups

with high scores in both these areas can be prioritized as having high mobile potential.

5. Figure out how mobile capabilities can solve challenges or improve interactions. Select three

of these high-potential users and determine what a typical day in their life looks like. This might

include work-shadowing to understand their pain points or conducting surveys and focus groups.

Use these insights to figure out how mobile capabilities can solve their challenges or improve

their interactions.

6. Determine whether off-the-shelf apps already exist to solve existing problems. If so, what is

wrong with them or why don’t they currently meet your users’ needs? There is no point in

reinventing the wheel. If you are satisfied that existing or off-the-shelf apps do not cover at

least 80% of your business requirements or workflow, define what can be built and whether

that calls for custom development.

7. Identify your definitive mobility priorities. Assess the technical complexity involved and refine

your list once more, so that you are left with the opportunities that are the easiest and cheapest

to build and which add the most business value.

Page 5: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

5redhat.com WHITEPAPER Calculating your investment in enterprise mobility

STEP TWO: CULTIVATING A NEW MINDSET

If your organization is like most, you are probably finding that a growing proportion of technology

spending is coming from the business, outside of your consolidated IT budget. According to IDC, in

North America in 2015 58% of enterprise IT projects were funded by lines of business.1

The problem arises when business units turn to “shadow IT” to build apps. Why do they do it?

Because they can. It is easy to access applications or services with the wave of a credit card and get

productive quickly without having to wait for IT support.2 The challenge for your IT team is to help

the business become more agile and respond faster to changing needs without losing strategic focus

and governance.

What is needed is a new way of working, founded on three ways of thinking that challenge convention:

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLES, NOT PROJECTS

Remember, you are not developing a one-off app. You are embarking on a journey of continuous

product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-

ing features or capabilities ranked by value and technical complexity, and learning as you go about

what works and what to do differently next time. The aim is to get to market as quickly as possible to

realize value as early as possible. Encouraging or expanding a DevOps culture, rather than a segre-

gated approach to development and deployment, can help to increase your velocity.

COLLABORATION, NOT NEGOTIATION

It is all very well having a strategy, but it counts for naught without the ability to execute. Consider

how your relationship with lines of business either empowers or impedes you in rapidly fulfilling your

strategic vision. Collaboration maintains momentum, while negotiation typically suffocates your

team’s ability to accomplish anything. Successful collaboration is about creating an environment

that will achieve ongoing value, rather than adhering rigidly to a specific scope, which will ultimately

lead to a poor user experience and higher chance of failure. Remember, lines of business can be your

greatest accomplice or obstacle when rolling out new initiatives, so aim to make them your ally.

GOVERNANCE, NOT AUTOCRACY

It is not surprising that some folks will feel uncertain about an open scope that is focused on

embracing change — delivering value rather than delivering something specific. You can address

these concerns by putting a governance framework in place, the more prescriptive, the better.

Every product or release is a business investment proposition, so you need to give people the tools

to make the necessary decisions. You can bring a business mindset to application delivery by being

clear about the proposed value of a new app or release, evaluating how your existing mobile

portfolio as a whole is already performing, and holding your delivery team accountable for results.

1 IDC. Technology Purchases Funded by Line of Business Budgets Are Approaching Parity with IT-Funded Purchases. August 2015.

2 CIO. CIOs vastly underestimate extent of shadow IT.

Page 6: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

6redhat.com WHITEPAPER Calculating your investment in enterprise mobility

STEP THREE: EVALUATING DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS

There are multiple approaches to app development, depending on your organization, use case,

mobile maturity, app complexity, and volume of users.

• Off-the-shelf apps enable you to get to market quickly with a low level of customization

(if any) required.

• Custom app development is appropriate if the requirement is highly specific, built to support

the core business operation, and where native functionality and user experience are essential.

In this case apps are built from scratch

• Mobile application platforms are highly suited to organizations with a large number of custom

or semi-custom app projects in the pipeline, where the reuse of application programming

interfaces (APIs), infrastructure support, and centralized control makes sense.

To determine which best fits your scenario, you need to consider both your organizational goals

and the end-user community.

