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.