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Mobile Apps

The State of Mobile Banking – Present and Future

 

According to Forrester, number of US mobile banking users to double in the next five years and reach 108 million by 2017 — 46% of US bank being account holders. Mobile is already displacing all the other channels like physical and online banking. Until 2010, banks had only developed applications for iOS, but now there are applications for Android, Windows and Blackberry. Tablet development is a high priority now in mobile banking. Banks have basic functionality under control and now they are looking to add more functionality by taking advantage of phone features such as NFC, cameras, augmented reality and GPS. Helping customers find the branches and ATMs, helping them pay bills, simplify deposits, facilitate person to person payment, money management solutions are some examples.

Factors influencing the use of mobile banking

While the United States has adopted mobile banking widely, there are issues with adoption in Europe and it is dependent on various factors such as: internet adoption, affordable data plans, smartphone penetration and availability of traditional banking channels like branches and ATMs.

Customers are using both mobile websites and apps. In the US, 65% of mobile bankers use mobile Internet websites and 45% use apps, with some customers using both. In Canada, 79% of mobile bankers use mobile websites. In Europe, mobile banking apps are most popular in Sweden and France, where banks have been relatively quick to launch apps. SMS alerts still the most common type of mobile banking in Europe and are particularly popular in Spain and Italy, but they have never been as popular in markets like the US or Canada.

Mobile banking attracts upscale customers – Mobile bankers in North America and Europe have been early adopters. Some 71% of North American mobile bankers own a smartphone. The same parameters, such as age, income, and technology optimism, that drove the adoption of online banking over the past decade drive consumers today to check their bank account balance from a mobile phone. Apart from attracting higher-income groups, mobile services like SMS alerts can also attract customers who do not own a PC.


Predictions for the future

Mobile banking is going to become more ubiquitous and mark a bigger shift in the industry with the explosion of mobile internet, mobile banking and growth of mobile payments. Mobile banking is going to offer users much more than basic access to accounts. Mobile devices will give greater convenience through immediate control over finances. Mobile banking will have four big components:

Mobile money management – Personal and financial tools are becoming more popular with online banking

Mobile money movement – There is a movement from contactless payments in-store to Facebook payments, and PayPass contactless payments

Mobile digital wallets – firms are thinking on how to combine technologies like QR codes, NFC, personal finance management and others to convert mobile handsets to digital wallets.

Relevant, context based offers – customers use mobile banking to promote relevant products and services

Challenges to take mobile banking mainstream

Technology is moving fast and many banks are falling behind customers and competitors as they continue to rapidly adopt new technologies. Customer expectations are changing and so there is pressure on the mobile banking executives to constantly evolve and develop tighter solutions.

Non-banks are pushing the boundaries of innovation – companies like Apple continue to innovate and push the boundaries to revolutionize the way people use mobile phones. Independent developers are creating a wide variety of apps that offer insight into financial lives.

Customer expectations are rising – customers spend their time on apps like Dropbox and Instagram and their expectations from rise from their banking app.

Fears about security – consumers are still concerned about identity theft and fraud.  And with the increased use of mobile devices, this may further accelerate.

Device fragmentation – there are still lots and lots of OS platforms with little plans of consolidation. And this huge diversity is going to continue to pose problems for mobile banking.

Native apps, mobile web and tablets – all of this is going to proliferate and banks need to be ready for it.  Designing for small screens small and big, for all browsers will become a mandate.

 

 

 

 

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Sub: Bye Bye Crowdsourcers – Welcome MobiXpert!

Dear Mobile Tester,

How is your mobile testing experience?

Have you experimented with crowd sourcers lately to get your mobile app tested? Do you know if they protect your IP? How’s your app being tested – on real devices or on emulators?  And, do you know who’s on the other side of the wall – certified experts or 20 year old Tom who decides to join the crowdsourcing bandwagon because he’s getting bored? These are all questions you need to ask before deciding on a strategy to test your mobile app.

