#BYOD and iPad Love #itlove

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The CEO of LinkedIn just gave each of the employees at that company an iPad Mini in appreciation for their accomplishments. That gift not only boosts morale,  but it also makes a lot of sense from an IT management perspective. Think about it. More and more employees are bringing their own devices to work (BYOD). Tablets, like the iPad, are increasingly being used for work that had once been done on laptops. That’s because employees want their experience with technology they use at work to be as satisfying as their experience with the technology they use for their personal business.

BYOD is not going away so IT should embrace it, even though this trend has some challenges. The use of personally owned devices introduces security risks and can drive up the load on the service desk as more employees expect their personal devices to be supported. IT needs to be able to manage personal devices with the same rigor as corporate-owned devices. Mobile device management technology can be used to gather and maintain information about personal devices. This includes having details about the device type, configuration, which apps and data are used for business, who owns it, and so on. The mobile device management technology should be able to control access to corporate applications and data based on the user’s role. It should also be able to integrate personal devices with the IT service management (ITSM) solutions used to manage them.

It is important that as part of the process of determining the exact policies for personally owned devices that IT shows the end user some   #ITLOVE by including them in the decision making process.

A well-planned BYOD policy that is backed by effective technology lets IT embrace the inevitable.  IT can do so without putting the organization at risk, allowing employees to be productive with the device of their choice.

If you are interested in more of my views on BYOD you can find an Industry Insight Article that I wrote for BMC Software (no registration required) here: (http://documents.bmc.com/products/documents/35/61/283561/283561.pdf) [Note external link back to bmc.com]

 

Blackberry 10 and the social, mobile, me. #BB10 #COIT #BYOD

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I recently attended the Blackberry 10 launch event in NYC where Blackberry unveiled their new operating system and two new phones, the Z10 (pronounced zed-ten) and the Q10, on January 30th. You can find a live-stream replay about Blackberry 10 and how it’s impacting the personal and business lives of people all over the world here.

At the conclusion of the event, Blackberry performed an Oprah moment where all the attendees at the NYC event were given a specially boxed Z10 to take home.

At the time of writing, I had just over 24 hours of hands-on time with the Blackberry 10 OS and Z10 device since the event and I must say I am impressed. Blackberry 10 is a huge leap forward in the consumerization of IT and bring-your-own-technology trends.

For me, there are three key features in Blackberry 10 that fundamentally support the advancements of these trends:

  1. Blackberry HUB
  2. Blackberry Balance
  3. Blackberry Remember

In just 24 hours, the Blackberry HUB has given me a preview of a fundamentally new way to stay connected with colleagues, friends, followers, and other contacts.  Blackberry HUB provides a single, integrated view where I can see all the messages and conversations I am involved in across my personal and professional channels.  HUB builds on an older Blackberry feature where you can view all your interactions with  a contact—but it now also extends to social platforms. I really enjoy the ability to peek into the HUB with a simple on-screen gesture and not have to completely exit my current app. HUB is an excellent example of how the social-mobile-anytime-anywhere generation can remain connected and productive simultaneously.

While I’ve been unable to test out Blackberry Balance in the short-time that I’ve had the device, the promise of one device for work and play is a very attractive idea. It could go a long way in supporting BYOD trends without the intrusive corporate presence intermixed with personal data, photos, apps, and contacts. Let’s just hope this feature doesn’t turn into the mullet of the device world.

Blackberry Remember is one of the most overlooked and, in my opinion, under-appreciated features of the BB10 eco-system. Blackberry has effectively created a native mobile knowledge locker that allows me to save ideas, notes, etc into  a folder on my device.   Integration with Evernote makes this feature extremely powerful for small group collaboration and idea sharing.

The ability of this platform to be built for the enterprise while embracing the needs of digital natives should not be underestimated by the mobile community. Blackberry is definitely pushing the consumerization of IT envelope with the BB10 OS. While I am not quite ready to give up my iPhone 5, I can’t resist the call of the blinking red LED on the Z10, and I have found myself using this device more and more today for email and social connectivity.

Who’s fault is it anyway? #COIT

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Recently, I have been posting about how social and mobile technologies help reduce friction when I’m travelling. When these apps work, they improve my experience and make me more productive; but when they don’t, things get ugly. I actually get mad at the app, the device, the carrier, and the company providing the service. In some instances, I simply find a better app to do the task and never look back (and that provider ends up losing a customer who may never come back). Other times, I experience a productivity outage. Impact on my blood pressure aside, the productivity outages that I experience can significantly impact my employer and our customers.

