The cost of developing and maintaining apps increases with the number of platforms supported, the number of apps and the complexity of the apps; more often than not enterprises have little control over them because they are tied to third party developers. While creating and managing a single app on a single platform might be relatively straightforward in a native environment, doing so across multiple platforms and for multiple apps rapidly becomes cost ineffective.

• IBM MobileFirst solution brief - a short 5-pager that describes what MobileFirst means and while it is important to have or develop a mobile enterprise strategy today
• An additional Forrester TEI report, this one on the benefits of hosted managed mobile services (to support a BYOD mobile enterprise). The report shows better than 100% ROI over three years.

Too many customers view mobility as an add-on to their IT systems, [General Manager Vishal] Rajpal said. "We've been trying to tell them to think of mobile as the first platform. They should step back and see the mobility play as a key part of their IT system. We've been preaching that message for awhile," he said.

That's fueling demand for the up-front consulting and system design services Perficient offers, as well as the software development, integration and deployment services that come later. That also ties into the solution provider's vertical industry practices, Rajpal said.

Rajpal said the solution provider is building its mobile practice around IBM because of several key mobile technologies the vendor acquired in recent years including the Worklight mobile application platform, Green Hat cloud software testing tools, BigFix endpoint management system, and Cast Iron cloud/on-premise application integration software.

"IBM has one of the most comprehensive product sets around mobile," Rajpal said. "I think they've put together a really strong story with their mobile platform."

In the Focus Electric car, he said, Ford wants to get continual, detailed sensor data on the state and performance of the vehicle’s electric battery, then feed that information into product development.

And drivers, Mr. Sankaran said, seek to do more things while in their cars. A stock trader, for example, might want to continue trading from the road. If the trader sent in an order to sell 30,000 shares of Apple, he said, that transaction must be reliably and securely communicated.

“You need an advanced messaging engine for these kinds of services,” Mr. Sankaran said.

Prediction: Mobile computing devices should be more secure than traditional user computing devices by 2014. This is a bold prediction that IBM recently made as part of its look ahead in technology trends.

In the last two years, IBM Security has spoken to hundreds of global 2000 customers and out of those interviewed, only three said they had no plans to implement any kind of BYOD program.

Separation of personas or roles: While a small percentage of enterprises have dealt with BYOD by using virtualized desktop solutions to separate and control enterprise applications and data from the rest of the personally owned device, a greater number of enterprises have wanted or required some form of separation or dual persona on mobile devices.

Tools exist to support secure development as part of the process instead of being conducted in qualification or production. As a result, it should be more common for enterprises to have more securely developed mobile applications than their existing legacy applications.

• On March 26, here in Chicago I'll be part of a panel discussion at the Social Media Club of Chicago. We're going to be talking social in the context of this week's SXSW conference. Honestly, one of the challenges of having a worldwide responsibility at IBM is that I don't do enough local area networking, so a Chicago event gets me out of my home office and meeting like-minded people here in town.  My presence on the panel also happened because of a Foursquare mayorship fight over my dentist's office, so there's a story right there. (NB: I'm not really using Foursquare much anymore. Not sure why.)
• On March 29, I'm participating in a webinar with the Association of International Product Marketing and Management, "Becoming the 'Social Product Manager'." This discussion is 100% based on my book Opting In, and the AIPMM audience is exactly who I had hoped to reach in writing a book about social business for the business leader. It's at 12 noon ET and is free to join. Registration link is on the AIPMM site. The host for the event, Cindy Solomon, has been very engaging and supportive; I'm really looking forward to this webinar.
• In April, I am participating in the Social Media Strategies Summit, also here in Chicago, on April 23 and 24. Here, my pre-conference workshop takes on the format of a case study of IBM using social business.

What is the perception of IBM and social media today?
IBM has transformed over the last six or seven years into a culture of participation. We have one of the largest presences on LinkedIn and Twitter, and IBMers continue to explore the leading edge of both inbound and outbound usage of social media. More importantly, we have recognized the importance of social business as a tool to reach clients and potential buyers. Our research has found that people who visit ibm.com as a result of a referral from a blog or tweet or other curated content are more likely to convert into participating in an offer from our website than if they just came to ibm.com directly. That is a direct reflection of the authentic voice used established by IBMers and our communities.

Link: Huffington Post: Social Media and the Mature Organization > ]]> http://edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/dxcomments/huffington-post-social-media-and-the-mature-organization http://edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/dx/huffington-post-social-media-and-the-mature-organization?opendocument&comments