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2 The Mobile Imperative

3 Client Virtualization: From Desktop to Device

3 Productivity Apps: The Off-the-Shelf Option

4 Partially Custom Apps: The Goldilocks Zone

6 Fully Custom Apps: When Details Matter

6 Mobile App Strategies

8 CDW: A Mobile App Partner That Gets IT

Table of Contents

THE APP ROADMAP: MOBILE APP STRATEGY FOR THE WORKPLACE

A coherent strategy improves productivity and enhances how enterprises operate.

Executive SummaryAs mobile devices become ubiquitous in the workplace, mobile applications are increasingly integral to everyday business operations and workflow. Having the right app — accessible in the right way — is critical. Effective mobile application deployment requires a thorough understanding of business needs and research into available solutions. A coherent app strategy is key to making the most of these business tools.

The market for mobile applications and device-centric computing has exploded over the past five years, dramatically affecting organizations of all types. Increasingly, employees expect to use enterprise or personal smartphones and tablets for business activities. And they have come to rely on mobile apps to make the most of their devices and their time.

The increase in smartphone and tablet use has forced changes in the way enterprises deliver information, services and business logic to client devices, be they for staff, business partners or customers. When properly designed and rolled out, mobile apps help enterprises boost user productivity, streamline business activity and ultimately reduce expenses.

Organizations can decide among numerous off-the-shelf or customized solutions based on their needs. However, before taking action, enterprises should develop a strategic worldview of their mobile app initiatives, mapping deployment and development decisions against needs, budgetary constraints and IT infrastructure. This strategy serves as a critical roadmap for enterprises to migrate to a more mobile environment.

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The Mobile ImperativeThe ubiquity of mobile device ownership among enterprise users is indicative of the devices’ inevitable prevalence in the workplace. In 2013, the number of smartphones and devices connecting to the Internet worldwide surpassed the number of personal computers. Many of these connections happen in relation to work. A 2014 Dimensional Research survey found that 95 percent of surveyed organizations reported mobile devices connecting to their networks.

The trend toward mobile devices has fueled a transition to bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, in which an IT department supports personal mobile devices for work use. The Dimensional Research survey found that nearly three-quarters of organizations now support BYOD, with the number of BYOD devices connecting to enterprise networks more than doubling in the past two years.

One-quarter of survey respondents claimed a more than fivefold increase in BYOD device connections.

Data, applications and assets that once resided safely behind the firewall are now routinely exposed on poorly managed mobile devices, yielding a litany of serious risks, from data leakage to the introduction of pernicious malware and advanced persistent threats (APTs).

As a result, workers today are as likely to access email, schedules or documents from a smartphone or tablet as they are on a traditional PC. Most rely on some form of mobile app to do so. Enterprises that can strategically optimize that same technology to mobilize business activity can greatly benefit. However, organizations to date have been slow to adopt mobile apps in the workplace.

Based on the Citrix Mobility Report for 2014, Windows-based applications still dominate at work, although the numbers are slowiy dropping (down from 64 percent in 2013 to 54 percent in 2014). Mobile apps rose from 6 percent in 2013 to 9 percent a year later; web applications rose from 20 percent to 23 percent; and Software as a Service (SaaS) rose from 10 percent to 14 percent. The report concluded that IT departments must work to mobilize and manage the different types of applications so they can be delivered in a diverse BYOD environment.

The rise of mobile software in the enterprise has some serious implications for IT shops already burdened with supporting internal IT systems, cloud engagements and BYOD mobility. The Citrix report found that 42 percent of surveyed respondents expected to manage more than 100 apps in 2014, while 21 percent expected to manage more than 1,000 apps.

As a result, IT budgets to support mobile software are ramping up. A May 2014 CDW survey illustrated that small and midsize businesses expect to spend, on average, 10 percent of their IT budgets on custom mobile apps and related technologies. The figure for large businesses was 12 percent. Nearly half of the survey’s respondents reported rising mobile app budgets from 2013 to 2014.