Issues with these apps and technologies come in a wide variety of forms: everything from simple crashes to obscure performance and availability issues. Regardless of the type of issue, most of us follow the same diagnostic technique:

  1. Restart the app.
  2. Check social sources to see if anyone else is having the same problem (ask your neighbor, tweet, search, post to Facebook, etc.).
  3. See if you can fix it yourself (again, by using social sources).
  4. Call the support or help desk (and in most instances be asked to restart the app again).

There has to be a better way, especially for corporate apps like email, chat, and the common business services that I access (CRM, knowledge lockers, payroll, etc.).

There are some basic self-service and proactive notification capabilities built into things, like for certain consumer-focused applications via services like downrightnow.com and isitdownrightnow.com.

For enterprise services, there are a lot of solutions for monitoring infrastructure—and more mature organizations will even monitor and report in terms of business services and applications that provide value to the end consumer.

However, when we look at the complexity of determining service availability and performance for mobile apps, we must now take into account device, carrier, local app, network, server, and cloud service issues that may be the root cause of the problem. Enterprise IT departments may need to consider technologies like end-user activity monitoring (EUAM) and end-user experience monitoring (EUEM). My friends @opsleuth and @benoitnewton maintain blogs on these topics.

Unfortunately, this information usually hidden from the end-user.

To reduce friction, enterprise IT departments must explore new delivery models to proactively notify their users about app and service outages (and restorations). Users should be able follow services and apps with which they are interested, and be proactively notified about app outages and restorations. Additionally, they should be able to report issues and share information with their peers.

At BMC, I am working on MyIT, which provides these capabilities along with a wide array of additional simple easy to use consumer like technologies.  You can view a demo here on YouTube, no registration required.

Friction-free Travel — Part 2 #COIT

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In November, I traveled from my home in the Washington, DC metro area to spend a week in Copenhagen and Brussels. This is my story (part 2).

Before I travel to a new city, especially if it is outside the United States, I try to find one or two apps that will come in handy once I’ve arrived. You’d be surprised by the virtual cornucopia of useful apps you can find by simply searching iTunes or Google Play with a city or country name. You can find metro maps, city guides, and other apps that will reduce friction and increase your productivity while traveling. One of my favorite apps is a set of city guides from a company called GuidePal. Integrated offline maps and augmented reality are two of my favorite things!

In Brussels, I met up with my colleague Chris Dancy, and after an incredibly long day of presentations we headed out for dinner. Neither of us had done any research, so we went “old school” and asked the concierge for a recommendation. After all, sometimes you want that Genius Bar type experience with a personal touch. We were handed a paper fold-up map (Chris will swear that it was actually hand drawn on vellum), with an area circled indicating where we could find our (name already forgotten) dinner destination. In the tradition of all tourists that had come before us, we set out PAPER map in hand to find our quarry. After one wrong turn too many, we decided to try the friction-free approach and use an iPhone as our guide. Once we arrived at our destination, we determined that our concierge had sent us to a tourist trap area.

Before mobile apps like Yelp!, we would have been stuck with a stale, out-of-date guide book, or even worse, trying to find a native to give up the secret of his or her favorite local restaurant. Yelp! yielded this information with a few taps—and even though I don’t speak French, I do speak “stars” (as in 4/5 stars and 40+ reviews). Ten minutes later we were seated at a popular local restaurant. A very friction-free (and tasty) experience indeed. The use of location-aware, socially-powered, mobile, easy-to-use technology can go a long way in virtually eliminating friction when you travel.

That said, the real question is why can I fly half way around the world and experience friction-free travel, but I can’t find a conference room or a printer 50 feet away from my office? That, of course, is a post for another day.

Turkey, Devices, and Thanksgiving! #BYOD

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Packing for Thanksgiving travel with two young kids is hard enough.  Making sure I have all the correct technology with me for a five-day trip is nearly impossible.  On my last trip back “home,” I ended up packing eight smart devices for a one-week trip.  Our list for two adults, a 2-1/2 year old and an infant:  two MacBook’s, one iPad3, one Kindle, two iPhone4’s, one 7-inch Android Tablet, and one iPad1 — and yes, we used every single device almost daily on that trip.  Don’t even ask me about the logistics of keeping all of these devices charged.

So for this trip, I’ve really been thinking about what devices I really need to bring to do my job, stay connected, and remain sane.  We decided that this will be a “mobile only” trip — two iPad’s, two phones, and two chargers.   I can do about 90% of all of my work from my iPad3.  The only real work-related task I won’t be able to do is file an expense report.