THE BUSINESS

Consider whether the app is core to the business or a competitive differentiator. Off-the-shelf apps

are built for a wide range of use cases and work well for ancillary functions — common procedures

or administrative activities — where your existing business processes can be tweaked to align to the

software. However, they may potentially expose the organization to security breaches. Therefore,

apply robust mobile device management (MDM) as a mobile security best practice. In addition,

mobile application management (MAM) should be used to deliver, lock down, control, and secure

these apps and limit how corporate data can be shared.

A custom build created around a specific requirement can be mapped exactly to your unique

business processes. It can also create opportunities to rethink or enhance current practices with

features such as GPS or image capture, or help you stand out from your competitors. But resist

the temptation to incorporate additional or unnecessary functions, which may elongate processes

or impact the app’s performance. Custom apps incorporate key workflows, which are effectively

the intellectual property of your business — providing operational value, differentiation or profit

opportunities that you can not get from off-the-shelf apps.

THE END USER

Nowadays, people are so familiar with technology in their everyday lives that, if your app’s UX

does not live up to expectations, employees will not use it even if it is mandated. Custom apps

put the user at the heart of the concept, aligning business and technical requirements with their

needs, wants, and expectations, such as usability and performance. This is vital, because user

engagement facilitates onboarding and sustained adoption. Off-the-shelf apps may not be suffi-

ciently intuitive, or may be overly complicated by unwanted functionality.

It is also important to consider future user numbers — the licensing costs for an off-the-shelf app will

increase in line with the user base, whereas the incremental costs associated with the growth of a

custom app are generally confined to scaling up the underlying infrastructure. Off-the-shelf apps

give businesses the benefit of a very simple operating expenses (OpEx) model. For custom apps, it

can be difficult to estimate the demand and subsequent load on IT infrastructure, which is why

organizations are increasingly turning to cloud-based platforms that are easily reconfigured to

manage fluctuating demand.

FEATURES THAT CAN AFFECT THE COST OF FRONT-END APP DEVELOPMENT:

• Login

• Social login

• Active directory integration

for single sign-on

• Navigation

• Personalized enterprise

dashboard

• User analytics collection

• Integrated maps/geolocation

• Interactive gallery of

enterprise content

• Barcode capture

• Workflow based on

business logic

• Number of screens

• Multiple language support

• Integration of SharePoint

Library

Page 7: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

7redhat.com WHITEPAPER Calculating your investment in enterprise mobility

STEP FOUR: CONSIDERING BACK ENDS AND FRONT ENDS

ALWAYS START AT THE BACK

Almost any conceivable mobile app will need to connect to your enterprise systems of record to

pull in relevant data, often in real time. So, it is important to optimize back-end systems for mobile

access, as the efficiency gains tend to multiply over time. Lines of business have a voracious

appetite for mobile apps, so a sensible, usable approach to integration will minimize the overhead

of each initiative.

Poorly planned data and application integration are among the top reasons enterprise apps fail,

take longer than planned to develop, or do not deliver what users need. So, it is crucial to identify

up front what your app will need to integrate with. This can be a thorny issue, as the data may be

distributed across several back-end systems from on-premise packaged applications, cloud data

or custom applications that the developer may be unfamiliar with.

USING APIS

APIs aid in integration and interoperability by defining exactly how an app will interact with the

rest of the software world — saving time and resources and minimizing complex, unstructured code.

A successful API layer will make or break the mobile experience, so as your single biggest depen-

dency, it needs to be given equal weighting to the quality of app development itself.

APIs should be lightweight, as the larger the file transfer payload between your app and the API,

the slower the refresh rate and the poorer the user experience. Check that the downstream systems

the API will interface with can handle the volume of work your app will deliver. And make sure your

API is expandable, so it can accommodate the different functionality and release roadmaps of con-

nected devices on an open-ended basis.

FIRST-TIME INTEGRATION

For first-time integration to a back-end system, you will need to create APIs from scratch. The cost

of this development is largely a factor of complexity. Fortunately, this upfront investment is often

what enables long-term effort and cost savings as mobile projects grow. Use this differentiation as

a guideline:

• Light integration — has no access to data from internal systems, integrate with a third-party

service such as social, push, messaging, and simple APIs that deliver publicly-available data

(e.g., weather forecasts).

• Moderate integration — take advantage of publicly-available APIs or common connectors

(e.g., through open source community projects such as Node.js modules) to create integration

to sources such as single sign-on, Salesforce.com, or mobile device management platforms.