We’re thinking of your mobile testing experience – everyday!

Mobile testing is our bread and butter and you have to believe us when we say – WE KNOW THIS STUFF! And, we want you to benefit from our experience with more than a 100 customers across several verticals and geographies.  We can help make your testing experience seamless, fast, easy with zero downside.

The evolution of MobiXpert

And so, we created MobiXpert – a real mobile testing experience on real devices by real people. You can now get your app tested in a few easy clicks – choose the type of test, choose the devices, and submit your app for testing. MobiXpert will get back to you with the test results in 2-4 days. And of course, be rest assured that your IP is absolutely secure with us in our test labs.

Beating the Android Fragmentation!

I am sure you’re aware that Android is fragmenting the mobile marketplace with a zillion devices running different versions of the OS.  How do you figure if your app works on all these devices perfectly? Guess what, we shelf more than 3000 pre and post market Android devices to solve this very problem. And, we have tested more than 100,000 apps for the leading app stores very successfully. Now, we want to bring these benefits to you, as you prepare to launch your next enterprise app.

See it to believe it

This might seem like a salesy pitch, but you would have to see it to believe it. Go to mobixpert.infostretch.com and submit your app – you’ll know what I am talking about. For more information about this service, how it works, and how it compares against crowdsourcers, mobile platform providers and in-house QA teams, click here.

Happy Testing!

Sincerely,

The InfoStretch Team

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Watch Out SmartPhone Users…Olympics is Here!

I am sure all you guys have already downloaded that Olympics 2012 app on your mobile devices to watch the grandeur, follow the medal winners, buy your tickets, and place your bets. I downloaded one this morning too. And then, I read this report from ThreatMatirx on 5 major threats that will be encountered on smartphones during the Olympics this year.  I thought of sharing the findings with you guys as well, just in case you’re an Olympic freak like meJ.

Mobile devices have reached their ‘wild west’ stage according to PC world.  A state with no rules, and lots of lawlessness.  Smartphones are now ubiquitous, one in every hand, and an indispensable commodity, perhaps. But along with the many favorable possibilities, there is an emerging ecosystem of hackers and malicious developers exposing smartphone users to a lot of risk.  70 new malware threats were discovered on mobile devices in 2011, and 2012 is about to beat that number. Why are smartphones vulnerable? Because, people don’t see and understand the level of risk they’re exposed to. And so, they don’t care to take the precautions.

This might be a beginning, so if you want to enjoy your Olympics, watch out for these threats:

Dubious Apps – Yes, there will be many, who would try to access information from your device surreptitiously.  They would access your contact database and ask them to download the app on their devices as well. So you got to pay attention to the permissions when you download an app.

Drive by Downloads – You Google Olympics 2012, and click on a link to see the action. Guess what, that’s not a legit site or they have a malicious plot on a legit site and now your device is infected.

Hidden links – Be very careful of those shortened URLs, yes those Bit.Lys. There are tools which can help you figure if those are legit URLs or not. If you click on them blindly, you are likely to get to a malicious site.

Search Engine Poisoning – Hackers are gaming the search engines. They have ways to show up on the top pages and lure you into clicking on their links. So dive deeper, don’t just blindly click on the first few links.

Phising attacks – Cyber-crime is not new, but it takes a different dimension on mobile devices. If you’re in London and are looking for tickets, make sure you don’t buy them just because they’re cheap, they might be fake for all you know. Do your due diligence.

Not saying that your Olympic experience on mobile is trouble ridden, but it is always good to understand the risks. All you have to do is take a minute to think before you click on anything. How did you get to that link, did a friend send it to you or a stranger?  You read a post about Olympics and clicked on that link, who wrote that post? Your close Facebook friend, or someone you randomly follow on Twitter.  And post Olympics, keep the lessons from this article to have a mal-free experience on your phones.

Enjoy a great Olympics season!

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BlackBerry10 – Would this be a Game Changer for BlackBerry?

