Webalo Mobile Dashboard Weblog

Coding to end all coding.

RIM – the BlackBerry folks – held a coding challenge at this year’s BlackBerry Developer Conference in November.  The goal was to let companies that design apps for BlackBerrys show how good they really are at designing optimized, compact programs that enhance the value of BlackBerry smartphones.  

It was a very techie undertaking. Everyone was given the same core problem and was told to focus on making it work better on a BlackBerry. When the submissions were complete, each one was tested using several criteria – how long did it take to execute, how much memory did it use, and how big it was (measuring its binary format – akin to the number of lines of code).  

There were dozens of participants and over a hundred solution submissions, and the overall winner was – ta da! – Webalo’s own Ayman Mahfouz.  

It was a triumph that signified how effectively Webalo’s own developers (and Ayman, in particular, of course) can get the most performance out of BlackBerry smartphones, but it has a built-in irony: though Ayman used very little code to accomplish a great deal, it’s code that – when applied to the capabilities of the Webalo Mobile Dashboard – eliminates the need for any coding at all by Webalo’s customers… no matter what brand of smartphone they use.

Combinatorial Dynamics: Discrete and infinite.

In math, something that’s combinatorial  is considered discrete (separate and distinct) and finite. So it’s pretty much fixed. Something that’s dynamic, though, is something in action or adaptable to change.

That might make the notion of combinatorial dynamics seem contradictory, but it’s a perfect way to describe the way in which software applications can be sliced and diced (to extract specific tasks and information), transformed (from one computing environment to another), and integrated (using functionality from multiple applications developed by different vendors) by using MD2 – the Webalo Mobile Dashboard.

Usually, getting enterprise apps onto smartphones requires either

• a mobile version from the same software developer (which costs extra and provides access only to that vendor’s applications) or

• custom programming (which requires software development kits, takes weeks or months and, usually, costs even more).

It’s very limiting, very expensive, and very 20^th Century.

In 2009, it’s easy to avoid the time, cost, and effort associated with enterprise-to-mobile, yet get greater flexibility and an unlimited number of combinations in minutes or hours, and it doesn’t take any programming or specialized IT skills. Companies can select any functions or content from databases, reports, XML Web services, and websites; customize them by individual user or group; combine them in a single set of smartphone menus; make those menus compliant with virtually any smartphone automically; distribute them to specific users instantly; and maintain all the security that enterprises rely on.

For example, MD2 can let an administrator extract regional inventory information from an Oracle database, customer information from individual rows and columns in a Microsoft spreadsheet, a lookup routine from a library of XML Web services, order entry fields from the company’s website, and combine them all into a single set of smartphone menus. The user would then be able to check local inventory, a customer’s credit and order status, and the correct delivery site for a shipment so he or she could then enter an order… all from a smartphone.

Users work more productively when they can complete so many related tasks directly from their smartphone, and their companies can make them productive in hours – without the coding, waiting, or cost of traditional development – and in an infinite number of combinations based exclusively on the unique needs of each group or employee.

If mobile’s the future that everybody says it is, the combinatorial, dynamic future of enterprise-to-mobile is already here.

RIP: Mobile application SDKs.

Remember this date – May 4, 2009. It's the day when traditional mobile application development was laid to rest. But mobile development isn't dead. It's just been resurrected as the Webalo Mobile Dashboard.

Yes, we're tooting our own horn, but we really do have something that's never been seen before. Version 2.0 of the Mobile Dashboard is a way around the coding, waiting, and cost of traditional development – a way that lets organizations connect their enterprise databases, reports, XML Web services, and websites to any smartphone in less than a day and, often, as soon as a couple of hours.

What’s the trick? It's a simple, wizard-style, point-and-click web interface called Agenda. It creates the enterprise to mobile connection about 100 times faster than any SDK. And it lets users get exactly (and only) the functionality they need. They don't have to slog through the complete mobile version of a software vendor's enterprise app (and their company doesn’t have to pay extra for it). They don’t have to wait for a custom programmed mobile version that includes capabilities for several groups of users, instead of the specific resources they want.

The Agenda lets people use a wizard to select just what they need – from single or multiple applications – and turn it into simple, menu-driven tasks on any BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, or Java-enabled smartphone. It can even capture website functionality and deliver it to a secure client that eliminates all the navigation steps mobile websites rely on. It works by combining multiple navigation steps from multiple applications into a single smartphone choice that triggers those steps to take place behind-the-scenes.

