Enterprise Applications Blog

In previous blog I covered applications for small business. In this one, I will express thoughts on the evolution of applications for larger enterprises. There are already several great applications and more applications continue to come, as developers are seeing the great opportunity in mobile space. If there is a general rule to how these applications are marketed, they are generally presented “cross-functionally” – that is to try to address as broad a market as possible.
If you look at customers, they often purchase with more of a vertical viewpoint though and in particular often have very specific needs for their users. Most ISVs have responded to that to an extent—they often focus on a few verticals, with marketing materials and information focused on those segments.

In addition, over the past few years I have seen ISVs do an effective job of providing better customization capabilities for their customers and providing more vertical specific features for segment, like templates specifically designed for the vertical. However, as the market gets more crowded with solutions, I think it will be important for ISVs to create applications even more tailored for their customers in their particular vertical segment. I think ISVs have kind of been ahead of customer needs as customers have moved beyond voice and mobile email to begin deploying applications. However, now that application usage is increasing and customers have clearly ideas on the features and functionality important to them, it is vital ISVs have open communication channel from them and work hard to respond to their requirements.

What specific actions should ISVs consider to get the voice of the customer? First, I like the fact that I see more mobile ISVs sponsor events and road shows. Not only is that great for marketing and sales, but I have found customers are often very free with their feedback when they get the chance. Additionally, if ISV does not have any kind of a customer board or some method for formal interactions with their customers to keep them satisfied, they are missing out. To get more bulk feedback, it is really easy to do surveys now through on-line tools and email blasts (ideally, separating by vertical and customer size, with attention on what features are most important. As the enterprise application market matures, it is more important than ever that ISVs get closer to their customers.

As I mentioned in first blog, if the rest of my blog is not interesting or controversial enough to spur comments, I wanted to include some general information also. I am a TV junkie. For this one, below are the TV shows I am enjoying the most this fall:
• Chuck: This remains entertaining, with a good combination of action and comedy
• Dancing with the Stars: I am reality show junkie in general, but not sure why I like this. I love Cloris Leachman this year, a riot.
• Heroes: Not as great as the first season, but better than last season
• Biggest Loser: See reality comment above, this show always has compelling contestants
• My Name is Earl: Very funny show, not sure why it is not more popular
• 30 Rock: Only one episode so far, but off to funny start
• Dexter: Well done, compelling show, remains creepy
• Amazing Race: Always a well produced reality show with great locations like Cambodia and fascinating challenges
• The Shield: Final season has been great.
• Life on Mars: The Sci-Fi elements here are not well-handled, but the 70’s stories are great and acting is top notch.
• Sons of Anarchy: I did not think I would like this show, but it is really fun to watch.
• Rock of Love, Charm School: I would not be honest if I did not mention one of the trashy reality shows I watch. There is no justification for this, but I watch every ridiculous variation on these VH1 shows.

Hello and I would like to welcome everyone to the first Enterprise Applications’ Blog.  devCentral is adding blogs to our site to put more of a face on program and to have more regular communication with our community.  We really hope people add comments to blogs or ask questions.  I am with the enterprise and small business side of devCentral and this blog will cover issues that I hope are of interest to corporate developers and those developer applications to sell into the enterprise.  I will also add make comments on other items of general interest                          

For this first blog, I thought I would address applications focused on the small business segment.  For those that do not know, AT&T has made this segment a focus in the past couple of years.   Anyone familiar with this space knows this is a challenging segment to sell into or support.  Most of these businesses have limited IT support which makes it difficult to deploy and manage complex applications.  However, as we have found through research and focus groups in this space, they also have sophisticated needs and are interested in using wireless services to increase their productivity.

Obviously, mobile applications can help these small businesses increase productivity in several ways.  For those with field workers like HVAC, mobile applications can provide work orders or provide location assistance to find their next job.  For small companies focused on home health care, mobile applications can provide some background on person being helped and provide checklist of work they need to do.  The problem is not that these customers are satisfied with existing solutions, but rather a combination of how to educate them about improving their processes through mobile applications and then making these applications simple enough for them to use.

If we look at existing portfolio of certified solutions, there are several excellent applications across all verticals.  However, due to the efforts for ISVs to add as much functionality and extensibility to applications to reach as many customers as possible, they are often very complex.  Often times a small business may try to deploy one then give up in first 15-30 days.  Additionally, as a business strategy for ISVs, it is easier to sell 200 licenses to one company rather than 10 licenses to 20 smaller businesses, so having more complex applications and marketing strategy to larger firms makes sense. 

However, the opportunity for ISVs to sell into the small business space is huge and AT&T is going to try to help.  We recently sent out an RFI looking for co-marketing partners and sent out another email to ISVs with desktop apps selling to small business and looking to mobilize.  We are also talking to other ISV partners about simplifying their applications to have a small business version.  We are often asked what applications we think will succeed.  For the foreseeable future, my advice to companies would be to study the small business segment and develop an application that is powerful but also easy for less technical users to deploy and manage.

For the general interest part of blog, I will probably cover issues around my big interest in TV and sports.  For this one, you will see my choices for the NFL.  I have the advantage of seeing a couple of weeks of NFL action, but it is still early.  My predictions:  NFC East:  Dallas; NFC North:  Green Bay; NFC West: Seattle; NFC South:  Carolina; NFC Wildcard #1: NY Giants; NFC Wildcard #2:  Chicago; NFC conference champion:  Dallas; AFC East:  Buffalo; AFC North: Pittsburgh; AFC West: Denver; AFC South: Indianapolis; AFC Wildcard #1: New England; NFC Wildcard #2: San Diego;  AFC Conference champion: Indianapolis; Super Bowl Champion:  Dallas