What the Apple iPad and Other Mobile Devices Mean for Collaboration Planners
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This research note is restricted to the personal use of Anthony Santucci
(santucciaj@appstate.edu).
What the Apple iPad and Other Mobile
Devices Mean for Collaboration Planners
11 July 2013 | ID:G00252872
Jeffrey Mann
Rich mobile devices like Windows and Android phones and tablets and Apple iOS devices
have raised expectations about accessibility and the user experience. This shapes
expectations about how people work. Enterprise collaboration planners must anticipate
how mobility will affect collaboration.
Overview
Impacts
Mobile devices provide users with improved access to their collaborative
functionality.
New mobile applications enable users to access innovative collaboration features.
Mobile applications provide users with the possibility of new ways to collaborate.
Recommendations
Assume that new applications will be used primarily on mobile devices first, even if
they won't be.
Allow for the usage of collaboration tools in unexpected contexts.
Make it easy to switch between different tools and devices.
Beware of creating silos, where the people using apps made for iPads, for example,
become isolated from those using other devices.
Analysis
Marshall McLuhan's aphorism that "We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us,"
is nowhere more apparent than with the use of smartphone and tablet devices in the
1
workplace. At first, workers started using these devices on their own with little official
enterprise support because they allowed them to do the work they already did at times
and places of their own choosing.
As enterprises began to adopt (or at least tolerate) these devices formally, the devices'
capabilities began to change how individuals and organizations work:
Products without mobile components and enterprise applications that are
inaccessible with mobile browsers threaten to fall into disuse.
People without mobile devices or who have the wrong device get excluded from
important interchanges.
Business content is evolving to become more graphic, interactive and consumable
on new devices.
The tools we use are changing how we work.
Many IT departments started out fighting against the use of these user-oriented tools.
However, most have come to accept the concept (see "Forecast: Tablets and Ultramobiles,
Worldwide, 2011-2017, 1Q13 Update" ).
Many IT departments actively embrace teleworking projects, bring your own device
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(BYOD) initiatives and official support for mobile devices. However, the use of tablets has
largely been a user-driven phenomenon, with IT struggling to keep up with the energy and
innovation of its end users. Individual end users are introducing non-PC devices and using
them in different ways more quickly than IT departments are able to cope with. Whether
or not they come from official purchases, sanctioned BYOD initiatives or rogue usage,
tablets are here to stay.
Gartner has identified, at three levels within organizations, the impact of mobile devices on
enterprise collaboration. IT organizations need to anticipate the effects of these impacts on
the different levels as their mobile collaboration efforts mature and gain strength.
Figure 1. Impact and Top Recommendations for Mobile Device
Collaboration
Source: Gartner (July 2013)
Impacts and Recommendations
Mobile devices provide users with improved access to their
collaborative functionality
In this first-level impact, mobile devices provide improved access to the collaborative
functionality that is currently in use. The most common example is email access on
smartphones, but IM and Web conferencing are also available in mobile counterparts to
familiar desktop applications. Employees can make use of small amounts of time that
would otherwise be unproductive, like waiting for meetings to start, waiting in line at
airports, or doing personal errands.
Because the tools and capabilities are generally familiar, users quickly adapt to these new
possibilities with little need for explicit directions. They develop new ways of using existing
tools in the new context. This access allows workers to do what they already do, but with
greater freedom in terms of location and time:
Smartphones are often used to triage emails and other messages, deleting what is
not needed while saving important or substantive messages for reading and replying
to on a desktop.
Having mobile versions of existing applications means that it is not necessary to be
in the office to work productively. Employees work more flexibly at locations and
times that suit them, at the potential risk of extending the working day so that it
disrupts their work-life balance.
Mobile devices can provide an effective "second screen" experience that adds depth
to physical meetings and conferences. The devices are less intrusive than desktops
and can be used to monitor a back-channel IM or activity stream discussion.
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The instant-on and fast access attributes of mobile devices encourage short, fast
interactions. Users can make short postings and comments with mobile devices,
while deferring writing longer, more considered contributions until they have access
to desktops or tablets.
Aside from making mobile access possible (which could in itself take considerable effort),
this level of impact requires minimal IT intervention. Users can mostly be depended on to
figure out the best way to use their familiar tools in these new contexts.
Recommendations:
Anticipate and encourage the use of existing collaboration tools in new or
unexpected contexts.
Warn users and put mobile device management controls in place to guard against
inappropriate or unsecure use of these tools, especially if they are accessed with
user-owned devices.
Anticipate or fast-follow what people need. If they use iCloud or personal Dropbox
accounts, secure an enterprise solution.
Use this period to ramp up IT efforts to understand and support mobile
requirements before they become more complex and demanding.
New mobile applications enable users to access innovative
collaboration features
This second-level impact goes beyond extending access to what is already available. By
using the unique capabilities of these devices, new applications — designed primarily for
mobile devices — can enable new ways of working that were not possible before.
Touch-based UIs and smaller designs allow users to create and interact with information in
new ways. Consumer applications can be a rich source of inspiration for capitalizing on the
new features that these devices introduce:
Tablets are ideal devices for drawing and sketching with apps like Skitch and
SketchyPad. Users can draw concepts and ideas with their fingers and share them
with other users.