One last thing. It's all software as a service. It can be accessed immediately as a hosted application over the web or set up behind a corporate firewall as a virtual appliance. So, like almost every cloud-based service, there's nothing to install, maintain, or update.

Version 2.0 of the Webalo Mobile Dashboard launched at the WES tradeshow today, and attendees got to see Agenda create mobile connections in real time during a fifteen minute demonstration. It was enterprise to mobile while you wait. Literally. Except that, compared to traditional enterprise to mobile development, it was no wait at all.

From the enterprise to the smartphone.

The Aberdeen Group just published a survey about how (and how effectively) companies are providing mobile access to enterprise data. It turns out that it’s not done very often… and it’s not done very well. That’s surprising on one level (because so many professionals rely on their smartphones to stay in touch and remain up-to-date about business activities, but it’s not so surprising on another – the cost and time involved for transforming enterprise apps (through custom programming) into mobile-compatible form has, traditionally, been significant.

Even among organizations that Aberdeen categorizes as “best in class” when it comes to adopting technology, less than 30% provide their mobile employees with access to business intelligence, and that’s just for static information – analytics delivered in email or spreadsheets sent as attachments. Even fewer offer any kind of interactive data.

As a result, Aberdeen characterizes mobile users as “underserved” though, at the same time, it says that mobile versions of enterprise applications are getting more attention… because senior executives want access from their mobile devices. Why is that not surprising?

Actuate, which powers its mobile reporting capabilities with the Webalo Mobile Dashboard, removes nearly all of the obstacles between the enterprise and the smartphone. Any BIRT report can be converted into mobile form simply by pressing a button, and eSpreadsheet reports can be transformed just as easily. There’s no time delay, no custom programming.

Yes, more and more BI vendors are offering separate mobile applications. But, no, they can’t access any data but their own, and they deliver it in pre-determined formats. However, according to David Hatch, the author of the Aberdeen report, “Conversations with survey respondents revealed that the feeling of being in ‘control’ of the mobile device is an important factor when it comes to user adoption.”

So, let’s review. No programming, no time delays, no extraordinary costs, no set formatting, no loss of control, no restrictions on whose data can be accessed, and no limits on interactivity with the enterprise – all on a smartphone.. That sounds remarkably like the Webalo Mobile Dashboard. Why is that not surprising?

If you’d like to get more of David Hatch’s perspective on mobile BI, just go here.

Webalo Launches Mobile Dashboard "Virtual Appliance"

To support customers that would like to use the Mobile Dashboard inside their corporate firewall, Webalo developed the Mobile Dashboard "Hardware Appliance" which makes for easy data center installation.  It includes a 19" rack-mounted server with the Mobile Dashboard pre-installed.

Now, with the increased popularity and versatility of virtualized environments, Webalo is offering the "Virtual Appliance" as a virtual machine image that runs on all the leading virtualization platforms (hypervisors), including Xen®, VMware®, and Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™. (Contact Webalo if you have questions about whether your virtualization platform is supported.)

For both versions of the Mobile Dashboard Appliance (both the Hardware Appliance and the Virtual Appliance), one of the principle benefits is enhanced security.  Use of the Appliance eliminates the need for data to be emailed or uploaded to a site outside the corporate firewall.  For this reason, the Appliance has been designed to be a “good citizen” within the firewall.

The Appliance contains special purpose software packaged in an industry standard Appliance platform. No services or software are installed (or may be installed) other than those required for the Appliance to function. The Appliance has its own internal firewall to allow only essential network traffic to and from the Appliance.

Please let us know if you have any questions or need more information.

-Phil

Xen® is a registered trademark of Citrix Systems, Inc.
VMware® is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc.
Windows Server® is a registered trademark and Hyper-V™ is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc.

Carrier's Pigeon

Alltel Wireless went Webalized last week. They rolled out the Webalo Mobile Dashboard service to their sales force and customers because they (like us, of course) sensed their corporate users' needs for access to enterprise business intelligence - the information that can make an on-the-spot difference in improving operations, solving problems, supporting decisions, and closing deals.

