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Rethinking technology for mobility and consumerization Application Transformation Guide Published by Sponsored by
Rethinking technology for mobility and consumerization
Application Transformation Guide
Published by Sponsored by
Today’s connected world means reaching farther—
to a bigger audience in more places than ever before.
From simplifying applications to creating nimbler
ones, HP can help you bring your business to your
customers.
hp-enterprisesolutions.com
Gear up for the future with enterprise mobility
© Copyright 2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
Managing Director Jonathan Bigelow [email protected]
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Group Editor Chee Sing Chan [email protected] Contributing Writer Jason Kruff, Dylan Bushell-Embling
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Table of Contents
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6
8
10
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trends
Business and It lock horns over mobile
overvIew
CIos facing a technology shake-up
feature
transforming It for the consumer and mobile era
Case study
valentino transforms customer experience with mobile
opInIon
applications transformation with a new style of It
Consumerization of it and the rapid adoption of mobility by enterprises may be the new latest sea change sweeping through the corporate landscape, but it’s reigniting longstand-ing tensions between it and business, according to the economist intelligence unit. in its latest report on the changing face of it, which polled 280 senior technology and business executives across multiple industries, the technology research unit found the two sides of the business were jostling for control over mobile strategies.
according to the data, less than 10% of non-it respondents believe it is “highly innova-tive” in the mobile area. in addition, just over half of general business executives believe it is resistant to new mobile ideas from other departments, a sentiment that was shared by 46% of it staff.
the disconnect seems to stem from a misunderstanding, according to eiu, with it believ-ing it should be the initiator of mobile innovation, whereas customer facing units believe they should be the drivers of applications change.
But despite the gaps suggested by the main findings of the report, there are signs of im-provement, with one third of respondents saying it is “extremely collaborative” in developing mobile services, up from 13% two years ago. the report concludes by putting the onus on it to change, but stressed that by collaborating it leaders could take some of the pressure off their department, helping them operate more efficiently and become more aligned with the needs of the business. l
enterprises need to be preparing themselves for a fundamental shift in the it landscape in the near future, prompted by tough economic conditions, disruptive technologies and the emergence of Gen-Y in the work force.
that’s according to the findings of a report compiled by the atos scientific Community, which predicts that businesses will be driven to cut costs as the current period of global economic weakness persists for longer, while also coming under more pressure on the envi-ronmental and social sustainability fronts.
at the same time firms will be challenged to extend their it infrastructure outside of the businesses as an increasing number of digital natives enter the workforce. this generation has grown up with the internet, and maintains a blurry line between their professional and personal lives – such as wanting to work while at home and being able to use social media in the workplace.
Lastly, the report says businesses need to prepare themselves for disruptive technolo-gies, primarily in the form of big data, the shifting data center fabric and the trend towards convergence.
the macro change has been dubbed “enterprise without boundaries”, and is expected to transform how information is presented, stored and processed. the integration is also expected to fundamentally change how organizations interact with each other and their cus-tomers.
But while much of the responsibility for adapting to this change will fall on it, the report notes the success depends as much on strategic and organizational change as adoption of the required technology. l
Over half of general business
executives believe IT is resistant
to new mobile ideas from other
departments
trends4
Locking horns over mobile
Enterprises urged to embrace change
a studY of over 300 business decision makers across australia, the united states, and the united Kingdom has found that firms want it to deliver more strategic software faster, a performance measure technology executives aren’t delivering on.the Continuous delivery: a maturity assessment model survey, commissioned by forrester Consulting, found that just over half of all respondents wanted it to turn around strategic software development projects in less than six months.
But only 30% of it leaders said they could deliver within that timeframe, and 40% said these projects would take a year or more to complete.one of the main reasons for the diver-gence between expectation and delivery, according to it, is due to the challenge of delivering new software in tight timeframes while simultaneously maintaining ongoing business opera-tions.
the study found that “keeping things running” was cited as the most important business driver behind software development investments, according to technology executives.
the survey found a gap between the understand ding of it’s role, with 42% of business leaders viewing it as “order takers” for technology, while only 14 % said it drives innovation. the report found many businesses are adopting agile practices in order to speed up software delivery, but the pace of innovation can be sped up by prioritizing resources on development rather than low value maintenance tasks. l
trends5
Business leaders want more from IT
Rigid software holding banks backstaBiLitY and BanKs are synonymous with each other, but a rigid approach to software is holding lenders back from delivering on customer expectations and bottom line profit growth, according to Gartner.
analyst Kristin moyer says the existing application portfolios within banks are preventing the industry from transforming because their approach is “rigid and reactive”.
instead the technology research house is calling on these large financial service provid-ers to adopt a service delivery model that embraces public and private web application programming interfaces and apps.
this new approach is expected to enable banks to deliver “needs-based services” that their customers are already using, such a mobile and location based platforms. this, says moyer, will allow banks to become increasingly more agile and allow them to work with third-party developers to build new banking solutions.
she cites the example of a mortgage refinance application, which could indicate whether it makes sense to refinance a mortgage as interest rates change, and digitally streamline the application process should the customer be interested in auctioning it.
