App developers are so 2012

Mobile Solutions Partners and The Future Of Enterprise MOBILITY

App DevelopersAre Obsolete www.coppermobile.comeBook

ContentsTHE “WHY”

THE APP DEVELOPER

WHY YOU NEED

A MOBILE SOLUTION PROVIDER

Technology

Program Execution

Skills and Processes

Vendor Fragmentation

THE NECESSITIES

Engagement Competencies

Management Skills

THE CONCLUSION

ABOUT US

03

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09

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You might not know it, but there is a stark difference between a simple “appdeveloper” and a “mobile solutions provider.” If you’re not a technology or mobilityexpert, the distinction might seem trivial at best. However, if you are consideringbuilding a custom mobile solution, the pros and cons for each type of partner candramatically affect your working relationship and the quality of the end result.Developers can certainly produce high-caliber work in optimal circumstances, butthe level of expertise, guidance and experience mobile solutions providers presentalmost always lead to better business outcomes long term. And, business returnsshould be at the core of any enterprise application.

The “Why”

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Most companies that have considered or previously entered the mobile app landscapehave come in contact with an app developer. Developers maintain a strict set ofcompetencies and foci, with some providing more services than others. The hallmark ofdevelopers, though, is that they maintain a very specific set of skills.

When working with a developer, you can certainly get exactly what you want within anapplication. But that can often be the problem — if you’re not an expert on mobility, howdo you know whether what you want will actually resonate with consumers or internalend users? Do you have experience executing complex mobile strategies to ensure thatall the infrastructure and back-end requirements are ready for primetime? These are thetypes of questions you need to ask yourself when thinking about partnering with avendor of any kind.

The App Developer

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App developers typically specialize in coding, design or both. Every appdevelopment shop will claim they can perform on both axis equally, butthat is rarely the case. Most offshore developers can handle the technicalarchitecture and most feature-specific coding, whereas most onshoredevelopers typically specialize in design (by design I mean user interface,user experience and general aesthetic considerations).

The App Developer

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American firms tend to overcharge for their design services in order to make upground on how much they have to spend on domestic coding resources. As such, theyreally push their user experience and design credentials because that’s their primarypoint of differentiation. Offshore developers have a rich tradition within the computersciences field, meaning they can typically compete or exceed American firms when itcomes to building the actual technical logic and architecture, as well as featuremodules. That being said, American firms have a tendency to far outpace offshorefirms in the design department.

You can certainly find hybrid firms that pair an offshore development staff with anonshore executive, account and design staff. Typically, these developers can beatAmerican firms on price while beating offshore developers on user interface and userexperience. That being said, even the best hybrid developers still leave much to bedesired if you’re not independently knowledgeable about mobility.

The App Developer

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Hybrid

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Developers are great for delivering a specific set of feature requests in a package ofyour choosing. And if you truly understand your target audience, have acomprehensive go-to-market strategy mapped out, know how your audience wantsto be reached, know how you’re going to accomplish that, know how you’re going toexecute every aspect of your strategy, then that’s great. You can do all of the heavylifting on the front end, direct the developer to the nth degree and then wait fordelivery.

That’s not a partnership, though. And if partnership is not a prime value for your firm,that may be exactly what you want. If you seek a strict client/vendor relationshipwhere you simply dictate the terms of engagement and the direction ofdevelopment, then an app developer is exactly what you want. But, if you prefer tobenefit from a wide and deep level of experience navigating the complex mobilelandscape, then a mobile solutions provider might be a better fit for you. If you havea good idea of what you want to accomplish and who you want to target, but maybedon’t know exactly how to get there? Mobile solutions provider. You have a great appidea but don’t know how to build the support infrastructure? Mobile solutionsprovider.

The App Developer

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THE DEVELOPERS THE MOBILE SOLUTION PARTNERS

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In short, if you’re really serious about mobile, there aren’t that many scenarios in which partnering with a top-flight mobile

solutions provider won’t reap greater dividends than working with a

run-of-the-mill developer.

The App Developer

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In August of 2013, Forrester Research released a comprehensive report onthe future of mobile engagement, detailing the primary reasons this spacehas become so convoluted and complex. Forrester identified four primarydrivers of complexity within this burgeoning market:

Why You Need a Mobile Solution Partner

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The new requirements demand an integrated portfolio of skills. Building mobileapps is no longer a simple web-porting exercise. Good app development anddelivery require a comprehensive set of proficiencies, including industry andprocess strategy, experience design, Agile development, systems integration, andtesting and release practices. These skills need to be clearly connected so that,for example, an experience designer doesn’t create an app interface that takes 10seconds to load. This requires Agile development processes and linked skills.Most firms have only a smattering of these skills or processes today.