For Alltel, Webalo enhances the value of the smartphones they sell and, for users, the Mobile Dashboard makes their smartphones into pocket-sized laptop computers - computers that are lighter, less expensive to buy and maintain, and free of the need for mobile broadband or WiFi connectivity. It's a surprisingly timely solution in economically challenging, belt-tightening times.

 

The Mobile Dashboard not only gives smartphones users - from CEOs to field service reps - a direct connection to the enterprise, it delivers information in a compact package that's relevant to their interests. Just like a message from a carrier pigeon - for those of you who know your communications history - only faster, more complete, and without the need to keep birdseed in your pocket.

 

The waiting is over.

We've always known that mobile computing was under-appreciated, required too many steps, and didn't connect - the way it should - to the enterprise. Now the rest of the world has begun to take notice, including InformationWeek, the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), and online publications. Before the first of those articles appeared (and because our smartphone partners had been adding features that were more laptop-like), we'd sent out an email titled "The Smartphone That Ate Your Laptop" which got really high open and click-through rates.

Of course, certain things have changed since we started. PDAs are now smartphones. Web browsing on a mobile device is much faster and, depending on the operating system, easier. And software developers have created mobile versions of their enterprise applications.

IT departments, which had pretty effectively resisted creating mobile versions of anything, now have a wide range of software development kits (SDKs) and integrated development environments (IDEs) that they can use in the weeks-to-months-long process of creating mobile apps for software that doesn't offer mobile versions. Somebody missed the point.

If you're going to be truly mobile, you have to be truly agile. Yet, by the time a new mobile app is created in-house, the whole world can change - just look at the economy in the last three months. So, from the start, Webalo has avoided programming and coding. If you need access to an enterprise application - just the data or its core functionality - you can get it today and, if you want, you can get it without any IT involvement (because you don't need an SDK or IDE or programming skill).

So now that the world knows that the smartphone has potential - that it might replace a lot of what a laptop does (and replace the extra cost of hardware, peripherals, connectivity services, etc.) - we've been waiting. Waiting to transform enterprise applications for use on your mobile device. Waiting to mashup any combination of data and services. And waiting for all those writers at InformationWeek, the Journal, and online to remove all those limitations that they note in their articles because we can solve most of them.

Analyze this

On our final day at WES, our CEO joined people from Salesforce.com, SAP, Pyxis Mobile, Wirelessrain, and Thinprint in a panel discussion about the mobile enterprise. It was prestigious company, but the audience may have been even more impressive -- analysts from the major industry watchers, including Gartner, Forrester, Yankee, Ovum, Burton, and others.

So, after discussions with carriers, ISVs, device manufacturers, and SIs, we had a chance to talk about creating programming-free mobile versions of enterprise applications in front of some very influential people.

Mobilizing the troops

Today, we caused a little stir of our own at WES, announcing that Actuate and Xactly would be using Webalo's Mobile Dashboard to create mobile versions of their applications. Actuate has actually been using Webalo technology for the past year, but now they've automated the enterprise to mobile process even more (using Webalo) and are acting as a reseller of the Mobile Dashboard to their 4000 customers.

Xactly's software lets sales people keep track of their performance (actual versus plan, commissions, etc.), and the Mobile Dashboard will let those same sales people access their performance information on their handhelds.

It's a direction that's in keeping with research findings from the Yankee Group's "Most Important IT Strategies" survey. The researchers found that 41% wanted wireless access to enterprise applications. The same survey found that the same percentage of workers -- 41% -- can be considered mobile and that the current 300 million handhelds in use will double by 2011. (Sorry there's no link; it's accessible by subscription only.)

To Bold-ly go...

Like everyone else at WES today, we were impressed by the new BlackBerry Bold. It's a very impressive combination of technologies and capabilities (all covered in depth in the general and technology press), and it expands the range of things that BlackBerry users can do on their devices.

Because BlackBerry ties in so seamlessly with enterprise environments, the Bold may satisfy both the IT and the end user communities -- the former because the Bold doesn't compromise enterprise security and stability and the latter because it's just plain cool. Not iPhone cool, but cool for a corporate crowd.

From our perspective, the Bold (also called the 9000) is likely to make mobile users even more eager to shift their away-from-their-desks, out-of-the-office interactions to handheld devices. If they can handle phone calls, email, tasks, appointments, and also all their interactions with enterprise applications on a single device, will they still want to lug around a laptop if they don’t have to?