Gartner said barriers to banking on apis and apps like security, scalability, performance, complexity, regulatory compliance and integration could be overcome through careful gov-ernance, service orientated architecture governance, api management and other best prac-tices. l
Existing application
portfolios within banks are
preventing the industry from transforming
overvIew6
Changing business reality demands that CIOs rethink IT models and the way IT is delivered
By Enterprise Innovation editors
CIOs facing a technology shake-up
Gartner’s annuaL prediCtions for the year ahead indicated that there are signifi-cant, fundamental changes occurring in the enterprise, driven by evolutions in social net-working, mobile communications and cloud computing.
“most industries will face massive chang-es during the period from 2013 through 2015,” Kimberly Harris-ferrante, a Gartner vice president and analyst, said. “these changes will force fundamental shifts in business processes that will, in turn, fur-ther reshape those industries. the social commons, mobile communications, cloud computing and information will be especially important factors in driving even greater in-dustry transformation, challenging existing business models and processes and open-ing up greater competitive and other threats.”
idC’s annual predictions report also notes that the wave of consumerization will have huge impact on businesses and the way it organizations deliver services. idC predicts that consumerization of it is being driven by the substantial expansion of BYod initiatives. idC predicts that it will continue to become clearer that consumerization isn’t only about end user devices, and rather, that it is about many core components of enterprise it.
Home rulesfor one technology executive, what is
most startling today is the shift in the tech-nology experience of the current generation, noted John roberston, general manager, Vm-ware asean. “it’s interesting to note that in the last 25 years it was really only when you joined a company did you learn how to use software and computers,” he observed. “But
now the situation is reversed and new work-ers today in most cases have more access to technology at home than in the office.”
robertson declared today businesses are facing the first ever consumer-led it revolu-tion in history. “Consumer trends are forcing us all to change and this change is inevita-ble,” he said.
this trend represents both an opportunity and a challenge to it, noted robertson. “if you are a workplace that provides access to different devices and new applications you will be held in better regard by the new gen-eration of employees,” he said. “it is expect-ed today to provide a style of computing that meets the needs of the next generation.”
Access at all timesin light of this trend, companies now face
a new environment where users want access to wide range of applications across multiple devices and in multiple locations. this cre-ates a significantly different management and delivery challenge for it organizations which have been accustomed to delivering services in the standardized pC age. “this means change at many levels – for infrastruc-ture, applications, platforms and security,” robertson added.
at deutsche Bank, this rise in consum-erization has really pushed the bank to think hard about how best to support its staff and our recent developments with internal face-book-like tools and collaborative technolo-gies have generated new ideas and more in-formation sharing,” said eric Kwong, director, end user technology, deutsche Bank.
one challenge observed by dirk sibiet, Country technology officer at aBn amro
Banks and businesses in general have reached a critical inflection point in this consumerization challenge– Dirk Sibiet, ABN AMRO Singapore
overvIew7
Bank in singapore, is that access to applica-tions on these new devices is just the first step of this journey but to really create a seamless experience the applications them-selves need to be more user-friendly in a mo-bile device scenario,
“reworking the applications for these de-vices and scenarios is a much bigger chal-lenge and requires more investment,” he added. “it’s interesting that in our industry, millions of dollars are being spent on rewrit-ing the customer-facing applications, but very little has been spent on redeveloping the in-ternal applications for most banks.”
sibiet notes that banks and businesses in general have reached a critical inflection point in this consumerization challenge. “in the next 12 months we will see significant change in the work environment,” he said.
Kwong at deutsche Bank agreed that companies must make this change in order to proper meet the demands of modern work-ers and customers. “But this change is not just a change in process and some new tech-nology, it’s a whole mindset change,” he said.
Reality bitesthe sheer range of available technologies
and services today like skype, Whatsapp and Gmail have also given the public a skewed perception of how technology should be con-sumed and how it much it costs.
“this has led to business leaders ques-tioning the cost and complexity of the ap-plications that it organizations everywhere have painfully integrated and deployed for the business,” said Kwong.
