Enterprise Mobility Lives Up to Its Name

By: Richard “Zippy” Grigonis

The term “enterprise mobility” implies the ability for a communications system to connect to people and control assets from any location. Enterprise mobility is currently made possible by a mélange of wireless networks, middleware, mobile applications, dual mode handset devices, and security and management software. The future of enterprise mobility, however will involve the integration of unified communications (UC) with mobile and back-office applications in a seamless, harmonious and holistic communications platform that boosts productivity and blatantly spells out a clear return on investment. Some of this technology will spill over into the consumer world, too.

AT&T’s Igor Glubochansky, Director, Industry Solutions, says, “We focus not only on enterprise mobility in general, but also applying enterprise mobility concepts and services to specific vertical industries. Certainly this is where we see it going in many ways, with companies realizing that they’ve made a big investment in enterprise systems, whether it’s ERP or CRM, or other applications that they use to run their business processes. Now, with appearance of the mobile workforce, we need to increase velocity and decision-making in the face of economic pressures and the consumerization of IT, where users are bringing mobile devices into the enterprise and the workforce continues to be connected at any given point in time at the point of need. They must have the same access to enterprise data and communication tools as they do in the office. From this many interesting trends emerge. Certainly there’s the need to have the same voice and collaboration technologies available on-the-go as you have in the enterprise. This is where you see projects to extend IP PBX (News - Alert) features to mobile phones, such as the ability to conference and collaborate in other ways.”

“At the same time, IT is saying, ‘I have these ERP systems, and how do I give mobile workers access to them at the point of need, when they are actually working with customers at the frontline out of the office and/or on the road?’,” says Glubochansky. “We may never have previously imagined doing so much work out of the office, but this is in fact where much work is being done these days. A few interesting developments in this area are as follows: I’ll start with UC and collaboration. Certainly solutions to extent PBX capabilities to mobile devices have existed for a while, and this area is still maturing. We at AT&T have launched a solution about two year ago, that takes this idea to the next level for enterprise use. It’s called Video Share. It’s an IMS [IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert)]-based 3G service that enables wireless customers in the U.S. to use their phones to share live video and audio. One-way, live streaming video feeds can now be seen by both users during a two-way conversation. You start with a normal wireless phone call, then you press a button to add the live video. Once a Video Share call has been initiated, customers can switch the direction of the video stream during the same phone call. Fortunately, we now have devices that can handle voice, video and data simultaneously. While you’re having a conference call, you’re able to share a video stream, with the effect of ‘See what I see while I’m talking to you,’ whether you’re at a construction site showing something to an expert in the back office, or you’re a merchandiser in a retail environment showing to your manager how you set up a retail display. Video Share has many use cases: Field services, insurance, and so forth, where you need instantaneous, live communication with more than just voice. And with the 3G data transport technology we have these days, such as HSDPA and other things based on the GSM standards. So we have a pretty unique capability when it comes to dealing with high-quality voice, video and data at the same time. It’s an interesting trend that was brought about by the technology itself and business are recognizing its value and we basically have a roadmap involving it.”

Glubochansky adds, “The worst moment in a CIO’s life is when a business executive such as a VP of sales or director of operations is calling on an IT department with a simple question, ‘Can I have Application X on my mobile devices for my salespeople, technicians or whoever?’ The answer usually is, ‘Well, we can have it ready in about three years.’ The development of mobile applications is difficult because you have many different factors complicating it. The development of applications for an ordinary PC or laptop in a normal environment is hard enough. But mobility adds additional challenges. You have environments with multiple devices and operating systems. Multiple platforms at the back-end, too. Carriers with varying types of connectivity – fast networks, slow networks, places with and without coverage. Some home grown systems, ERP applications, CRM may have security questions – not challenges per se, because there are many different ways to address it. Ultimately, when you think about the mobile worker, you must make sure that the user experience is appropriate and contextually relevant for them, which is a big issue. There are different screen sizes out there on mobile devices, but you need to have exactly what you need to perform a transaction or do your job.”

