BYOD offers meaningful benefits, but at the same time it can be a management and security nightmare that can’t be fixed by software alone.

Imagine an employee who gets corporate email on a personal smart phone that’s not managed by IT. Imagine the phone does not have a passcode/ password or has a weak passcode/password. What happens if the phone is left in a taxi or forgotten at the security check at an airport? What if it falls into the wrong hands? The employee’s email could contain your latest proposal, plans for new products, or some other corporate secret. Now think about thousands of unmanaged, unsecured devices connecting to your network. The exposure is unprecedented, and the risks are enormous. What are you going to do about it?

We’ve taken what we’ve learned from 9 years of successful, secure BYOD management and put the most important lessons in a white paper for you titled “BYOD: 6 Essentials for Success“.

Feel free to take a look. We hope you’ll find it useful.

Enjoy!
- Jay Fiore

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Last week a team from DMI attended MWC and we have exciting things to report.
Here is a quick summary of some of our observations and for more details see our SlideShare presentation embedded in this blog below.

•    New devices from Samsung, Nokia, LG, Sony, Asus, HP, Caterpillar, Kyocera, Fujitsu
•    Trends included bigger, smaller and even no screens — and some devices with muscles!
•    Three (!!!) big OS announcements from Mozilla Firefox Mobile, Tizen, and Ubuntu
•    Mobility management including MEAPs, Security, MAMs and more (we love our acronyms)
•    More focus on retail than ever before, including payments, loyalty, mTicketing, and more
•    Cool stuff: robots, surround sound headphones, a “real size” connected city, AR goggles and more

We hope you enjoy this presentation and our observations!

Thanks for reading!

-    Sunny Bajaj, Magnus Jern & Sam Ganga

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At DMI, we’ve built over 1,500 mobile apps for some of the world’s top brands and businesses. Based on that experience, we’d say two key components have to come together for really successful apps: User Experience (UX) design that users fall in love with, and back-end integration that delivers robust functionality. But getting there isn’t always obvious. It’s easy to get off track if you don’t get a good understanding of requirements up front and use an agile development approach that enables you to make adjustments as you go.

Taking a use case approach to define requirements is a good way to keep things real – thinking through the user’s actual experience with the app. How will they open it, what will they want to see first, what will they do next? How about after that?

But trying to map everything out in exquisite detail can be a mistake too. One of the reasons traditional linear development approaches can be extremely expensive and are often doomed to fail is that it’s hard to anticipate the full user experience without getting to see the app come together in your hands. Sometimes it’s best to build the basics and then refine. Collaborative, iterative, short development cycles can enable you to start close, and get closer, rather than start close and veer off track.

These are just a few thoughts – we’ve recently put together a white paper detailing a few more secrets of building great apps. It’s called The Seven Secrets of Building Mobile Apps that Matter. Feel free to take a look. We hope you’ll find it useful.

Enjoy!
- Jay Fiore

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February 15, 2013—Bethesda, MD–DMI, a leading provider of mobile solutions and services for smart devices, announced today that the company will present an innovative management review process for ISO 9001:2008 at this year’s International Conference on ISO 9000, February 18-19, 2013, Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa, San Diego, California.

The proactive management review process laid out by DMI enables companies to capture valuable metrics, understand and respond to trends that impact employees’ day-to-day responsibilities, and more effectively drive continual improvements that reduce inefficiencies. Presenting for DMI will be Beth Leonard, the company’s Corporate Quality Assurance Director.

“Organizations often conduct hurried, reactive annual management reviews for ISO 9001:2008,” said Leonard. “These reviews can be lengthy and cumbersome, and often don’t deliver all the business benefits that they could. A more proactive management review process, with more frequent action team meetings, enables companies to capture valuable metrics, and spot trends that impact ongoing operations. This more sustained, ongoing approach makes the review process a much more valuable management tool.”

According to Jay Sunny Bajaj, DMI’s President and CEO, “At DMI, we take pride in our commitment to innovation and excellence. Thanks to Beth’s leadership, we have earned three key ISO certifications, and have been appraised at CMMI Maturity Level 3 for both services and development. These are achievements that very few companies can match. We are delighted now, to combine our passions for innovation and excellence by offering some insights on ways to enhance the ISO management review process.”

DMI is a leading provider of mobile solutions and services for smart devices. The company’s commitment to excellence in delivery of its Enterprise Mobility and Cybersecurity Solutions, Strategic Consulting, Managed Services, and Application Development, has resulted in dramatic growth and an expanding client base that includes all fifteen U.S. Federal Departments and hundreds of commercial clients. DMI is headquartered in Bethesda MD, with satellite and project offices around the world The Company has been named one of the 50 Best Places to Work in the Washington DC area by the Washington Business Journal, and has been awarded Inc. Magazine’s Hire Power Award as one of the top 100 Private Job Creators in the US.