My IT department is making it easier and easier for me to work in this new environment; we have a mature Mobile Device Management platform, a content locker on my device that stores all of my most recent presentations, cloud-accessible services like Chatter for collaboration and updates and, of course, email.

So what is your device plan for Thanksgiving travel this year?  Does your IT support this type of work environment?  What can they do better?

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Friction free travel in a consumerized world. #COIT

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In November, I traveled from my home in the Washington, DC metro area to spend a week in Copenhagen and Brussels. This is my story (part 1).

When Cunard coined the slogan “getting there is half the fun,” the shipping company obviously never anticipated the hectic business travel that many of us experience on a (sometimes) weekly basis.

From the moment my trip was planned, I kicked into gear to ensure that I would have a low-friction travel experience. Low friction meaning knowing when and where I would be going, where I would be staying, how I would get there, who I’d be meeting with, and how I’d get home—and all the steps in between.

Here at BMC we use an e-travel vendor to plan our travel. For this trip I was able to chose the best flights to get me from IAD to CPH, from CPH to BRU, and finally from BRU to IAD.  My hotels were booked in advance by our events team, so I was locked in on my travel.

Once my trips are ticketed, our IT department uses an automated process of double checking that I have the appropriate calling and data plans attached to my devices—and if I don’t, a service desk ticket is opened automatically for me. Through this process, a huge area of potential friction avoided.

To keep track of my multiple travel itineraries, I utilize TripIt Pro, which automatically syncs my trips with my multiple devices, keeps a copy in cloud, and shares my trip with my wife. TripIt also monitors my trip to keep track of flight statuses, delays, gate changes, etc. This came in handy on my latest trip when Brussels Airlines moved my flight between terminals in Copenhagen—a potentially disastrous interruption was avoided.

Tools like TripIt go a long way in reducing the amount of friction I experience when traveling. I never have to call the airline or stand in line for an agent, and in many instances I have more information available to me than the airline’s employees.

Before I travel to a new location, I check out the destination using Trip Advisor. I am a “Top Contributor” for them and I personally believe that reviews from like-minded users give me the best preview of what I should expect from a hotel, restaurant, or other points of interest. Again, I am removing friction from my travel experience by getting a preview of what to expect when I arrive at my destination. My favorite reviews are the ones that include advice on how to get from the airport to the hotel.

I use an app called UBER to handle ground transportation whenever possible (their mobile technology integration is fantastic). I never have to wonder where my driver is; UBER keeps me updated on that in real time. Then once I arrive at my destination I don’t have to fumble with cash or credit cards  since UBER already has that information on file with no additional signature required; instead, I can keep moving. UBER removes friction at each step in the process: no phone calls, no wondering or waiting on transportation, no waiting on credit card approvals, and at the end of the transaction I get to rate the service I received in real time.

I also use airlines’ mobile apps whenever possible. I am mostly a United Airlines flier, and I think they have one of the BEST mobile apps in the market. The app works well, and effectively improves all areas that it covers. Again, no agents, no lines, no friction.

Overall, while getting to a destination may no longer be half the fun, the technologies available to savvy travelers can go a long way in making the experience much more civil.

In my next post, I’ll detail the technologies I use while on my trips and how those technologies can reduce friction. I’ll also explore some of the devices I choose to take on long trips, as well as the technologies that BMC IT provides me to improve my travel experience.

My Passion, My Work, My Life with #MyIT #COIT

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I’d like to take a small detour from my regular blog to talk about the industry re-defining product that I have been working on.   Just a note that this BLOG is a little more slanted to work…  we will return to our regularly scheduled format next time!

MyIT is personal— it knows who I am, what I do, and where I am.   MyIT knows that I prefer badge notifications on my smart phone, in app notifications on my tablet, and email alerts on my laptop.

MyIT understands where I am and what is going on around me — it knows the layout of the various offices that I visit. It knows how to configure my devices for WiFI without me ever having to interrupt a co-worker or try to decipher smudged handwriting on a whiteboard.

MyIT helps me find available conference rooms, work-areas, printers, copiers, and the other critical IT infrastructure that I rely upon to do my job.

MyIT helps me help myself.   No longer do I have to call the help desk or try to navigate through a service catalog that would make Sears and Roebuck jealous or guess the correct ‘other’ category for my request.

MyIT allows me to report a problem with an app, a piece of hardware, or an entire business service with a simple tap on the screen.

MyIT will schedule in-person or virtual assistance from IT when I am ready — and when I am available.