Continued mobile activity points to a future with more mobile apps, delivering an ever larger set of services and functionality, while targeting an increasingly diverse array of tablets and handsets. In short, the proliferation of mobile apps and software poses a major management challenge.

Enterprises moving to mobile must make important decisions, including deciding whether and when to deploy off-the-shelf mobile apps or develop custom mobile apps. Perhaps most important, organizations must transition internal processes and organizational structures to support the diverse application environment enabled by mobility.

Buy, Build or Virtualize: Mobile App ApproachesFor organizations coming to grips with this mobilized future, committing to mobile apps is a vital waypoint. Enterprises can choose from several categories of mobile client software to meet their mobility goals. These include:

BRING YOUR OWN APP: THE NEW BYODIT departments have struggled with the bring-your-own-device movement since the days of the first personal computers. Affordable smartphones and tablets have taken BYOD to the next level.

BYOD is big business, and getting bigger. Research firm MarketsandMarkets expects BYOD spending to reach more than $266 billion in 2019, up from nearly $72 billion in 2013. Meanwhile, a 2013 Spiceworks survey of about 1,000 IT professionals finds that 61 percent of small and midsize businesses support a BYOD policy.

The growth of BYOD has also created a new challenge for IT organizations, in the form of BYOA, or bring your own app. The simplicity of partially custom app stores has prompted individuals and even entire business units to deploy off-the-shelf mobile apps without formal planning or management input from the IT group. The risks of such unmanaged app proliferation are many, including:

App fragmentation created when different people and units deploy competing or incompatible apps for similar tasks

Security risks that result from unvetted and unmanaged apps residing on mobile devices that connect to enterprise networks

Support problems that arise from a lack of formal vendor contracts, employee training programs and IT engagement

Inflated cost of ownership resulting from issues related to fragmentation, security and support

IT organizations can rein in BYOA proliferation through a combination of well-articulated policy and enterprise mobility management suites. EMM packages from vendors such as AirWatch and MobileIron can be used to create managed, enterprise app stores populated with approved mobile apps. These suites can also be used to detect or prohibit rogue app installations on mobile devices and guide workers to approved apps.

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Client virtualization: Virtualization software from Citrix, VMware, Microsoft and others can be used to package and stream desktop applications — or entire desktop environments — to mobile devices.

Productivity apps: Enterprises can procure and deploy off-the-shelf mobile apps, such as email clients from Microsoft and Google, that can support existing business processes and data flows.

Partially custom apps: Rich software platforms can extend the reach of deployed systems, such as Salesforce.com customer relationship management (CRM) or SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, or create custom apps using visual, rapid development tools.

Fully custom apps: By creating and supporting fully custom apps that are tuned to each mobile platform and operating system, an enterprise can often best meet stringent requirements around performance, functionality and user interface.

Client Virtualization: From Desktop to DeviceVirtualization technology has changed how many organizations do business. For instance, the consolidation of multiple virtual servers within a single, physical server has allowed enterprises to streamline many tedious management tasks by pooling and provisioning server assets. The same capabilities that make virtualization so compelling in server environments make it a candidate for delivering desktop applications and environments to mobile endpoints.

Virtualization is a powerful technology that has become nearly ubiquitous in enterprise and server message block environments over the past decade. Server virtualization solutions, such as VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V, enable IT shops to consolidate multiple virtual servers within a single, physical server. The robust management and configuration capabilities of these solutions have made it possible for organizations to pool and provision server assets. The result: Management tasks that once required physical changes to systems, or that demanded tedious one-to-one interaction via software, can be performed in a streamlined, automated and orchestrated manner.