“We also need to educate business that when these consumer tools are made secure and fit for corporate use they will cost a whole lot more than downloading Google apps.”
With such change imminent, a valid ques-tion for many it leaders is: should corporate it be expected to deliver technology services in the same manner as today’s consumer technologies when the two environments and user scenarios are so far apart?
Brocade’s Chief marketing officer John mcHugh spoke to enterprise innovation on
this topic and how this development is oc-curring due to the new business reality, a reality which Cios are still struggling to face up to.
A new realityHe noted that this idea is quite profound
and goes beyond simple economics. mcHugh noted that the industry is entering a funda-mental rethink of it system and application design. “if we look back 10 or 15 years ago, most of the major systems we built and the business processes that these systems sup-ported were based around giant big applica-tions supporting a large number of users,” he said. “in terms of the idea of building great mega systems for big business – they were the heyday of large systems. those days like gas-guzzling cars are gone forever.”
the scenario in the past was like it folks building huge castles that users could enter and navigate according to preconfigured door-ways and routes. “the model was build one big system for maybe 10,000 users and with virtualization and cloud today that model is broken,” said mcHugh. “What we are moving towards is the idea that every user gets their own castle in their own customized way. it dynamically creates 10,000 custom apps for users and delivered in any number of ways to any number of devices.”
this a complete shift of the way it has been taught how to do its job.
the firms that are closest to this future state are the companies that haven’t existed for very long. in many cases technology ori-ented and internet-based value providers. netflix is a good example where it is able to provide in real-time a single instance of an application and service to each user viewing a movie. that experience is essentially a cus-tom app for that user. the user owns that in-stance and it’s customized just for that user.
so netflix has no data center and there are other companies like them that have no aging castles to look after. Without that lega-cy they can employ more cutting edge think-ing, be more innovative and focus on creative services and features. l
feature8
Meeting the needs of the next-gen workforce and customers
By Chee-Sing Chan
Transforming IT for the consumer and mobile era
a fundamentaL sHift has occurred in the technology landscape over the last few years. access to the latest technology tools and services was previously exclusive to the workplace, with pCs, applications, servers and networks all creating a technology expe-rience that could not be matched in people’s homes.
today most corporate working environ-ments provide a vastly inferior landscape to the dynamic tools and services we can access at home.
Like it or not, users want all technology to work as simply and as conveniently as the ipad.
this wave of consumerization means that staff, customers, partners and anyone that interfaces with a company, require access to services and data in the format they desire and on any device and across many locations.
mobility is currently the big driver of all this and according to david potterton, Vice presi-dent of research for the Global Banking, insur-ance, Capital markets and risk management practices, idC financial insights, the increase and sophistication of mobile technologies is highlighting the need for business model transformation in multiple industries.
Back and front transformation
potterton noted in his report titled: the mo-bile transformation: meeting the expectations of today’s Workforce and Customers, that this shift has profound implications for many insti-tutions in how they interact with customers, how employees deliver goods and services, and ultimately how it needs to support both of these groups.
Hp has also observed that the biggest change in the area of business applications
today is the shift to mobile. anita paul, appli-cations director, enterprise applications enter-prise services, at Hewlett-packard asia pacific and Japan, noted that the demand for mobility and the surging volume of data demanded by users is significantly impacting the ‘systems of record’ in the back office.
these ‘systems of record’ comprise of da-tabases, erp platforms, core transaction and operational systems are now being requested to process increasingly vast amounts of data and also deliver this data in new formats and on a variety of devices and locations.
Self-service ITthis shift for business systems to deliver
data and services to a dynamic and changing client interface is creating huge change which businesses must reconcile. “every employee and customer today is like a teenager – they want everything instantly at all times, on any device and have it easy to use with no training required,” said paul.
potterton at idC predicts that for most organizations, these new expectations neces-sitate a redefining of numerous areas includ-ing customer centricity, customer service, and customer preferences. ultimately, the chal-lenge for companies is how to develop the products and services necessary to deliver value based on these new expectations.
paul added that the conversations occur-ring with it today are no longer about optimiz-ing systems of record like erp but how these systems must be changed to enable the trans-formation that is occurring at the front-end of the business. all the while Cios must continue delivering services and information quickly, se-curely and dynamically. “it must address the systems of engagement and move towards a self-serve model where users can expect the
Anita Paul, HP:IT must address the systems of engagement and move towards a self-serve model where users can expect the same speed and technology experience they enjoy at home.
feature9
Mobility and consumerization
have changed the way we look at
application design and delivery
same speed and technology experience they enjoy at home,” said paul.