MyIT gives me direct access to a company curated set of enterprise apps and applications that I can install with ease.

MyIT unlocks the content trapped on my company’s MS SharePoint servers, and gives me access to that content is a secure manner regardless of device type.

MyIT represents a revolutionary shift in the way that everyday users will interact with and depend on their IT departments.

MyIT has become more than a project for me, it is a passion that I have been working on here at BMC Software for some time, and I am excited to be able to share this innovation with you.

Over the next few weeks, I will take you behind the scenes to explore some of the exciting capabilities that we have designed into MyIT.   I am also looking forward to getting your feedback — after all consumerized products must constantly adapt to new consumer needs, new technologies, new expectations, and new ways of doing things.

If you are interested, watch this video depicting what a day in my life might look like with MyIT. (External BMC Software Link)

Trust but Verify… #CoIT

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In my previous post, we discussed the external trends that are pressuring IT departments to consider new applications and services that provide a simple, easy-to-use, consumer-like experience for their business users.

Before IT departments take the plunge, however, they need to partner with the businesses to determine the types of delivery models and platforms they want to use. This discussion should include device types, use policies, access methods, and the needs of the business. After all, you don’t want to develop a mobile-only service and subsequently find out that the business expects 80% of the interaction to come from users on traditional desktop or laptop form factors. Likewise, you don’t want to develop an HTML5 only interface and then discover that the business has employees who require extensive offline capabilities.

As IT departments deliver more freedom thru consumerized and mobile experiences, they will need to trust their users to do the right thing, which for many organizations represents a radical philosophical change. I believe that trust and freedom are the keys to reducing friction, while the balance or verify part of the equation is handled on the governance side. Policies on information use and access need to be updated to take into consideration new device and application ownership profiles (BYOx), and these policies must be effectively communicated to users.

Trust, but verify. While the consumerization of IT services unlocks great freedoms, it also has the potential to be abused by users. IT departments must ensure that they allow appropriate access and control balanced with appropriate policies and management.

 

The Anywhere, Anytime Generation #coit #smac #gartnerSYM

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“Anywhere, anytime, and any device”- It’s the bellwether statement of this generation and pretty much summarizes the massive shift in the way that consumers expect to be able to interact with the friends and companies that they do business with.  Consumers are also increasingly looking for simple self-service options that reduce time spent managing mundane life tasks.   Think about it. When was the last time you stood in line at a bank to withdraw money or called your airline to change a seat on a flight? Increasingly we see social and mobile technologies transforming the way that we orchestrate our daily lives.  Foursquare, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have changed the way that we communicate, share ideas, and interact with one another.    These technologies provide a new playground for individuals and companies to connect, allowing us to literally be anywhere in the world while enjoying an uninterrupted continuity in our relationships and work.

Uber, United Airlines and Bank of America are all examples of companies that have combined the power of mobile technologies with simple self-service options to remove friction from the customer experience.

For example, the United Airlines app allows me to book a flight, change a seat, request an upgrade and see what’s for dinner without having to stand-in-line or call a customer service agent.   Bank of America allows me to check my account balance, transfer money, pay bills and even deposit a check without ever stepping foot into a branch office.  Finally, Uber allows me to request a car-service, instantly know when and where the car is arriving, and pay without ever having to call, wait on hold, or fumble with cash or credit cards when I am in a hurry.

Not all of these examples are exclusive to mobile experiences, in fact the unifying factor here is the elimination of friction and eliminating high cost touch points with the consumer.  It is important for these solutions to leverage the capabilities of the platform to enhance the experience.

More than ever, we see that employees are expecting this same type of consumerized experience when interacting with their own company.  In order to support this experience companies must be willing to invest in their IT departments, and IT departments must be willing to adapt to this new mobile generation.

New applications and service delivery models are needed along with back-end processes that must be standardized and automated to support the real-time nature of user requests.   IT will need to work to deliver personalized, self-service options across their increasingly mobile and socially connected workforce.

Just as these applications and delivery models have the power to deliver new revenue streams externally; they also have similar powers to increase productivity and eliminate employee down time internally.

Simply put, IT departments must work to remove the friction between users and their services and continue to drive towards the same sort of flexibility and freedom enjoyed in their personal lives.

If you are in Orlando and want to meet in person, feel free to stop by BMC Software booth  #1112 Pacific Hall and ask one of our friendly booth workers to schedule an individual meeting or tag me in a tweet @fryfrye and we can meet up!

So what is your ideal consumer experience that you’d like to bring to the enterprise?