Research firm Research and Markets expects the general client virtualization market to grow rapidly in the coming years. Part of that growth is fueled by the benefits of applying client virtualization to mobile deployments. By leveraging virtualization, IT teams can:

Extend the value of investments in existing client software and systems

Delay or eliminate the need for costly and often risky replacement of existing software with mobilized versions

Ensure the delivery of fully functional applications and services to mobile endpoints

Provide a secure and managed environment for applications deployed to mobile endpoints

Avoid the cost and time spent training staff on new software systems and processes

Client virtualization is also a compelling solution in BYOD scenarios, where enterprises need to support a range of mobile devices and operating systems. It can be used to deliver apps to mobile endpoints two ways: via desktop or through application virtualization.

Desktop virtualization addresses the task of virtualizing the entire operating system environment and delivering it to mobile devices. It uses a hypervisor on the client to decouple the OS from the mobile hardware. It delivers all the resources and assets of the user’s work computer to a remote client, making it extremely powerful. However, the small screens and limited user interface (UI) capabilities of smartphones and tablets can sharply limit the value of desktop virtualization in mobile scenarios.

Application virtualization is generally a better solution for delivering business logic and services to mobile devices. Virtualized applications are packaged and either streamed to or stored on mobile clients. Virtualized applications run in an environment isolated from the mobile OS, which provides inherent benefits in security and management.

Although virtualized applications are still restricted by touch UIs and small screens, mobile experience virtualization solutions can adapt keyboard-and-mouse desktop applications to take better advantage of touch-first UIs with little or no development work. A blend of client software, improved protocols and mobile-optimized application program interfaces (APIs) can significantly improve the mobile user experience and yield big gains in user satisfaction and productivity.

Productivity Apps: The Off-the-Shelf OptionThe debut of smartphones helped initiate a shift from web-centric mobility to app-centric mobility. This “application economy” has had huge ramifications for organizations, which find themselves deploying and supporting numerous increasingly complex and critical mobile apps.

The numbers tell the story: The mobile app market is growing at breakneck speed, according to a 2014 report by research firm Arxan. It found that there were 127 billion free app downloads in

36% The percentage of businesses that allow employees to use off-the-shelf mobile apps for work purposes

SOURCE: CDW, The App Age: How Enterprises Use Mobile Applications, May 2014

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2014, a number that is expected to nearly double by 2017. The market for paid apps, meanwhile, is expected to grow from 11 billion downloads in 2014 to nearly 15 billion in 2017. In terms of revenue, the mobile app market is poised to reach $70 billion by 2017, up 171 percent from nearly $26 billion in 2013.

Businesses are experiencing mobile app proliferation firsthand, as users, customers and partners increasingly rely on off-the-shelf apps to drive business processes, consume services and interact with enterprise data and assets. Tasks that were once accomplished on desktops behind the firewall can now be conducted in airports, taxi cabs and hotel rooms. Productivity apps such as Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office 365, Cisco Systems’ WebEx and Box.com enable activities on mobile devices that were once limited to traditional client desktops and notebooks.

There are both benefits and drawbacks to relying on third-party productivity apps. Mature apps, such as Office 365, provide rich, secure functionality that largely mirrors traditional desktop applications and allows seamless collaboration with PC-bound

coworkers. Off-the-shelf apps optimized for various mobile endpoints, such as Android, iOS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry, leverage the native user experience (UX) of each platform to turn every tablet and smartphone into a capable productivity endpoint. In this regard, apps can be significantly more effective than virtualized desktop software streamed to mobile devices, and can be significantly more cost-effective than custom-built apps.

Horizontal business activities such as email, scheduling and document creation are well served by off-the-shelf, third-party apps, which offer the twin benefits of low cost and quick deployment. Apps can be downloaded directly from public app stores, or distributed in managed fashion via private app stores using enterprise mobility management suites.

However, off-the-shelf apps also come with some drawbacks. Equivalent off-the-shelf apps may not be available for every mobile device, or features may differ across supported mobile platforms, yielding costly disconnects in the organization. Fragmentation is a concern too, as individuals and operational units deploy different apps to achieve similar tasks across various mobile client platforms.