SKILLS AND PROCESSES

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Why You Need a Mobile Solution Partner

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Buyers in every role turn to their favorite providers: CMOs turn todigital agencies, while CIOs look to systems integrators and processowners use mobile specialists. This can create a cluttered andunmanageable mobile execution strategy if each business unit isusing a different provider for each respective mobile solution.

VENDOR FRAGMENTATION

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Why You Need a Mobile Solution Partner

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Looking at that list of factors, one cannot help but feel overwhelmed by theprerequisite skillsets a comprehensive mobile solutions provider must possess.The basic conclusion Forrester came to was that a new category of mobilepartner needed to be created. What they term “mobile engagement provider” —which I term “mobile solutions provider” — requires a “complete portfolio ofengagement competencies and management skills to help you build and delivergreat mobile experiences at global scale.”

That’s the difference between app developers and mobile solutions providers —app developers only excel in a couple of those areas. They often understanddesign and feature construction, but they do not excel in business strategy,audience targeting, third-party integration necessities, etc. And as such, no singleapp developer will be able to take your app to the next level the way that amobile solutions provider can.

To excel in this world of mobile solutions providers, Forrester identifiedtwo necessities:

The Necessities

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Spanning business, technology and user experience. To deliver simpleexperiences on complex systems of engagement, these providers need tostitch together a portfolio of competencies. From strategy through design tointegration and analytics, mobile engagement providers will manage thisexpanded set of competencies end-to-end.

The Necessities

ENGAGEMENT COMPETENCIES

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For clients, programs and partners, mobile engagement is not a project. It’sa long-term program of activities, operations, and releases. So CIOs andCMOs need a provider for the long haul, one that can serve the needs ofbusiness and IT stakeholders, manage a complex program, and serve as ageneral contractor for an ecosystem of subcontractors.

Point number two cannot be stressed enough. Mobile engagement is nolonger a project — its a relationship between two partners in which themobile solutions provider truly has the business interests of their partner atheart at all times. This is a stronger working relationship than that of adeveloper and client could ever be.

The Necessities

MANAGEMENT SKILLS

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In order to perform that role, the mobile solutions provider must be an expertacross multiple verticals. They have to understand business strategy and processmanagement, especially when it comes to strategy execution. They must possessreal design chops — that doesn’t mean they can simply throw a pretty userinterface on a poorly designed application. The technical architecture and systemlogic must support a simple and intuitive user experience. They have to havemastered third-party API or software integration as more and more of the mobileuser experience relies on these specialized protocols. They must have well-established norms regarding security, privacy, and compliance implementation.They have to understand and integrate analytics and engagement platformoperations. And finally, you and your mobile solutions provider must commit tocontinuous updates and deployment at scale. This list of “must haves” vastlysurpasses the expertise any standard app developer could deliver.

The Conclusion

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All of this points to companies which are serious about their mobile strategy andexecution need to select a partner of record. What marketing departmentslearned long ago must be adopted by COOs, CIOs and even CMOs in the modernengagement marketplace. Partners of record — or “agencies of record” in themarketing world — provide “strategy assistance, creative skills, long-termpersonal relationships, and execution track records to their clients to become anintegral part of the… team” (Forrester 2013).

In the same way that agencies of record augmented and improved marketingefforts of their clients, so too can a mobile solutions provider bring a holisticskillset to your aid. And once you begin to understand the complete necessity ofviewing the mobile landscape in this way, the sooner you’ll realize that partneringwith a complete mobile solutions provider will almost invariably lead to betterbusiness outcomes for your company.

And what are mobile solutions if not instruments for business returns?

The Conclusion

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About UsAt Copper Mobile, we excel at one thing above all others —building apps that make business sense. As one of the onlyenterprise-specific mobile firms in the country, no other mobilesolutions provider can compete with our ability to help ourclients build, deploy, and ultimately turn their mobile strategiesinto real business returns.

That's who we are. That's what we do. That's what we'vedone hundreds of times before.

Contact us today to find out why we are more than an appdeveloper — we're your partner for all things mobile.

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