Tablet-based brainstorming and mind mapping tools such as MindMeister and
Mindjet can capture ideas better than with a keyboard.
Dashboards and analytical tools on mobile devices make it far easier to visualize
data and underlying relationships. Swiping and manipulating data controls with
fingers is more engaging than using standard business intelligence tools, especially
when used in meetings to explore ideas with others.
Although personal preferences play a strong role, long documents that combine text
with rich media can be read, reviewed and annotated more conveniently on a tablet
device than with a conventional PC or printouts. Documents like sales brochures,
technical documentation, policy documents and reports typically fit this profile.
Mobile devices' camera and audio recording capabilities and GPS positioning
information make it easy to collect rich-media information. A map, digital
photograph or video can illustrate a concept much better than a text blog post. For
example, this technique has been used to capture experiences from soon-to-retire
employees.
The first-level impact relates mostly to BYOD initiatives. This level sees a growth in bring
your own application activities where individuals augment their own productivity using
tools they prefer themselves. Enterprises reach this phase when building or adopting
applications that are explicitly designed for mobile devices, rather than simply ported from
the desktop. Enterprise app stores can play an important role in providing these apps in a
manageable way.
Recommendations:
Assume that new applications will be used primarily on mobile devices first, even if
they won't be. Design and usability principles for enterprise applications are
increasingly being shaped and defined by mobile devices (see "Fit Mobility Into a
Multichannel and Multiplatform Strategy" ). Assuming that phones and tablets will
be users' primary devices helps prevent the common mistake of treating mobile
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access as an afterthought, or as a stripped-down version of desktop applications.
This approach is unlikely to prove satisfactory. Basing mobile designs on desktop
metaphors with the aim of providing mobile access as a weak follow-on will prove to
be self-fulfilling — mobile components will become mediocre. A feeble mobile
implementation will drive users toward waiting until a desktop is available to get
work done. Even if they use a traditional desktop application to access collaboration
applications, users will benefit from this "mobile first" design principle. The discipline
required to deliver rich applications on mobile devices is more likely to deliver a
simple and therefore more engaging user experience.
Make it easy to switch between different tools and devices. Users are likely to have
multiple devices at their disposal and will expect to be able to switch between them
while working. The IT department will have limited control over what devices are
used, so must allow for heterogeneity. File synchronization, mobile versions of
enterprise apps, cloud-based servers, data repositories and common data formats
will make this easier.
Beware of creating silos, where the people using apps made for iPads, for example,
become isolated from those using other devices. BYOD initiatives should include
cross-device common app frameworks for the most important functionality.
Mobile applications provide users with the possibility of new ways
to collaborate
This third-level impact builds on the new collaborative possibilities stemming from the use
of smartphones and tablets, to create entirely new ways of working, or servicing new
constituencies. Especially when combined with the other nexus forces (cloud and
information), mobility and social collaboration can create new business possibilities and
transform existing models (see "Social and the Nexus of Forces: Supporting People's
Interactions" ).
Mobility traditionally allows mobile workers to "phone home" to the office, providing an
extension of existing models (as described in the first-level impact). However, when all
participants are mobile, it can create new ways of working. For example, field service
workers can use mobile devices to reach data repositories or support personnel back at the
office (first- and second-level impacts). However, they can also reach each other using a
mobile social network to engage other experienced engineers to solve problems or
coordinate activities on the fly. This third-level impact not only makes engineers more
effective, it also requires fewer support personnel back at the office.
In this impact level, enterprises use or build mobile apps in novel ways that have not been
seen before. Workers on factory, restaurant, hospital or retail store floors who previously
had little contact with each other, or the rest of the organization, will get access to
information and colleagues through their own mobile devices for the first time. Physical
workplaces will be designed around mobile capabilities.
Recommendations:
Enterprises need to be open to innovative ways of working together, sparked by
new devices that employees, partners or customers develop.
Opportunities are likely to be found in areas where access to information and new
interaction methods — made possible by smartphones and tablets — intersect with
customer interactions or other operational areas.
Case Study
InterPortPolice — a global law enforcement association comprised of airport and seaport
police and public safety jurisdictions — has deployed a mobile enterprise social network
based on Tibco Software's tibbr platform. Police and security officers rarely spend time in
front of a desktop computer, so mobile devices are the primary form of access. As well as
a lightweight mobile enterprise social network that connects people in the seaports and
airports, InterPortPolice uses geolocation facilities and live data streams — from objects
such as ships, containers and airplanes — to push vital information to officers in the field.
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Recommended Reading
Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.
"Secure Low-Cost Data Sharing and Collaboration With iPad"
"The Impact of Mobile and Social on User Experience Design Metaphors"
"Tablets and Smartphones Are Changing How Content Is Created, Consumed and
Delivered"
"Don't Fall for the Myth of the Converged Mobile Device"
"Predicts 2012: The Rising Force of Social Networking and Collaboration Services"
"Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management Software"
"Fit Mobility Into a Multichannel and Multiplatform Strategy"
"Mobility for Enterprise 3CS: At The Tipping Point"
Strategic Planning Assumption
By 2016, most collaboration applications will be equally available on desktops, mobile
phones, tablets and browsers.
Evidence
1
Marshall McLuhan, "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man," McGraw-Hill, 1964
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