Excellent points, David. 

> The presentation people take results given to them by 
> the business application and present it on the phone 
> and web.  The business rules developers have little to 
> do with presentation.  Many developments in the U2 
> world are starting to move that way, where the 
> business rules developers are U2 and the presentation 
> developers are another group such as .Net. Hence U2 
> people are not aware of the phone development.

I wish U2/MV developers were that far along but the reality I see
is that while such a scenario is prevalent outside of this
market, it's not the way things are in most MV sites.  Most MV
apps are still spaghetti code, entwined with the Character UI
(CUI), and only "some percentage" of sites are even on their way
to extracting rules from the UI, or even understanding this
concept and the implications, so that they can leave presentation
to some other team.  Most of my MV consulting these days is on
this specific topic and that's my experience with both large and
small shops.  Your experience may differ.


> Another issue that would concern organisations is how 
> to handle security and identification of remote users.
[snip]

Quite true but this applies to all external development - it's a
part of the process of moving forward into the modern world, not
limited to mobile, nor a specific reason for companies to be
avoiding mobile.


> Finally the issue is the cost benefit analysis.  Do I 
> write an app that allows executives to access KPIs 
> from my application.   Would sending them an email 
> with the KPIs be far cheaper and simpler.   At what 
> point is it productivity and at what point is it 
> playing with technology.

As a "right tools for the job" guy, I'm in full agreement.  A
significant difference between mobile and email is that the user
can request specific information when she/he wants it.  I
provided one of my clients with the ability to get customer
balances, inventory status, and other data via SMS, as well as
broadcasting data to customers and employees who want focused
information in a medium other than email.  They don't need the
"glitz" of a mobile app, but they have recognized the value of
mobile computing.  The solutions must be in-line with the
perceived benefits.  My theme here is that there might be
benefits for this medium which have not yet been explored by the
"usually" larger companies that tend to run U2.

I'll note here that according to several independent analyses,
both email and IM (AIM, ICQ, MSN...) usage has plummeted compared
to the use of mobile apps and SMS/texting.  Agree or disagree
with the statistics, but just look around you.  As IT people we
need to recognize trends or we will continue to lose to competing
software and new management thinking.  I'm not saying we must use
mobile media (voice, apps, texting), just that we should all
consider mobile amongst all of the other UI options to address
end-user needs/desires. ... And I'm just wondering how U2 sites
are thinking about such things or implementing solutions.

Regards,
T

Tony Gravagno
Nebula Research and Development
TG@ remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com
remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/blog
Visit PickWiki.com! Contribute!
http://Twitter.com/TonyGravagno

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