• Complex integration — systems, such as ERP and CRM, that usually have preexisting APIs,

but may be more complex in nature than open systems.

• Highly complex integration — large-scale legacy back-end systems requiring sophisticated APIs

(e.g., full integration with SAP modules), will require complex coding.

Page 8: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

8redhat.com WHITEPAPER Calculating your investment in enterprise mobility

REUSING AN EXISTING INTEGRATION

Just as with a first-time integration, the effort and cost of reusing an existing integration is commen-

surate to the complexity of the integration. Rather than point-to-point integration for each individual

app, a platform approach allows for a single integration that can be discovered and reused, reducing

time and effort. If an API or connector has already been developed to connect an enterprise system

to a previous app, it can also be used for a subsequent app. For custom development, it will take con-

siderably more effort to recode the integration than using a mobile application platform where the

business logic is already available.

FRONT-END DEVELOPMENT: MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY INTERFACE

A great user experience demands great front-end development. But if people do not engage with

your app because it looks or feels mediocre, you have wasted your money, no matter how much

functionality you have crammed into it.

To prevent this scenario, you need to design with the end user in mind — not what your CIO or head

of operations might think they need or want. Knowing what tasks the app will need to perform or

what pain points it will solve will go a long way towards defining the user experience. Start by deter-

mining all of the functionality that is required and how users will navigate or interact with your app

(not forgetting to take into account different form factors and devices or OS features).

Front-end design is a specialist role that requires a blend of art and science, so apps should be

developed from the front end by a dedicated designer. Of course, great mobile app design goes

beyond simple appearances — it is about creating a fluid user experience by taking into account the

user’s emotional or transactional responses. If coders get started creating functionality too early,

it can be hard to deliver an engaging interface.

You can save yourself from potentially costly mistakes by creating prototypes to test designs

and usability before going into development. Engage your user community early, listen to their

detailed qualitative feedback, and fine tune accordingly. This may take several iterations, but will

pay dividends.

Page 9: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

9redhat.com WHITEPAPER Calculating your investment in enterprise mobility

STEP FIVE: DEPLOYING AND MANAGING APPS

The work required to run and manage an app starts before deployment and runs continuously until

the app is retired from service. Before launching your enterprise apps, consider who will manage

them and how — from creating the runbook to ongoing maintenance. Will you need an enterprise app

store or catalog to make approved corporate mobile apps and upgrades available to employees and

business partners? What resources will be needed for iterations throughout the apps’ life cycle, and

how will you push regular updates to end users? What risks can you anticipate that will demand the

ability to remotely lock down, control, and secure corporate data?

You need to choose the most suitable MDM and/or MAM solutions to help you secure, simplify, and

strengthen strategies and security policies for mobile application development. MDM solutions are

designed to give you total control over, and assurance of, the security of employees’ devices. They

offer a detailed level of management of the device’s functionality, from app data and distribution to

device firmware and configuration settings. A MAM solution enables you to control the provisioning,

updating, and removal of mobile applications via an enterprise app store, which is made available

on all employee devices.

If you opt for a platform approach, the mobile enterprise application platform serves not only as

your development environment, but also as a management tool for enterprise apps. Mobile applica-

tion management provides an extra layer of security on top of mobile device management. Making

use of established standards and policies, a platform approach will centralize and automate much

of the activity involved in provisioning, updating, and removing mobile apps and monitoring their

performance and usage. A platform approach will also enable data from managed apps to be wiped

remotely. You can alleviate much of the administrative effort by managing and updating code from

the cloud, and taking advantage of business logic, storage, credentials management, caching, and

analytics to unleash the full potential of your enterprise apps.

ENGAGING THE END-USER COMMUNITY

Having involved end users in the development process as much as feasible, it pays to undertake

a controlled initial rollout on a small scale. This way, the app can be tested by employees in their

everyday environment under real working conditions, and their feedback can help any issues to

be resolved before wider deployment. For example, you may discover users need data syncing

capability when they are out of network coverage.

If formal user training is required, your app’s UI is not intuitive enough to scale adoption. Until

people are confident navigating the app, you may wish to consider using overlays. A low-budget

video showing trial users engaging with the app can help to create buzz around the new app and

show how easy it is to use, or how it boosts productivity. Engage advocates across different regions

to promote the benefits of using the app, and also provide basic support.