Blackberry Smartphone maker RIM has been behind iPhone and Android to provide ‘A’ class user experience. RIM’s market share has dropped down drastically from 41% in 2007 to 4% in 2012. Although it has been able to improve shares in India and China with mid-range smartphones, the future still looks bleak.

Playbook: Not so good user review

RIM which was pitching QNX based playbook device but did not get a good market response mainly because of the lack of essential features when the device was launched. Another setback relates to emails, Blackberry device need to be connected as a bridge for sending and receiving emails. It’s also the lack of good quality apps that are pushing end users to Android and iPad devices.

Fate of BlackBerry  Java based Phones:

RIM has lately realized that improving its java based blackberry OS would not provide the end user experience that is present in Android and iPhone devices. As RIM’s legacy OS was built with key based user interface in mind, it is not scalable enough to handle touch based user interfaces smoothly. With people preferences switching from a keyboard based device to a touch based device, it becomes hard for RIM to sell their legacy OS device.

BlackBerry 10 in News:

With the vision all set to work on developing a fast and smooth touch based device, Blackberry announced BlackBerry 10 in late 2011 to play in the smartphone market. RIM however has been delaying the launch of the device, now scheduled for Feb 2013. Hopefully, there would be no key features missing in their new device as was the case with Playbook.

Overview of BlackBerry 10:

Let me give an overview of the BlackBerry 10. It has QNX as the operating system which is time tested and extensively used in modern car systems, rocket launches and Nuclear power plants.  Mobile application development in QNX can be done using either native C/C++, Web Works, Adobe Air . BlackBerry 10 can also run android applications using android runtime player.

BlackBerry 10 native development

The native development is done using QNX Momentics IDE which provides drag and drop features for faster UI creation. It also has a very good UI previewer which can greatly reduce developer effort as it directly updates the UI in the previewer when you do changes in the QML document.

BlackBerry 10 uses cascades UI framework for developing rich and intuitive UI with 2D and 3D effects. The developers have two options for developing UI , writing code in C++ or using the markup (QML) . QML provides a more easier and flexible way for making UI. Various fine grained UI behaviors can be provided by using QML. Many of the cool UI components have been

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Part 2 – iOS6, Jelly Bean, Windows8 – Who is the Prettiest of Them All

Going Social

Integration with Facebook, much as they did with Twitter in iOS 5. , Its now easier to share photos, update statuses or other postings on Facebook. You will now be able to share photos and safari links on Facebook within the respective apps using the share button. The friends profile information has been integrated directly into the contact list and calendar, and also updated automatically.

Photo Streams allows you to create groups that are automatically notified when pictures are added, and these photos are automatically delivered to their iOS Devices. If you have an AppleTV, your pictures can even be transmitted to one that has access to your Photo Stream, so your Apple TV screen saver will always display the latest pictures, automatically.

For Developers:

The Social. Framework provides a simple interface for accessing the user’s social media accounts, This framework supplements the twitter framework that was introduced in iOS5 and adds support for Facebook and Sina’s Weibo service.

App can use this framework to post status updates and images to user’s account. .It works with account framework to provide single sign on functionality. UIKit framework also provides a new UIActivityViewController class for displaying the action that user performed like post content to social sites like Facebook or Twitter.

 

What are Jelly Bean and Windows8 doing?

 Windows 8 doesn’t just feature Facebook and LinkedIn contacts in its People contact book, it lets you anchor people on your Start screen, see status updates and share across multiple social networks from all over the OS. When it comes to photos, Microsoft has integrated Facebook and Flickr at the core, letting you see images stored on your accounts, other peoples’ accounts, and up on your own SkyDrive cloud storage account.

 Android always had a great Facebook sharing feature. Users can share and upload from pretty much anywhere in OS, or from most Android apps. Users can pull Facebook data for their contacts already stored on the devices or pull all Facebook friend into contacts. With Jelly Bean OS, Android beam apps now supports NFC-based picture and video sharing with other NFC-enabled devices as well as NFC-based connectivity with Bluetooth devices.