“mobile is clearly sparking the need for it leaders to rethink about the company’s envi-ronment and the need to explore how to de-liver information better and reviewing applica-tions and services,” she added.
idC’s potterton believes that companies need to think strategically about key areas of interaction impacted by mobile including; their app strategy, os environment, and cost effec-tive access management. in addition, compa-nies need to determine the level of person-alization and customization they will deliver to their end users and how their overall mobile strategy will affect usability, design, and user experience applications.
once organizations have decided how they will address the external end user demands driven by mobile, a key next step is to look inwardly at their ability to deliver.
Drive for simplicitypaul observed that as companies begin
this process, many realize that there still needs to be significant consolidation and ra-tionalization of systems that needs to occur while planning a strategy for improving the front end and the systems of engagement.
What is also obvious is that applications will need to be rethought in order to deliver the experience that users require today but to do that cost effectively there needs to be a commitment to rationalize systems and drive out complexity.
in Hp’s interaction with customers, the rec-ommended first step is to focus on identify-ing a key business outcome. “Whatever the transformation or rationalization that is being undertaken must bring clear roi,” said paul. once that is understood then the discussion can move to setting goals and desired results and benefits.
But before the technology is even dis-cussed, paul insists that process simplifica-tion be addressed before systems are consid-ered. “transformation exercises and desired business outcomes almost always involve some changing of process whether simplifying or standardizing,” paul said.
the next step is changes in business logic. to create a self-service it and a dynamic user experience often requires new logic. from there the company should address data.
the movement of data, how it should be processed, where it should be stored and how best to secure the data must all be properly considered.
paul believes that these three key areas will determine the level of change required on the business side as well as the changes needed in the it footprint to deliver the de-sired transformation. “What companies miss most often is the business process review and simplification element which can serious-ly threaten the success of the transformation exercise,” stated paul.
Great expectationsultimately a question that many it leaders
likely ponder at night -- is it realistic for corpo-rate it to be work just like an ipad?
paul replies that in reality for the business-critical applications, it is unlikely to provision access and applications in an ipad experi-ence. “But with non-critical applications, abso-lutely they should work like you expect on an ipad,” she insisted.
Business-critical applications that deter-mine the success and failure of business will still require strict governance, compliance and additional resilience and reliability so these factors come first.
But paul argued that where these issues are less important, then user productivity and user experience should be the top priority.
she also noted the two most common changes that is being caused by this shift towards front-office transformation are in it governance and application development ex-pectations.
as the it environment is reviewed there will inevitably be change in the governance struc-ture as new policies are devised to manage this new environment. the second big change is in the development environment.
“mobility and consumerization have changed the way we look at application design and delivery,” paul said. “today applications absolutely need to be quick to develop, light-weight and fast to deliver which requires whole new skillsets around rapid and agile software development.”
potterton at idC summarized that this transformation takes true it and business alignment which starts with understanding the changing business issues brought about by mobile and consumer needs. once it has this knowledge and understands the value of supporting this model within the enterprise, it can review the organization’s policies, tools, and technology decisions to differentiate the company in the marketplace.
Clearly this goal of meeting next-generation needs requires a transformation of both body and mind for it organizations. l
Case study
Valentino mobile app kicks off drive to satisfy the customer
top fasHion Brand VaLentino is constant-ly looking for ways to delight their customers. With Hp, Valentino developed and implement-ed a set of fully integrated mobile apps that made it easy for its customers to select and buy Valentino products.
according to patrizio Buda, Cio, Valentino fashion Group, the company has three key challenges, first is maintaining the top end name recognition and the value of the brand, second is the quality and continuing style of its products, and thirdly to optimize the rela-tionship with customers.
Buda noted that while it continues to work hard on the traditional role of improving opera-
tional efficiency the most significant focus to-day for the business and it is to optimize cus-tomer experience and customer relationships.
He noted that with Hp’s help the company started this customer experience transforma-tion by creating its first ipad app as part of the overall drive to create new customer features, develop more mobile technology and enhance e-commerce and Crm operations.
Showcase appthe first ipad app was launched to support
the group’s fashion shows and help launch sales campaigns on the back of these shows.
“Hp worked with us on our complete Crm strategy and the ipad app was the first step in this initiative,” said Buda. the app is typically used by staff and consumers the day after a show. the complete show is viewable via the app and allows customers to view all the lat-est designs and pick out specific looks that they find appealing via the “lookbook” func-tion. designs can be viewed via still images and from different angles and consumers can create a wishlist of ‘looks’ that they like.
sales teams can use these wishlists to tailor offerings and do further follow-up with customers for selling opportunities.
additional information available such as media packs, press releases and corporate information relating to the show and the com-pany is also available via the app,
Buda noted that the app features all recent shows and gives customers and the public an easy way to access to the latest fashion items once they appear at fashion shows, often be-fore these designs are featured in stores.