“With all this in mind, we created a solution called AT&T Mobile Enterprise Applications [AMEA],” says Glubochansky. “It offers offers hosted and managed mobile integration solutions and app consulting services for companies wanting to extend their business-critical information to mobile employees. It’s basically the first mobile middleware and application development platform to easily and consistently extend back-end applications to mobile devices. It’s powered by the Antenna Mobility Platform [AMP] developed by Antenna Software and includes AT&T’s applications consulting, deployment and hosting services so that we can extend back-end apps such as Oracle, SAP (News - Alert), and home-grown systems, and we can even integrate location-based services into the same environment and extend those apps into multiple device platforms, be it iPhone (News - Alert), Windows Mobile, BlackBerry or any other future platform. With AMEA, we can provide things such as help desks, as well as infuse functionality in specific applications, such as merchandising applications for consumer goods, or facilities maintenance for retail or hospitality. There are many examples. The platform simplifies and enables enterprise IT departments to deploy and manage applications at a completely different level.”

“On the small business side of 50 or 100 employees,” says Glubochansky, “where they really don’t have an ERP system, we strive to deliver end-to-end solutions to them involving hosted apps such as our teaming up with Xora Inc. to offer the Xora GPS TimeTrack workforce management app. Xora GPS TimeTrack uses GPS Global Positioning System [GPS] technology for smartphones to give businesses timesheet data collection, job/work-order management, payroll integration and location tracking capabilities using AT&T-powered devices. It can enhance business processes for mobile workers, particularly blue and gray collar workers.”

Dual-Mode FMC

Once upon a time, “dual mode handset” simply meant mobile handsets compatible with both GSM and CDMA cellular networks. Today, however, in the evolving world of FMC (Fixed-Mobile Convergence), “dual mode” generally means mobile phones containing both cellular and non-cellular radios such as WiFi (News - Alert) or DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications). Ideally, a call begun on, say, a cellular network can be seamless handed off to become a call on an organization’s internal WiFi or DECT network, using such a “dual mode” phone.

Recently Avaya announced that they had partnered with DiVitas (News - Alert) Networks to offer dual mode mobile UC. Avaya continues to offer their cellular-based FMC offerings: oneX-Mobile UC and oneX-Telephony, though they appear to be favoring outside technologies such as DiVitas’, which supports WiFi/cellular handsets (various Nokia (News - Alert) E- and N-Series smarphones and some Windows Mobile devices) to the point where you can enjoy single number reach and single voicemail boxes, along with an integration of Avaya (News - Alert)’s Modular Messaging with the DiVitas dual mode client and the deskphone voicemail system so that you can receive visual voicemail and downloadable voicemail messages to the handset. The solution works with any WLAN, at the enterprise level (Cisco, Aruba, Meru, etc.), SMB/Branch level (Linksys, Netgear (News - Alert), etc.) and public hotspots including home WiFi. By Q4 2009, there should also be DeVitas integration with the Avaya Intelligent Presence Server to enhance the presence capabilities DeVitas already has.

Phil Klotzkin, Senior Product Manager, Unified Communications (News - Alert), Avaya, says, “DiVitas and Avaya have partnered to offer an enhanced solution, compared to what DiVitas offers with other PBX makers and also compared to what Avaya certifies with other dual mode vendors. DiVitas and Avaya’s cooperation leads to a platform having extra features not available to any other combination of players out there. If you look at Avaya’s DevConnect (News - Alert) partner program, you’ll see other dual mode companies that are certified to work with the Avaya Communication Manager, which is fine, but our relationship with DiVitas also includes the integration of our Modular Messaging, which is our premier voicemail platform used by over 5 million users globally. From the mobile handset you can see how many messages you have and select which one to listen to, delete, or whatever.”

The Avaya/DeVitas partnership suggests that many clever third-party startups will help larger vendors bring about the huge integration and transformation necessary to perfect enterprise mobility in future mobile unified communications environments. IT

Richard Grigonis (News - Alert) is Executive Editor of TMC’s IP Communications Group.

Avaya - (www.avaya.com)

AT&T - (www.att.com)

DiVitas Networks (News - Alert) - (www.divitas.com)

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