Guided Access – A kiosk mode

Guided Access is a new feature found in iOS 6, which allows you to enable a “kiosk mode” on your iOS devices. This can be handy for users who use the iPad or iPhones as retail assistance in stores, in restaurants, as menus, as examination paper in schools, or in an entrance exam.

You also have the ability to restrict access to certain portion of the screen, the whole screen, and/or disable the motion control with application

Passbook – a New eWallet

Passbook feature is an eCommerce solution, Its nothing but the barcode collection for boarding passes, store cards, coupon, movie tickets etc. The user just needs to scan the smart devices to check in for a flight or can have alert when coupons or vouchers are about to expire. Passbooks also sync to iCloud.

For Developers:

PassKit.framework is new framework that uses web services and a new file format to implement   downloadable passes. Passes are created by company’s web service and delivered to the user’s devices via email or custom app .The file format identifies relevant information about the services being offered so that the user knows what it is for.

 

 

A better Phone app, FaceTime Safari browser, Mailand Game Center.

 

In iOS 6, users can reply to incoming calls with messages (present or custom) or save reminder – timed or geo fenced. It also provides “Do Not Disturb” messages which toggles with fine -grain phone call exceptions, schedules or repeat calls.

FaceTime is now available over cellular network, Apple ID unified with phone number, enabling FaceTime or iMessage answering on iPad or Mac. Safari will now provide an offline reading list, photo uploads, full screen Video in landscape mode. iCloud tabs for safari on other iOS devices and macs which sync the browser data and make it up to date.

Mail application is now available with Flagged mailbox, VIPs- designated contacts cause notification, email flagged with stars in separate inbox. User can attach photos in-line, open password-protected office docs, per account signatures. Game center allows cross-platform turn-based and realtime gaming between iOS and Mac, also provides features to find friends from Facebook. It also syncs with OS X.

For Developers: 

Other Framework enhancement by Apple in iOS 6.

The EventKit framework now includes interfaces for creating and accessing reminders on the user’s device. The reminders you create show up in the reminders app along with ones created by the user. Reminders can include proximity or time-based alarms.

The StoreKit framework now support the purchasing of iTunes content inside your app and provides support for having downloadable content hosted on Apple servers.

State preservation makes it easier for apps to restore their user interface to the state it was in when the user last used it. Prior to iOS 6, apps were encouraged to write out information about their current interface state in the event that the app was terminated. Implementing state preservation still requires effort on your part to identify what parts of your interface you need to save

You use the Cocoa Auto Layout system to define layout constraints for user interface elements.Constraints represent relationships between user interface elements such as “these views line up head to tail,” or “this button should move with this split view subview.” When laying out the user interface, a constraint satisfaction system arranges the elements in a way that most closely meets the constraints.

In Addition to location data, the system now ask the user’s permission before allowing third-party apps to access certain user data which includes Contacts, Calendar,Reminders and Photo Library.

The iAd framework supports a new medium rectangle banner size for ads on iPad devices.

The ExternalAccessory.framework includes new interfaces for managing connections to Bluetooth devices. Apps can now post an alert panel that lists the Bluetooth devices available for pairing.

What are Jelly Bean and Windows8 Doing:

Microsoft’s goal is quite clear: instead of having a list of individual apps for payments, everything should be integrated into a single place that replaces your wallet and also offers live updates on your accounts and access to nearby deals. Just as the name suggests: your credit cards, loyalty cards, and others. Specific companies and programs that showed up in the demo were PayPal, Chase, Fandango, and Delta, but you could also save your library card and more to the hub. The hub also integrates with the new Nokia Maps.

