In 2017, enterprise app stores will be found in 25% of enterprises, according to Gartner. It seems to be a no-brainer, what with all the proliferation of smartphones; a Cisco Connected World Technology Report in 2012, finds that the adoption of smartphones in Malaysia will increase from 47% to 73% by Q1, 2013.
For the same period, tablets would have increased from 14% to 48%. Gartner echoes that finding, predicting that smartphones and tablets will account for 70% of the total number of devices sold at end of 2012.
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| Shaun Han |
For Shaun Han, Oracle ASEAN’s VP of Applications, mobile phones are 24/7 conveniences, and getting more affordable in Malaysia with Government subsidies. According to Han, the key driver for mobile enterprise apps market growth, last but not least is because “More and more organisations are going through IT transformation journeys, and trying hard to improve their competitive advantages.”
Mobiles to increase workforce productivity and as a medium to deliver services to consumers are one of the few ways organisations are gaining these advantages.
Popular apps
Han said, “Aside from office applications, the next more popular enterprise apps will be to do with human capital management (HCM) and customer relationship management (CRM).
“For CRM, in today’s business environment, it’s a necessity to leverage on mobility to be closer to the customer. This has certainly made CRM a worthwhile consideration to be on the cloud.”
Another big growth area is campus management, due to increasing number of Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) in Malaysia in recent years, said Han, who also added, “Technology infrastructure supporting analytics and business intelligence has reached a level of maturity in ASEAN, with more organisations now looking towards the next areas where technology can provide advantage with next generation analytics.”
“Business users will drive app development.They need access to and interaction with the existing enterprise applications and data they depend on – their customers, region, division, orders, schedules, finances, benefits and key performance indicators.
“The level of individualisation – of specificity – also can’t be satisfied by generic app store apps, which don’t connect to the enterprise.”
Concerns
With the emergence of new trends, come real concerns as well. Han said, “The growing diversity of mobile devices is causing many IT managers to venture into unfamiliar territory, especially when more and more employees are using their own mobile devices for and at work.
“It is increasingly expensive and time-consuming to manage and control the growing number of mobile devices and platforms. Companies also find it challenging to define and enforce mobile security policies.
“As it stands, there is an increasing gap between dissatisfied users requesting for an ever-wider choice of devices/platforms and organisation’s ability to provide more flexible work practices that also ensures corporate data is secure within stipulated boundaries,” said Han.
The corporate enterprise app store
Han opined that the enterprise app store promotes user-centricity, manageability, accessibility and security.
“Oracle is looking to develop more enterprise apps, including mobile version of apps to advocate growing trends and market needs. Currently, Oracle has several native apps built for enterprise business usage and Oracle technology promotes the development of corporate enterprise app stores.
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Han concluded, “A key point to highlight, with the growing numbers of enterprise apps within an organisation, whether it is on-premise, or on mobile, collaboration of all the apps for knowledge sharing, discussion and decision making across business functions would be an area that enterprises need to take note of.”