Looks are the keythe outcome from this and subsequent
apps initiatives are improved brand aware-ness due to expanded presence on the web using Web 2.0 features.
the group now has improved sales presen-tation capabilities that also enable cross- and up-selling functions as well as wish list man-agement and order tracking.
in addition, post-production time has been reduced via use of showroom application that enables a digital “lookbook”. the book is ready in the 24 hours after the fashion show in paris, saving both paper/printing resources and money
Buda noted that the group is working with Hp on other areas such as Crm enhance-ments and also exploring big data scenarios. “in the end it’s all about the customer and the possibility for us to serve them better.” l
Business need:• Valentinowantedtotransformthewayitinteractedwiththeirshops
& customers by expanding their presence of the web, developing a unique in-store showroom experience, and creating a digital “lookbook” that enabled review of new fashions only hours after they were introduced in Paris
HP Solution:• HPEnterpriseServicesreleasedaninnovativeiPadconsumer
applicationforVogueFashionNightinSeptember2010.• InOctober2010,asecondiPadapplicationwasdesignedanddelivered
for the showroom to support sales department B2B processes.• HPEnterpriseservicesiscontinuouslysupportingandenhancingthe
solution
Services and technology from HP:• ApplicationsDevelopmentServices• ApplicationsManagementServices• MobileApplicationsServices
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opInIon11
By EG Nadhan, HP Enterprise Services
Applications transformation with a new style of IT
in Her Hp discover keynote from last year, Hp Ceo meg Whitman explained a new, emerging style of it. i kept this in mind when i walked into a session entitled: application transfor-mation – the future will not be like the past led by paul evans and silvia Vigant. evans characterized the changing landscape of ap-plications for today’s business from traditional systems of record to the disruptive systems of engagement. Both need to co-exist – just like the city of frankfurt did it for me at the conference. What struck me was how well the applications transformation approach outlined in this session mapped to the new style of it characterized by simplicity, agility, speed and cost.
Simplicityin a landscape replete with redundancy
and a myriad set of platforms and technolo-gies, applications exhibit multiple personali-ties. tools can simplify how we address this complex environment. the applications port-folio management tool identifies the ration-alization opportunities. the Visual intelligence tools identify the root causes of application complexity while projecting the code that mat-ters. You get a higher return on information, when you are using data that matters. and you can also realize a return on transformation, when you are using code that matters.
Agilityapplications transformation is an art. it is
not a one-size-fits-all situation when transform-ing to the cloud. some applications continue to reside in their traditional environment or the private cloud. others are deployed in the pub-lic cloud, and even others are best deployed in a managed cloud environment. the art of applications transformation lies in being agile enough to accommodate these choices while converging to a cohesive mix of environments.
Speedmobility has redefined the user experience
with game-changing systems of engagement. user experiences are determined quickly. to meet user expectations, the interface must not only add value, but also be enjoyable, easy-to-use, and easy-to-understand. speed is a common denominator. there was also a mobile app development and integration approach discussed in this session. for sys-tems of engagement this approach showed a reduction in the time-to-order from 5 days to 3 hours!
Cost
throughout the session, cost was an im-plicit consideration. evans outlined the ap-proach to the transformation of traditional system of record applications, driven by re-quirements to reduce the maintenance cost. also, the approach and case study that evans walked through for systems of engagement resulted in a cost-of-sale reduction of $1m/yr.
it was obvious: Whitman’s new style of it maps very well to this approach to applica-tions transformation.
it is a new style of applications transfor-mation – a style that:• Createsanewend-userexperience• Isasourceofdifferentiationforanenter-
prise• Realizes growth,while reducing costwith
simple solutions.enterprises can now differentiate them-
selves, not only by transforming applications, but also in how they actually go through the transformation process. simply put: how an enterprise transforms applications can impact what they transform to and when.
How has the new style of it affected your enterprise? What is your style of applications transformation? do you have a transforma-tion Gps for your journey? l
EG Nadhan is a Distinguished Technologist at HP Enterprise Services with over 25 years of experience in the IT industry delivering solutions in distribut-ed environments. As the Chief Architect for the HP EDGE Plat-form Nadhan leverages his ex-perience to build and grow the standardized set of processes and tools within Application Services.
www.enterpriseinnovation.net