Ultimately, the value of off-the-shelf apps is greatest for activities and processes that are broadly shared across all enterprises. Software and services provider SAP developed a breakdown of enterprise mobile apps across five categories. Off-the-shelf apps are found to be appropriate for software focused on communications, data access and universal processes such as human resources, sales, finance and IT. Custom app development, by contrast, is best suited for unique, vertical processes and transformative applications that involve new or innovative approaches.

Low initial acquisition costs make these apps attractive, especially for small and midsize businesses that do not face deep integration challenges with line-of-business systems. Off-the-shelf software also promises lower maintenance costs than apps tailored to the enterprise. However, those cost benefits must be balanced against the heightened benefits that come from tuning custom software to a specific task.

Partially Custom Apps: The Goldilocks ZoneOff-the-shelf apps have known limitations. Built for mass market appeal and subject to the vagaries of mobile platform adoption trends, third-party apps tend to meet most enterprise needs but can leave critical requirements unmet. This is especially true as organizations become large and complex or must support very specific processes and requirements.

Enter mobile apps built on mature app development platforms such as Kony, Salesforce.com and SAP. Unlike fully custom apps built from scratch, partially custom apps offer an attractive “Goldilocks” option for enterprises seeking to balance the cost of off-the-shelf with the functionality and benefits of fully custom apps. To be clear, enterprises that opt to build and deploy partially custom apps have already made an important decision: They have concluded that

MOBILE USER INTERFACE Mobile app deployments demand that organizations rethink the way they make software work. In many cases, traditional desktop applications — dominated by those based on the Windows operating system — are a poor fit for the smaller screens and touch-based user interfaces (UI) found on handheld devices.

Enterprises are looking to mobile apps to leverage the reach and utility of smartphones and tablets. However, the success of mobile apps depends greatly on effective UI and design — much more so than traditional desktop enterprise applications. Industry surveys show that users will abandon apps that are difficult to navigate. Yet, mobile UI design remains a common problem within apps.

In a 2014 survey of 340 mobile-engaged companies, 57 percent of respondents reported UI design to be the source of at least one-quarter of their discovered app defects. In addition, nearly one-half of respondents reported having to make late changes to app UIs because of:

Failure to lock the UI design, resulting in frequent changes throughout development

Failure of the UI design to meet at least one functional requirement

Discovery of UI issues in the published app by stakeholders

Traditional desktop development approaches that place UI work at the back end are a poor match for the high-stakes challenge of creating an effective mobile app. This is particularly true for cross-platform efforts, which introduce additional complexity to the task. In any app development project, time and effort should be made to ensure the user interface is effectively integrated.

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off-the-shelf mobile apps cannot meet one or more key business requirements and are willing to invest in custom-built software to meet those needs.

Mobile app platforms offer a cost-effective way for organizations to quickly create and deploy custom mobile apps. They also reflect the unique challenges and issues that arise with enterprise mobile software, which must be built to support:

Multiple mobile operating systems, each with its own software stack and presentation and interaction styles

Diverse client form factors, hardware functionality and input methods

Regular updates to client devices and operating system versions

Widely varied network connectivity and power conditions

Partially customized solutions ease the burden of addressing these and other software development challenges. Developers can build high-level app logic and user interfaces via easy-to-use templates that are tuned for each engagement. The tooling produces the native application code that runs on client smartphones and tablets.

Some of these tools are provided by enterprise application providers and enable organizations to extend and support these suites. Salesforce.com, for instance, provides the Force.com platform for creating partially custom apps that enhance the capabilities of the Salesforce.com CRM.

Research firm Gartner in its Magic Quadrant analysis last year noted that the mobile app development platform sector consists of a fast-evolving blend of native and web toolkits, as well as a range of specialized platforms that span app generators, wrapper tools and middleware providers. Given the volatile nature of the sector, the report cautions decision-makers to avoid long-term commitments

and to frequently evaluate mobile app development strategy.