With similar functionality, Google wallet is a huge question mark for Google, Sprint is the only official Google mobile wallet partner. Google announced new NFC-based features unrelated to payments, but the challenges in-front of them is number of android devices available with NFC.

iOS adds more features, but keeps the same screen size and user interface that has not been changed since iOS launched .Android’s Jelly Bean improves performance and adds Google Now, connecting different services into persistent available location assistant. Windows Phone 8 now runs on the Windows NT kernel, the same kernel Windows 8 runs on. This means that user gets support for multi-core chips and also gets faster porting of apps and easier overall development across platforms. This will strengthen Microsoft’s ecosystem. Windows phone 8 upgraded to entirely new hardware, but the usability of OS is very tightly bound to the availability of the hardware and upcoming support with Windows 8.

The big challenge in front of Google is only 7% of Android customers who are up to date and running Android 4.0 as compare to 80% of iOS user running latest iOS 5 on their smart phones and tablet. This also tells us something about how the OS’s are being marketed.

 

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Are smartphones ready for the enterprise challenge?

With the increasing number of smart phone users and applications, it is very compelling to expect companies to add Smart Phones to their list of internally supported devices.

There has been a widespread curiosity about Smart Phones applications among C-Level executives at different companies. Many companies have bought Smart Phones in a hope of increasing productivity, gaining operational efficiency, improving customer intimacy or establishing a new channel for sales. Many Enterprise level applications are out there in the market already and employees have been trying to execute work related tasks from their Smart Phone Devices. But how secure is it? Is it as efficient as other devices? Will Smart Phones seamlessly integrate with the existing ecosystem of other devices? What are the use cases and what is the ROI? Can the IT provide same level of support for Smart Phones as it does for other enterprise devices? These are still some unanswered questions.

The ecosystem is complex with too many carriers, handset vendors, application stores, and third party distribution channels, and this multiplied by the number of mobile device platforms could make the deployment and maintenance of smart phones in companies extremely complex, time consuming and costly. The lack of standards could make the life of IT team miserable, and it might be very difficult to ensure security and to put in place a plug and play system that can easily be scaled.

Many enterprise level applications like Salesforce have developed mobile applications, but until the surrounding ecosystem allows for integration and two way communication, it will be very difficult for the enterprise applications to reach wide scale adoption. One of the major success factors for Salesforce, besides its pioneering cloud capabilities, has been the flexibility that it provides by integrating with email clients, other CRM systems, websites etc. This has been possible because of relatively standardized internet space, unlike the mobile ecosystem, which still remains scattered and complex.

In conclusion, Smart Phones will need to move towards a more standardized model before they can become enterprise-class devices. With 4G and increasing popularity of cloud computing, Smart Phones might find a way into companies by offering a platform just as capable as other enterprise devices.

Nick Parmar, Mobility Expert at Infostretch is hosting a Webinar on the top 10 mistakes committed by companies while deploying mobile solutions. I encourage you to attend this webinar to find answers to some of the questions raised above.

Register for the Webinar here.https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/855893336 . Time and date: 2-Nov-2010, 10:00 AM PST.

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Guide To Mobile Banking Apps In US

Mobile Banking Apps are increasing in reach and usage. MyBankTracker has written an informative brief about the Mobile Banking Apps of Wells Fargo, Chase, Citibank and Bank of America.

Click Here For Mobile Banking Apps Review

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iPhone OS 4.0 – Apple Delivers !

Apple launched the most awaited and exciting update to its iPhone software – iPhone OS 4.0. Steve Jobs unveiled the new 100+ features to enhance the iPhone Experience.

iPhone OS 4.0
InfoStretch‘s Research Lab is impressed with the following cool features:

1. Multi-Tasking – This was one of the most sought after feature and Apple finally delivers ! Apple claims to multi-task activities without draining the batter power.

2. Enterprise – Apple iPhone wants to be a enterprise phone as well and challenge Blackberry. Some of the new Enterprise features include:
– Even better data protection
– Mobile Device Management
– Wireless app distribution
– Multiple Exchange accounts
– Exchange Server 2010
– SSL VPN support

iPhone OS 4.0 Features

3. iAd – Apple has introduced its own advertising platform – an ad plugin for app developers called iAd. People will watch ads while they continue to use iPhone or play games. It is definitely a vital tool and can challenge AdMob. The powerful advertising platform will 60% revenues to developers.