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NEW YORK, NY and BETHESDA, MD — Feb. 13, 2013 — GLOBO (LSE:AIM: GBO), an international leader and technology innovator delivering mobile, SaaS and telecom software products and services, and Digital Management, Inc. (DMI), a global leader in managed mobility services and mobile app development, today announced a partnership providing 24x7x365 customer help and technical support to GLOBO enterprise customers. The new partnership will enable GLOBO to better serve and expand its growing U.S. business by delivering top-quality service and support to the company’s North American enterprise customers.

GLOBO with its GO!Enterprise platform, offers a complete, fully-secure mobility solution for enterprises and small to medium-sized businesses that need to mobilize their business operations to enhance productivity and to implement a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program.

GO!Enterprise is the comprehensive Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) platform that covers all aspects of enterprise mobility including productivity and collaboration suite, development and management of business apps, and uncompromised implementations of BYOD strategy and policies.

DMI, through its subsidiary, Mission Critical Wireless (MCW), delivers a comprehensive set of managed mobility services, including 24×7 mobile help desk support, application management and device management services. MCW services ensure a seamless experience for user and IT support, system administration, monitoring and maintenance that results in improved uptime, and enhanced performance and security.

“As today’s technology savvy businesses provide their employees with smartphones and tablets, MCW will be a trusted source to support business customers using GO!Enterprise’s mobility software on a vast array of devices and operating systems,” said Costis Papadimitrakopoulos, GLOBO’s CEO. “2013 will be a historic year for GLOBO and this strategic partnership continues to solidify us as an industry leader in the enterprise mobility sector.”

“Today’s announcement with international enterprise mobility leader GLOBO represents a powerful opportunity for DMI and MCW to expand our exposure to a variety of mobile offerings,” said Dan Croft, CEO of Mission Critical Wireless. “Not only does the partnership enable us to focus our combined energies to deliver industry-leading mobile management solutions, but it reinforces our commitment to support a broad range of the world’s leading mobility management solutions.”

About GLOBO

GLOBO PLC (LSE-AIM:GBO), is an international leader and technology innovator delivering mobile, SaaS and telecom software products and services. GLOBO has established itself as one of the market leaders in the ICT market, offering a wide range of products and services to the corporate, public and consumer markets. The Group operates internationally through subsidiaries and offices in US, UK, Europe, Middle East and South East Asia. For more information visit the company’s website at www.globoplc.com.

About DMI

DMI is a leading provider of mobile solutions and services for smart devices. Our commitment to excellence in Enterprise Mobility and Cybersecurity Solutions, Strategic Consulting, Managed Services, and Application Development has resulted in dramatic growth and an expanding global client base that includes hundreds of commercial clients and all fifteen U.S. Federal Departments. Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, we have offices in New York, Barcelona, Chicago, Pune, London, and Washington D.C. We’ve been named one of the 50 Best Places to Work in the Washington DC area by the Washington Business Journal, and we were recently awarded Inc. Magazine’s Hire Power Award as one of the Top 100 Job Creators in the United States. For more information visit the company’s website at www.DMInc.com.</>

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BELLEVUE, Wash. — Feb. 12, 2013 — T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced the addition of new hosted and on-premise MobileIron mobile device management (MDM) services to its solution portfolio. Aimed at making it easier for businesses of all sizes to manage and secure mobile devices, content and mobile applications running on different operating systems, the new MDM options from T-Mobile offer customers the flexibility to select the services that best fit the needs of their business.

In a November 2011 Gerson Lehrman survey of chief information officers (CIOs), only 60 percent of respondents noted the challenges associated with increasing data usage versus the 90 percent in the same survey completed in November 2012(1). And, as data usage and bring your own device (BYOD) policies and programs increase, security continues to be a challenge and concern for CIOs. This year, 82 percent of respondents noted data security as a concern versus 80 percent last year. As a result, mobile enterprise management (MEM) and mobile device management (MDM) solutions have continued to see significant growth(2).

“Mobile enterprise management, particularly MDM, is poised for significant growth over the next few years, with mobile devices – whether personal or business – becoming ubiquitous in the business environment,” said Stephen Drake, Program VP, Mobile Enterprise, IDC. “As a result, companies are looking for ways to both manage these mobile devices and mitigate possible security risks. Simultaneously, mobile operators, like T-Mobile, are continuing to assess their mobile enterprise offerings in an effort to help companies find their ‘best fit’ and allow them to deploy solutions quickly and cost effectively.”

For those customers selecting a comprehensive around-the-clock managed service and mobile helpdesk support, T-Mobile has partnered with Mission Critical Wireless (MCW), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Digital Management, Inc. (DMI). With hundreds of successful mobile implementations and more than 500,000 devices and users under management, MCW can deliver the system management and administration T-Mobile business customers require.