Among the key benefits of app development platforms:

Streamlined, rapid app development and faster time to market

Simplified development experience, often enabled by templates or visual tools

Integration with included back-end hosting and services

Efficient support and app maintenance, including the ability to quickly update apps to the latest operating system and device versions

Reduced need to hire or contract highly skilled native language programmers

Some of these packages enable a single code base to serve multiple mobile operating systems, while providing a more immersive and consistent user experience than cross-platform HTML 5 markup code. The drawbacks? Partially custom apps lack the customizability of native code development.

Organizations may be constrained by the templated nature of these solutions, limiting the ability to fully customize apps and create a unique look and feel. These limitations can be of particular concern with customer-facing apps, where optimal user experience is paramount.

Fully Custom Apps: When Details MatterOff-the-shelf and partially custom mobile apps offer compelling efficiencies, but they cannot match the value of full-on, custom app development when it comes to supporting very specific, complex or niche business requirements. In these and other scenarios, the additional cost of writing fully custom app code is often more than offset by the many benefits that result from it.

SOURCE: CDW, The App Age: How Enterprises Use Mobile Applications, May 2014

BENEFITS OF CUSTOM MOBILE APPS

Increased efficiency

Increased productivity

Ability to work remotely

Cost savings

Employee collaboration

Customer communication

Customer satisfaction

Ability to use multiple devices

Competitive advantage

0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

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For more information on how CDW can help with your mobile app deployment, contact your account manager, call 800.800.4239 or visit CDW.com/mobility.

Fully custom mobile apps differ from partially custom apps in that they are free-standing and not anchored to an enterprise application suite, such as Salesforce or SAP, or a code generator such as Kony. With fully custom mobile apps, skilled programmers write app code directly and compile that code to a specific mobile platform.

This approach offers fine-grained control over all aspects of the mobile app, from UI and UX elements to data handling and integration with back-end systems. Fully custom app code can be rigorously tuned for performance and shaped to handle very specific or complex use cases that off-the-shelf or partially custom apps cannot handle.

The CDW mobile app survey found that nearly all respondents saw benefits from fully custom mobile app deployments. Three benefits — improved efficiency, productivity and the ability to work remotely — were cited most. Furthermore, nearly three-quarters of surveyed managers said they plan to make additional investments in fully custom mobile apps in the future.

The same survey also found that, on average, each employee using a fully custom app was reported to have saved 7.5 hours of time per week. In addition, 82 percent of respondents said mobile apps helped their businesses generate additional revenue, with an average reported revenue gain of 16 percent.

Fully custom mobile app development is benefiting from increasingly sophisticated and capable resources and tooling, such as frameworks that make it possible to write a single code base for multiple mobile client targets. Xamarin tooling, for instance, allows Microsoft Visual C# programmers to create native Android and iOS apps, while Adobe Systems’ PhoneGap can translate HTML5, CSS and JavaScript code for iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices.

Organizations considering a fully custom mobile app push may want to weigh the benefits and costs of such an effort against those presented by a partially custom app. A review of a project’s return on investment (ROI) can help weigh the costs of a fully custom app project against the predicted benefits that can be gained with a full-on effort to write code. The objective: To determine if a native custom app will yield additional competitive advantage over a more limited, partially custom app.

Mobile App StrategiesMobile apps are proven solutions for delivering tangible gains in productivity, efficiency and customer satisfaction. Yet, any software development and deployment efforts come with a measure of risk. Those risks are multiplied when working with relatively unfamiliar and fast-moving mobile tools and platforms.

How great is the risk? IAG Consulting surveyed more than 100 large enterprises and found that 68 percent of all IT projects are at high risk of failure due to a poor grasp of requirements and subpar analysis.

In 2014, Xebia Labs surveyed more than 1,000 companies and found that a little more than 30 percent of all software delivery efforts end in failure. The danger is higher still in mobile app deployments, which present a number of unique challenges. Among them:

Adapting to new or unfamiliar mobile platforms and software models

Supporting a diverse range of mobile client device types (tablets and smartphones), operating systems and device models

Responding to shorter OS and app version release cycles common to mobile platforms

Grappling with security issues unique to mobile app deployment and maintenance

Mobile apps can deliver substantial benefits or produce calamitous results, depending largely on how organizations go about deploying them. A flawed development effort can yield software that is expensive to create, hard to maintain and prone to flaws. A poorly planned and managed mobility effort will yield a fractured and fragmented mobile infrastructure that complicates operations, inflates costs and sharply increases the chance of bad outcomes.