It is vital to use built-in analytics to understand user behaviour — how, where, when, and why they

use the app — which will inform your product enhancement roadmap on an ongoing basis. This data

can also form the basis of internal communications to promote the app amongst the workforce. In

addition to testing and designing with real-world scenarios, do not forget to provide a channel for

users to raise any issues — this will help to ensure they do not become frustrated and lose interest

or abandon the app altogether.

Page 10: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

10redhat.com WHITEPAPER Calculating your investment in enterprise mobility

BREAKING DOWN THE COST COMPONENTS OF MOBILITY

The main cost components of building an enterprise mobility app can typically be broken down by

phase, components, and variables that influence cost.

PHASE COMPONENTS VARIABLES THAT INFLUENCE COST

Planning

Market/stakeholder research

and discovery

Number/complexity of features

Number of screens

Mobile maturity

Mobile strategy

Preparation of the business case

Change management

Establishment of key

performance indicators (KPIs)

Technology and methodology

selection (e.g., native, hybrid, or

web app, device, and form factor

considerations)

Mobile maturity

Scope definition/documentation

Size/complexity of app

Completeness of vision

Availability of existing documentation,

wireframes, or code

Project length

Design

Wireframe design

Number of features/screens

Complexity of task being solved

Brand requirements

Existing applications

User base

Visual design (e.g. images,

iconography, text hierarchy,

and artistic elements)

Complexity of screens/UI

Number of custom-designed

elements

Flat design

UX designUser input/feedback

Prototype development

Page 11: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

11redhat.com WHITEPAPER Calculating your investment in enterprise mobility

PHASE COMPONENTSVARIABLES THAT INFLUENCE COST

Features

Native device features (e.g., location

awareness, camera, accelerometer)Complexity/newness of features

User engagement features

(e.g., SMS, email, push, social media)

Number of notifications/integrations

Availability of third-party API or tools

User login

Requirements such as “remember

me” or “forgot password?”

Social login

Detailed visual design/

customised animation

Availability of API

Back-end association

Payments

Use of online service or native

solution

Payment processing methods/options

Recurring payments

Sync across devices

Complexity/size of data

Need for custom API

Web services integration

Number of API calls

Front-end services Client-side setup

Size of project

Number of screens/controls

Back-end integration

Level of customization

Back-end services

Data storage

Caching

Business logic

Data sync

On-device or online

Complexity of dataset

Scalability Number of end users

Page 12: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

12redhat.com WHITEPAPER Calculating your investment in enterprise mobility

PHASE COMPONENTSVARIABLES THAT INFLUENCE COST

Back-end integration

Third-party API integration

Established or proprietary API

Developer familiarity with API

Documentation up to date

Access to enterprise dataEstablished or proprietary API

Structure/set up of data

Security

Data encryption

Policy management

Developer access

User management

Size and complexity of dataset

Level of security and encryption

required (e.g., legal or regulatory)

App administrationPerformance management

and analytics

Number of parameters tracked

Complexity of roles and permissions

CMS flexibility

Custom versus standard UI

Number of custom features

Testing Internal, user, and deployment testing

Number and complexity of features

Highly specific use case

Level of security

The widest ranging cost components — depending on whether a project is relatively straightforward

and basic, or highly customized, challenging and time-consuming — are visual design, enabling access

to enterprise data, using a web portal or CMS to manage available content, and testing.

There are additional costs relating to launch, such as runbooks and app distribution, and app

life-cycle management, including updates, support, and maintenance, plus the underlying

infrastructure for hosting and managing code, data storage, and scaling.

And do not overlook the intangible: time to market can also have a dramatic impact on overall cost,

since the longer it takes to get an app launched, the slower the ROI can be realized.

Page 13: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

13redhat.com WHITEPAPER Calculating your investment in enterprise mobility

EXAMPLE OF A FIELD SALES MOBILE APP PROJECT

APP OBJECTIVE

The mobile app supports field sales personnel in selling a large and diverse range of products,

many of which are complex, requiring sales personnel to educate their clients on the intricacies

of the different products. The app is used to educate and inform prospects and provide a quote

on the spot.

THE BUSINESS CASE

The business case for the mobile app is to replace manual, time-consuming tasks for sales in the

field, where valuable sales momentum can be lost. It provides immediate access to product informa-

tion and a quotation system. It is integrated with back-office systems so that sales reps receive up-

to-date customer, product, and pricing information and customer information can be automatically

updated through the mobile device. Data syncing allows reps to use the app even in the absence of

network coverage.