Dan Croft, president of MCW said, “We have built a very strong track record managing mobile environments and supporting thousands of users for some of the world’s largest enterprises. T-Mobile customers can depend on us to deliver a high-quality user experience and keep their mobile IT environments running smoothly and securely.”

“As business mobilizes, organizations often must support multiple operating systems, secure enterprise data on both corporate and employee-owned devices, and build and deliver mobile applications. However, many of these organizations are at a crossroads on how to address security and device management efficiently and cost effectively,” said Frank Sickinger, T-Mobile’s Senior Vice President of B2B. “With these new MobileIron service options, T-Mobile is offering our B2B customers more than industry-leading real-time intelligence and control over mobile content, activity and applications. We are providing flexibility and choice.”

In 2012, market research advisory firm IDC recognized MobileIron as having the largest market share of any pure play mobile enterprise management (MEM) software vendor in 2010-2011. IDC also recognized MobileIron as the fastest growing MEM vendor in the world, with a growth rate of 421.4 percent in 2011(3).

Availability

T-Mobile’s Mobile Iron MDM is now available. For more information, contact a T-Mobile B2B representative or visit http://business.t-mobile.com/corporate.

1 Gerson Lehrman Group Tech, “Wireless Communications – IT Opinions,” Media & Telecom Survey, November 29, 2012
2 IDC, “Worldwide Mobile Enterprise Management Software 2012 — 2016 Forecast and Analysis and 2011 Vendor Shares”, #236835, September 2012.
3 IDC, “Worldwide Mobile Enterprise Management Software 2012 — 2016 Forecast and Analysis and 2011 Vendor Shares”, #236835, September 2012.

About T-Mobile USA

Based in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile USA, Inc. is the U.S. wireless operation of Deutsche Telekom AG (OTCQX: DTEGY). By the end of the third quarter of 2012, approximately 131 million mobile customers were served by the mobile communication segments of the Deutsche Telekom group — 33.3 million by T-Mobile USA — all via a common technology platform based on GSM and UMTS and additionally HSPA+ 21/HSPA+ 42. T-Mobile USA’s innovative wireless products and services help empower people to connect to those who matter most. Multiple independent research studies continue to rank T-Mobile USA among the highest in numerous regions throughout the U.S. in wireless customer care and call quality. For more information, please visit http://www.T-Mobile.com. T-Mobile is a federally registered trademark of Deutsche Telekom AG. For further information on Deutsche Telekom, please visit www.telekom.de/investor-relations.

# # #

Media Contact for DMI:

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BETHESDA, Md., Jan. 29, 2013 — DMI, a leading IT solutions and business strategy consulting firm, today announced it has won a two-year Task Order to provide Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Support for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) legacy Alien Criminal Response Information Management (ACRIMe) System.

The legacy ACRIMe system directly supports the ICE mission as the primary system used by ICE Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) specialists to provide immigration status, identity information, and real-time assistance to law enforcement agencies requesting assistance with identifying aliens suspected, arrested, or convicted of criminal activity. The mission-critical legacy ACRIMe system must be available 24x7x365 to provide rapid response to queries from the Federal, state, and local law enforcement community. Without timely responses, criminal aliens could be unknowingly released from custody and endanger public safety or national security.

Under the contract, DMI will provide:

• Tier 2 and Tier 3 Support for the legacy ACRIMe system including software maintenance, updates to system documentation, and execution of change and enhancement requests.
• Operational support for system interfaces and data sources, database, reporting, system tuning, and system administration.
• Application-level configuration management for all O&M changes made to the system.

The service DMI will provide will help ICE meet congressionally mandated requirements for national security and community safety.

“We are honored to have been selected by ICE to operate, maintain and enhance a system which is so vital to U.S. homeland security and public safety,” said Jay Sunny Bajaj, DMI’s President and CEO. “We are proud of the rock-solid reputation we have built operating and maintaining mission-critical systems for many Federal agencies, including the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of Agriculture and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We look forward to working with ICE and continuing to build on our record of impeccable reliability and service.”

DMI is a leading IT solutions and business strategy consulting firm focused on providing industry-leading solutions for Enterprise Mobility and Cybersecurity, and services in Strategic Consulting, Managed IT Services, and Application Development. Our commitment to superior services and solutions has resulted in dramatic growth and an expanding client base that includes all of the 15 U.S. Cabinet-Level Departments, more than 40 Federal Agencies, and hundreds of commercial clients. Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, DMI has been named one of the 50 Best Places to Work in the Washington, D.C. area by the Washington Business Journal.

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Looking back, she achieved a total of 214.334 downloads and 1.015.602 active sessions in Sweden over her lifetime – a respectful achievement for a Java app!

As she now retires, we wish her a peaceful rest.