By the same token, a rush to mobilize business processes with poorly selected or designed software can result in reduced productivity, lost sales or damaged customer relationships. Study after study has shown that poorly designed software yields depressed adoption and usage rates, higher incidents of error and lower user satisfaction. A 2013 study by research firm Equation Reach found that only 16 percent of surveyed users have the patience to keep using an app after two failed attempts to launch it.

Enterprises that take the time to coherently understand their business requirements and outline their mobility goals see greater results. A strong mobile strategy yields tangible competitive advantages for an enterprise that commits to it.

This strategic approach to mobility is essential for a successful mobile app effort. Ahead of any deployment or development activity, management should consider an eight-step process:

Identify stakeholders and decision-makers

Target specific operational processes

5 The average number of mobile apps used by businesses

SOURCE: CDW, The App Age: How Enterprises Use Mobile Applications, May 2014

7800.800.4239 | CDW.com THE APP ROADMAP: MOBILE APP STRATEGY FOR THE WORKPLACE

Develop use cases

Determine and select technologies and vendor options

Formulate relevant metrics

Set the schedule and pattern for updates

Establish the role of service contracts

Consider issues around business process transformation and ongoing lifecycle

Establishing the FoundationThe first three steps define the audience, scope and function of an app. They are directly responsible for both driving and promoting mobile deployment efforts.

Research firm Gartner urges enterprises to establish a mobile center of excellence, gathering mobile-engaged stakeholders into formalized roles so they can coherently respond to issues and help direct decision-making. Because mobility touches so many aspects of an enterprise, this group should be diverse in background. Departments that may be represented include IT and security, line of business, marketing, sales, operations, human resources and legal. The team should work together to craft coherent mobile policy and strategy for the enterprise.

For specific mobile deployments, representatives from affected business units should be engaged, with units working together to ensure that processes and operations are adapted to new app solutions. For instance, a mobile app that enables intake of specifications and data for manufacturing will almost certainly require changes in the way information is delivered to engineers and supervisors.

Executive engagement is paramount, and mobile leadership teams should work closely with executives to communicate the project mission, budget expectations and well-researched projections for ROI. These communications must be sustained throughout the project lifecycle to ensure ongoing support from top management.

From a process perspective, it is vital that teams talk coherently about the operational activities that are affected by a mobile app rollout and develop detailed use cases that verify the validity of the proposed approach. An engagement that devolves into a list of desired program features will almost certainly fail to address the underlying need.

The first step is to identify the problem and perform a full assessment that examines, in detail, the existing process and how it is conducted. Interviews with users and a review of job roles and activities are vital at this stage. From there, a coherent plan to mobilize and improve the existing process can be crafted. It can also help to see how industry peers are executing similar processes.

Crafting detailed use cases for the mobile app deployment is the next logical step. Here, the mobile team works with all stakeholders to propose specific use examples. For instance, a stadium operator might document use cases for a smartphone app that enables in-

seat concessions purchases and a beaconing system that enables the app to suggest shopping opportunities to customers based on where they are in the venue. A detailed use scenario helps every aspect of the effort — from giving the app development team a tangible target to driving more accurate cost and ROI projections.

The effort to establish use cases can yield unexpected benefits, such as discovery of secondary use cases that extend the value of the initial mobile app proposal. Such efforts will need to be properly scoped, of course, to prevent mission creep that can produce cost and time overruns.

Taking ActionOnce the initial groundwork is done, the project can move into the action phase. This phase includes selecting technologies and vendors, formulating relevant metrics, and setting update schedules and patterns. The nature and course of these activities will depend to a large extent on the type of mobile app being deployed: virtualization, off-the-shelf, or partially or fully customized.