FRONT-END DEVELOPMENT BACK-END INTEGRATION AND FUNCTIONALITY

• Development of multiple screens (e.g., home,

login, search, forms, quotations, signature)

• Screens to follow specific workflow sequence

• Location capture

• Image capture

• Login and user authentication

• Retrieval of customer data from back-end

systems

• Dropdown menus for populating data fields

• Pre-population of fields where appropriate

• Local/device caching of data for storing drafts

locally and when network connectivity is

unavailable

• Cloud manages data and business logic

between the devices and the back-end systems

and third-party services

• Series of internal APIs (web services) for

access to back-end CRM, quotation, and

claims-processing systems

• Business logic and business rules managed

in the cloud rather than on-device

• Validation of data based on business rules

• Parsing, aggregation, and filtering of data

from back end to return JSON format to the

app/web portal

• Data sync for operating in areas with low

network coverage

• Caching APIs

• Security — LDAP, device encryption

Page 14: WHITEPAPER CALCULATING YOUR INVESTMENT IN … › cms › managed-files › mo-cost-of... · product development and enhancement, based on a clear vision and roadmap. That means prioritiz-ing

Copyright © 2017 Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, and JBoss are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

facebook.com/redhatinc @redhatnews

linkedin.com/company/red-hat

ABOUT RED HAT

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source

software solutions, using a community-powered approach

to provide reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux,

middleware, storage, and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training,

and consulting services. As a connective hub in a global

network of enterprises, partners, and open source

communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and

prepare customers for the future of IT.

NORTH AMERICA 1 888 REDHAT1

EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, AND AFRICA

00800 7334 2835 [email protected]

ASIA PACIFIC +65 6490 4200

[email protected]

LATIN AMERICA +54 11 4329 7300

[email protected]

redhat.com F6173_0117

FINAL THOUGHTS

While companies are often excited by the ROI of deploying an app, building the business case for

a mobile initiative not only involves calculating expected returns, but also the lifetime cost of

maintaining and evolving the mobile product and the underlying infrastructure. Every organi-

zation is unique in terms of its use case, resources, mobile maturity, legacy infrastructure, and

development processes. The overall costs of mobility and the components that make up these

costs will vary from business to business.

If you are aiming to determine the true cost of mobility, you can follow some key steps to

more accurately ascertain the cost of deploying mobile solutions and their expected returns.

It is important to prioritize what to build, based on how your mobile strategy is aligned with

your business goals and how the mobile solutions deliver against your KPIs. Once decisions

have been made about what mobile apps to develop, it is important to consider the app as a

product that will require continuous development and enhancement, based on a clear vision

and roadmap. The associated costs of supporting this continuous development, deployment and

management need to be factored into your calculations.

When choosing your approach to mobile apps, your solution should follow your business

practices, not the other way around. Off-the-shelf apps that already fit your business model

and workflow typically have a lower up-front cost, are less expensive to implement, and can be

deployed rapidly. But you may find that they are encumbered by too many features or require

costly customization, and are burdened by the incremental cost of licensing as your user

base grows. Custom development allows you to create a completely custom app from scratch

almost without limitations on features, capabilities, and user-friendliness. Your business will

have complete ownership of the intellectual property. Alternatively, a mobile application

development platform gives you the tools to rapidly build custom or semi-custom apps using

predefined modules, and accelerate and simplify the back-end integration process by making

back-end services, APIs, and connectors discoverable and reusable.

Costs of integration will nearly always be a consideration, as almost any app will need to

connect to your back-end system to access data or send data back to enterprise systems. It is

important to look at the cost of optimizing back-end systems for mobile access and considering

an architecture that supports greater efficiency of back-end development. Finally, the costs to

deploy and manage mobile apps will require you to choose the most effective mobile manage-

ment systems to help secure, simplify, and strengthen mobile strategies and security policies

for mobile application development.

The transformational impact of mobile on the enterprise is unquestionable. However, to

realize the true potential of deploying mobile solutions, a planned approach to identifying and

prioritizing the business use cases and their value, and measuring these against the total cost

of mobility, will yield sustainable mobile success.

WHITEPAPER Calculating your investment in enterprise mobility