The Tip of the Iceberg – Making Mobile Enterprise Ready

Article by Ross Mauri, general manager of IBM’s System z server business, IBM

It is no secret that mobile applications provide rapid, almost instantaneous access to data. They are the gateway to a new era of information sharing – unfortunately, they also have the ability to become the Achilles’ heel for data security. Personal data security is at the forefront of consumer concerns when they consider adopting mobile applications. It is easy to see why, when just within the past few weeks, a major retailer, a global bank, and a federal government agency all reported intruders had compromised the personal and financial information of millions of their customers and constituents.

The growth of mobile services today is analogous to the Internet revolution 20 years ago – an explosive rush of users demanding access to a wide range of new services, with businesses, governments and other agencies scrambling to provide them as quickly as possible.

By next year worldwide mobile payment transactions will grow to 900 million users and $1 trillion in transaction value. Wearable wireless devices for sports and healthcare will grow to nearly 170 million devices in 2017, up from roughly 20 million in 2011.

This growth provides tremendous opportunity for these institutions to improve efficiencies and grow their customer or constituent bases, but only if they can meet the challenges of providing competitive services. Security is crucial, but so are quality of service, reliability and performance. If the user’s flight doesn’t get booked, banking transaction doesn’t get posted or driver’s license doesn’t get renewed, he will abandon the app – and the provider.

In reality, the systems that manage, process, store and share the info for these mobile apps are a lot like icebergs – what you see on the screen in your hand is only a fraction of the whole. In fact, the user interface on your mobile device only accounts for about 20 percent of the software development associated with the entire process of running the app. The other 80 percent – management of user engagement, security, operations, and enterprise integration – happens beneath the surface, in datacenters far from the user.

As banks, retailers, healthcare providers, government agencies and other institutions that handle your personal information continue expanding services into mobile, they need enterprise systems that can provide these services transparently and safely. Those systems must be able to extend enterprise applications and data – such as bank balances, credit card account info, driver’s license numbers, etc. – seamlessly via the cloud to front-end apps on mobile devices. They must handle the transactions quickly, despite spikes in network traffic, with minimal downtime, and deliver a fast response to customers. Doing so effectively provides huge benefits for both the user and the provider.

For example, the government of Croatia is using a solution based on an IBM mainframe system that allows citizens to perform tasks like renewing an expired passport, applying for a marriage certificate, paying taxes, updating insurance and even checking the status of a pet’s vaccination records via mobile devices. The new system reduces the wait for these services from hours to minutes and eliminates the need to physically visit various government offices to complete the same tasks.

In a nation where people with mobile devices outnumber those with bank accounts, First National Bank of South Africa’s goal was to be the first financial institution to introduce mobile banking in that country. FNB’s mobile banking app turns users’ smart phones into a “bank in a box,” allowing many customers to access banking services provided by a secure, reliable IBM mainframe-based transaction system for the first time. FNB is now processing 240 million mobile transactions per month – each one completed in milliseconds – and has attracted millions of new customers with its new mobile services.

As these client examples illustrate, effectively capitalizing on the mobile boom requires the right technology strategy and execution, with quality of service, reliability, performance and security as table stakes. Businesses and other institutions face the choice of either getting it right or being left in the dust.

Ross Mauri is general manager of IBM’s System z server business. You can follow him on Twitter @rossmauri