Once the team has identified the approach, it can identify candidate technologies, solutions and vendor companies. Decisions must be made across a matrix of issues that includes technology platform alignments, integration challenges, industry-specific requirements (including regulatory compliance), cost considerations and future mobility planning. In many instances, organizations may want

MOBILE MANAGEMENT TOOLSSolutions such as mobile device management, mobile application management and all-inclusive enterprise mobility management suites are invaluable tools for organizations struggling with mobile app and device usage. Products such as VMware AirWatch, Symantec Mobile Security Suite and MobileIron provide precise control over mobile hardware and software and enable IT managers to enforce policies and take action to protect enterprise assets and ensure effective service and delivery.

Among the capabilities of these suites:

Features, such as sandboxed containers and application wrapping, help wall off enterprise apps and data to prevent data leakage, while app blacklisting and whitelisting provide control over the apps that run on each device.

Management tools allow IT staff to monitor app usage and to set access permissions for apps running on all devices.

Private app store functionality limits users to installing only approved apps hosted in the enterprise’s app store.

Remote app provisioning, device diagnostics and lock/wipe capability help IT managers set up, maintain and secure devices and data — even in the case of loss or theft.

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The information is provided for informational purposes. It is believed to be accurate but could contain errors. CDW does not intend to make any warranties, express or implied, about the products, services, or information that is discussed. CDW®, CDW•G® and The Right Technology. Right Away® are registered trademarks of CDW LLC. PEOPLE WHO GET IT™ is a trademark of CDW LLC. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.Together we strive for perfection. ISO 9001:2000 certifiedMKT2694— 150216 — ©2015 CDW LLC

to engage a third-party service provider to help assess and recommend solutions and vendors.

Defining metrics is an important step that allows enterprises to track and gauge the effectiveness of a mobile app deployment. Metrics should be developed through careful consideration of what defines success or failure in the project. For instance, an app initiative that measures success in terms of downloads, rather than in terms of actual usage of the app, may fail to detect that registered users are not using the software — a clear sign of failure.

Key metrics to consider for a mobile app effort include usage, user lifetime value, session length and interval, user acquisition and retention, average revenue per user, and performance metrics such as app launch and load times. In-app instrumentation and telemetry help to capture user behaviors and interactions, allowing developers to pinpoint poorly executed or little-used features. This intelligence can be used to drive updates and improvements to the app.

Detailed metrics can also help mobile apps meet service contract and service-level agreement commitments. These can be especially important for enterprise apps deployed to partners and internal operating units. The contracts can be used to define expectations and shape decision-making in the development phase. Performance issues around uptime, availability, responsiveness and software quality are all relevant. In the case of performance shortfalls, such as extended downtime, a refund or other restitution may be made.

Mobile apps represent a major opportunity and profound challenge to organizations of every type. Device-bound apps can create new efficiencies, enable compelling user experiences and support vastly enhanced business processes that promise gains in revenue, productivity and customer satisfaction. Solid forethought and planning are needed to achieve this promise.

CDW: A Mobile App Partner That Gets ITCDW has been delivering mobility products and services to customers for many years, providing a wide array of IT solutions. More than 250,000 organizations count on CDW as a trusted partner because of its collaborative approach to solving IT challenges. Because they partner with vendors throughout the industry, our account managers, solution architects and advanced technology engineers are able to offer clients knowledgeable, in-depth advice on their technology initiatives.

CDW experts listen closely to customers. We use our experiences and feedback to continuously shape and improve offerings and services and to help enterprises make the best possible decisions around mobile software development and deployment.

CDW account managers and solution architects are ready to assist with every phase of your mobile app deployment. The CDW approach includes:

An initial discovery session to understand goals, requirements and budget

An assessment review of existing environment and definition of project requirements

Detailed manufacturer evaluations, recommendations, future environment design and proof of concept

Procurement, configuration and deployment of the final solution

Telephone support as well as product lifecycle support

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