In her honor, we here present what it looked like when it was launched on the Sony-Ericsson K800.

Magnus Jern

The post Arla Cookbook Mobile App retired after 6 years appeared first on DMI.

When we bench-marked the Facebook iPhone app with the Android app about a year ago the a quick comparison originally revealed that even companies with massive development teams such as Facebook failed to develop an Android app that was anywhere close to the iPhone equivalent. At the time there was nothing that was better than the iPhone app. Icons look old, not correctly sized and the color schemes were not consistent with the Facebook website or Android design, search required two
 clicks instead of one as for iOS and in notifications, links opened up the browser.

Since then the Android Facebook app has vastly improved but it’s still behind iOS. So, why is there such a big difference? Is this simply because Apple is so brilliant in terms of design? But why would Google with their simplicity and great usability across most online services not be able to take their skills to the mobile? Is there another explanation?

To answer the question we’ve looked at 3 different factors including the SDKs, the developers and the expectations.

1. SDKs and approval process
The iPhone SDK was initially developed with one main thing in mind. Control of the user experience by Apple. By providing a framework for developing “standard” looking UIs Apple, Google on the other hand took a much more liberal approach with Android arguing that developers should have total freedom in almost everything they do. Although Apple have loosened up requirements since the results of the original approach is still very obvious.

2. The developers
This is going to be a sensitive one but the truth is that most iPhone developers are originally web designers / developers with HTML, Java Script, CSS and maybe flash experience. They are usually not hard core coders. This means that they are generally more focused on the finish of a product. Most Android
developers on the other hand are Java developers with a background from server side development, coding of PC applications and other fairly deep coding experiences. Apple made iPhone development as easy as Microsoft made PC development with Visual Basic which means that the creative and design centric people can make their own apps without deep coding knowledge.

3. Expectations
In addition to this there are different expectations from users. Historically Apple customers have been more interested in fashion and design whereas Android originally had a perception of being more techie. With both operating systems now reaching a much wider audience this is no longer true but maybe the expectations are still different between users. Despite the big differences between the iPhone version and Android version of the same apps they usually have similar or better rating on Android.

So does it have to be this way?
The answer is simply NO. The Android operating system has the same capabilities as iPhone to create great looking apps even though the UI framework doesn’t go as far. The only people to blame for the deficiencies in Android apps are the individuals and businesses developing the apps. Don’t compromise and the results speak for themselves.

Jimmy Nordbeck

The post Why do iPhone apps look so much better than Android apps? appeared first on DMI.

In most cases the process in the conversion between a source and a translator format is a manual one and as bad as copying and pasting. This as well as sending the spreadsheets back and forth which is done via emails and attachments and holds a high risk of errors… and is a boring task for the developers!

When we were facing a roll-out of more than 80 applications for European Directories (the Yellow Pages across 8 countries), we saw the problems coming. We had a combination of 6 apps for 8 countries on 5 platforms. Each app contains more than 300 string resources, which had to be translated into the native language for each country. Quite a lot of resources and properties to manage!

I started to analyze the requirements of a tool, and wanted the following features:

• A web application, so that the translator can log in to the same service as the developers, in order to reduce e-mails and conversions
• Separation between translated data and platform resource file formats, i.e. the possibility to export your resources to any formats
• Configuring subsets or variants of resources, to allow using the same database for different variants of the applications
• Available for all software projects, not only open-source, Linux or Mozilla projects, but also commercial projects
• Suitable for both server-side and mobile application development

As I did not find such a solution for commercial use, I started developing a new tool from scratch.

I first deployed the Translation Management tool Ricotta version 1 to AppEngine in January 2011 and since then we’ve continued to update it.

http://ricotta-ost.appspot.com/

Ricotta handles a number of projects, so anyone can create a database for their project. Each project has one or more users, each with a role being Owner, Developer, Translator or Viewer.

A string or resource that you would want to handle is called a Token. Each token has a name, which is the reference in your code. Further, a token has a translated value for each language you support in your project. If you do not provide a translated value for a certain value, you can have the default language being exported if you wish.

You can also upload screen-shots of your views and group your tokens to screen shots. This is called the Context of the token, which helps the translators and developers to understand where the token appears in the application.

For each platform, there is also a template, which makes sure all resources are converted into the right format. If you cannot find a suitable template for your platform or project, you can add one to Ricotta.

For maven-based projects, there is also a maven-plugin, which helps you download the resource files in the right variant to the correct path in your source folder structure.

The Ricotta project is open-source, and hosted on Atlassian’s BitBucket. You can check out the code from http://bitbucket.org/f94os/ricotta-ost/

The SCM chosen is Mercurial, which is a distributed versioning system similar to Git.

Currently, the Ricotta project is looking for more designers and developers who want to contribute. For any questions, please contact us.

Ola Sandstrom

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