4. Game Center – Apple iPhone wants to be as cool as XBox as well. A lot of focus has been given to Game Center and features like inviting friends to play, competing with random players is available.

There are lot of other features including a new Mail app, ability to create folders, iBooks etc. It has also made the developer community happy by offering a new SDK with more than 1500 apps for creating powerful interesting apps.

The Smartphone market is hotting up !

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The imminent death of Palm?

Back in January of 2009, Palm announced that they will be launching the next ‘iPhone Killer’ pretty soon. This saw a sweet surge in the stock prices of Palm by about $4. CES (Consumer Electronics Show) was held in the later half of January 2009 at Vegas and Palm’s booth was overflowing with what they were about to launch.

What was launched:
At CES 2009, Palm launched their new smart phone platform called the WebOS keeping the developers in mind. Developers could create their applications by using CSS, HTML and Javascript to start with. No new languages to learn. This was in direct competition to Apple, who launched their iPhone SDK with Objective-C. Palm was on a verge of bringing the money on the table with their idea.

The Palm Pre

Apart from WebOS, Palm also launched their new phone called ‘Palm Pre’ that was set to launch in Q2 of 2009 featuring a 3.1″ screen with multitouch(!!), slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 8 gigs of storage, GPS, accelerometer and proximity sensors to start with.

Highlights:
Palm’s new platform could have been a serious iPhone killer – Not just with the hardware, but with the software as well, like how Android is doing at the moment in close partnership with HTC. The WebOS was based on ‘cards’ (very similar to Windows Phone 7’s ‘Tiles’), a dock and gestures (that Android perfected in v2.1). The game-changer has definitely been the ability to truly multi-task (Apple does not yet support multitasking yet). The WebOS runs on Linux and is absolutely full of eye-candy.

The downers:
1. App Catalog:
We all expected that you would have a lot of sensible apps on the Palm’s app catalog (keeping aside the never ending fart-apps and other useless jingle-jangles that cover 140,000 apps on the Apple App Store). Going by app count, by the end of 2009, Palm just had a mere 1000 apps on their app catalog (versus 10000+ for Android and 100,000+ for Apple)

2. Hardware:
The Pre got off to a seriously awesome hype in Summer of 2009, but somehow, for some reason, Palm decided not to improvise on their hardware, no surge in apps and basically they lost Apple, HTC and the other manufacturers came up with bigger and better phones (hardware-wise) and Palm decided not to mess with their Pre for over a year.
The second very important factor is that Apple launched the iPhone 3GS and stole Palm’s thunder. Perfect strategy to kill the demand of an upcoming technology by improvising on an already-set-and-highly-successful platform. Typical Apple.

Palm was in some unknown hurry of launching the Pre, resulting into very limited (hardware and software) testing, which then translated into a lot of unsatisfied users. Almost every other person has returned their Palm Pre atleast once to get them fixed and getting a replacement. With such a high competition from Apple, these small mistakes from Palm were getting on the nerves of the users.

3. Design:
Palm’s Pre had a highly glossy almost mirror-like finish on it’s screen. Now that did go very well with the fairer sex (the Pre was termed as a woman’s phone). Only developers, Palm nerds and geeks would know what the WebOS was really capable of doing.

Palm’s designers complained that the iPhone is too huge to put in a pocket and hence decided to shrink it somehow – resulting in the Pre’s thickness like a bar of soap. Not good again. Palm’s designers somehow forgot that the users do not want to seem like they are carrying a bar of soap or a bundle of cash in their pocket. I was never a fan of the Palm’s keyboards. The Centro somehow pulled it off well, but the ‘chin’ of the Pre was too big a pain to let the user type on the hardware keyboard with ease. Maybe a landscape QWERTY (like the spaced-out keys of the Droid) would’ve helped?

Mistakes, more Mistakes:
Palm thought it would be a good idea to let the users sync their phones using iTunes. Not sure what the developers were smoking when they came up with that idea, knowing that Apple is ruthless with their competition (Apple filing a lawsuit against HTC for implementing Multitouch recently, remember?)

Palm Pre syncing with iTunes

Palm did not focus on improvements on their platform (hardware and software) resulting into newer an d better phones overtaking them (iPhone users complained about copy-paste, MMS, better camera, multitasking – Apple made them wait) – I agree that the situation that Palm is in at the moment, making the users wait was not a very good idea either. Double edged sword, to say the least.

Conclusion:
Looks like all the success stories of the Motorolas and the HTCs and the Apples have learnt from the unforgivable mistakes that Palm has made. Or it may also be the case that Palm was trying to cover an old technology in new overalls.

I guess Palm’s days are finally over. You can blame it on ruthless competition, extremely high expectations from the customers, stupid design calls, hardware and software, just to name a few.

The imminent death of the Palm Pre?

If you have been following all the tech news updates regularly, Motorola was in a similar state a year back when they were about to shut shop on their mobile phone department, and then they decided to give Android a shot. Look where they are now in terms of sales for the Droid, the i1, the BackFlip and the DEXT.

If Palm decides to give away it’s baby (the WebOS) and adopt another (Android), they might be successful (you never know)
Alternate bailout is that Google buys out Palm and continues it’s development

But, to say the least, Palm is dead. Struggle and sacrifice, else R.I.P.

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Mobile User Experience for SaaS products – Challenges as SaaS goes Mobile

Why is the mobile device important?

75% of U.S. workers are predicted to be true mobile sometime in 2011. 23% use mobile device more often than their laptops to access internet. This increased data usage has forced wireless companies like ATT to invest $10 bn in infrastructure. Even Jim Cramer’s hot picks for “mobile tsunami” include mobile tower operator companies. So in addition to regular browsing for news & social media, SaaS applications for official usage will be accessed from mobile more often.  The users are likely to expect a similar, relevant and consistent user experience when the SaaS applications are being accessed from the mobile devices. But they might be in for a rude shock.

There are many reasons behind this varied experience. Many SaaS applications have rich graphics, animations and dynamic content. These coupled with image resolutions, multitude of mobile browsers, slower internet speeds, poor designs and lack of context spoil the user experience and impact customer loyalty. Revenues for SaaS based ISVs are largely constituted by monthly/annual subscriptions and customer delight is the key to safeguard these revenues. Hence ensuring a consistent and relevant user experience should be high on priority lists of product managers and technology groups.

Characteristics of SaaS applications where mobile user experience is getting increasingly crucial

The keystones in identifying SaaS products where mobile experience needs to be controlled are – relevance, context and the usage. For example – applications like CRMs, ERPs, financial accounting, sales management, office information, transportation, logistics, manufacturing, field operations, etc. are very likely to be accessed via mobile devices when executives are on the move. Likely content to be accessed includes specific data, reports, pending tasks, approvals, alerts, etc.  From the usage perspective – the application while being accessed from a mobile device – should ensure that relevant data gets displayed first and the website/app works consistently across devices. Application users have higher satisfaction ratings when the user experience is cognizant of user expectations, content relevance and the context of usage.

Complexities involved - there are 100 new phones launched every quarter in the market. Each different smartphone accessing the application needs to be handled differently as there are multiple combinations of operating systems, browsers and screen resolution. Internet browsers being used in mobiles need to be tested as well for their capacity to manage rich features as well look and feel.  Now the SaaS executives are faced with few options about what to do next – create specific apps, a mobile specific website or a hybrid of two. Let’s explore.

 
The next steps
 
Step 1 – Follow the customer - There are commonly available tools which will tell you the browser/device being used to access your SaaS application. That will help to track the % of users using mobile devices to access the application. This indicates the current traffic and the pages being visited more often.  It is important that this analysis includes trending as poor user experience may have forced users to abandon mobile usage of the application.  This analysis provides snapshot of current application usage. Then the CEO/CTO/COO in conjunction with the product manager and engineering teams can decide if the mobile visitors are substantial enough to consider a dedicated mobile strategy. If they decide the mobile users experience needs to be taken care of – go ahead and move to step 5

 

Step 2 – Lead the customer – To increase user stickiness – go ahead and invest in creating an “augmented user experience” where the user experience will be better as the graphics/animations display will be faster. It is important that usage based application redesign is also considered. The customers can always be given the choice if they want to access the full website or mobile site. The trend so far is towards building a device specific apps.

Step 3 – Depends upon your SaaS product’s features – If your application uses rich graphs/animations/heavy graphics/high user interaction – it is highly recommended that you consider step 5. Slower internet connectivity, inability to enter data while out of coverage areas & image resolution issues  will only reduce the customer satisfaction.

Step 4 –  Are location based services important – Do your customers use location based services from your product (like current location, area code, etc.)? If yes –go to step 5

 
Step 5 – The decision. It is important to choose amongst – creating a device specific app or creating a mobile specific website or the hybrid.
 
If the application access is highly concentrated towards a specific device – then invest in creating device specific apps. The disadvantage is – porting of this app across devices entails cost. If the applications focus highly on providing a rich, engaged and interactive user experience -  then building the app is highly recommended.  These apps reduce the data communication between the mobile device and web server. It can access your mobile applications like location, camera, calendar, appointments, etc. Also for scenarios where users are expected to be in the field like – auditors evaluating factories, sales members, etc. – users will be able to use many offline features with the app. Also many financial institutions may have device specific apps as an additional medium for mobile banking as it ensures a rich user experience.  If the environment can be controlled for an enterprise – (company X recommends the device Y for the entire workforce) – go with a device specific app. We have also noticed firms adopting the app way for – their trendiness, appeal and due to competitive pressure. We believe that while having an app makes you trendy, you should carefully weigh its usefulness and applicability to your mobile use cases before deciding a mobile app the solution to your problems.

 

If the users are not concentrated on a device type and application is not graphics heavy– but the usage context is very important – then opt for mobile specific website. For example – all the official travels for a company X are managed by mycompanytravel.com. Before the tickets are booked, the Operations manager needs to approve it. The mobile version of such a site should involve quick links for pending approvals, redirect approvals, request for more information, altering priority etc. Also financial institutions like banks will definitely have a mobile specific website as they focus on ubiquitous access. There are few limitations as well. Users are being “forced” to remember the URLs of your SaaS product. Also these websites do not access mobile applications like address book, location, etc.

Hybrid usage – a mix of app and browser combines the best of both worlds. They use browser interfaces for web server interactions and also allow access to mobile applications. It allows the user to do more when the graphics being used are very rich and there is lots of transactions with the user. Also it allows the user to continue with limited usage even if there is no signal within the office or remote locations. This allows you to leverage location based services as well.  This also allows you reuse tons of business logic and existing code for information processing.  Hybrids also support leveraging the specific features of devices with minimum rework. Consider a rich social media application which will need ubiquitous access and graphics heavy interface. So to minimize umpteen number of device specific apps, too frequent data access and leverage multiple widgets – hybrid is the way forward. 

 

The SaaS revolution has elevated the customers to the higher pedestal. As vendors’ revenues are backed by the tighter SLAs and renewals, user experience has to be managed and can’t be left to chance.  Many companies are now increasingly touting about their mobile channel during sales pitches and are using it as a differentiator.  So ignore this channel at your own peril !!.
 
InfosStretch can help evaluate your mobile experience at no cost and then work with you to strategize a mobile strategy that meets your requirements !
We have rich experience in creating apps across platforms, porting them across platforms, creating mobile specific websites and merging the best of both worlds – hybrids.
Our strategic relationships with key carriers and enterprises puts us in the unique position of understanding the complete lifecycle.
 
Write to saas@infostretch.com for more details
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