Gopi Latpate

1. By Gopi Latpate : Attain independence with your IBM TRIRIGA Mobility Solution There has been a running debate on how to define a “real” Mobility solution for IBM TRIRIGA – do we depend on UI/UX framework or on commercially available solutions? UI/UX solution is a good platform solution that serves as an extension of the desktop TRIRIGA solution but definitely has its limitations particularly for offline capabilities and keeping development costs in check. Mobility solutions need to operate offline and to leverage the native capabilities of the mobile device and platform. Based on our interaction with a variety of customers, we found some key challenges in evaluating the IBM mobility technology options. Vendor or System Integrator dependence: A genuine concern, as you consider your mobility options, is being locked into a vendor for the life of the product. Once you go live, how do you implement minor customizations or fix any application-related issues (major or minor)? Most vendors or system integrators require a contractual relationship, irrespective of the service quality level or turnaround time. Technology Scalability : Most of the available mobile applications are restrictive in terms of technology, vision and cost. For instance, the customer cannot manage the product in-house due to lack of access to the custom source code. Minor functional enhancements can get very expensive. The currently available mobility solutions were developed using custom code and not on cutting edge open source platforms. IBM TRIRIGA product expertise : Mere mobility first solutions may not help much since they create a good front end but integration with TRIRIGA business processes is the key. Partnering with an IBM TRIRIGA expert is a prerequisite for any IBM TRIRIGA mobility consideration. Unfortunately most of the mobile application vendors do not have expert knowledge on IBM TRIRIGA or its processes. How can we help? Having executed multiple IBM TRIRIGA implementations, ValuD knows and anticipated the issues faced by customers. Given our in-depth expertise, ValuD designed a mobility solution solely for IBM TRIRIGA. ValuD’s IBM TRIRIGA mobility solution – MobilD, has been developed on true MADP (Mobile Application Development Platform) called Xamarin, an open source platform for developing MobilD. Microsoft acquired Xamarin recently and they made the entire development toolkit free so as to increase the market penetration. Xamarin being a widely known MADP, has thousands of application developer networks that can help organizations to acquire the necessary skills for future development or management. Another key factor is the choice of middleware solution; most current vendors use “proprietary” middleware solution that needs a footprint on one of the TRIRIGA servers. MobilD’s middleware choice is Microsoft Azure which is a hosted solution and does not need any footprint on TRIRIGA servers and can also work with your SaaS solution or on-premise solutions.

2. With the choice of known, widely acclaimed platforms, customers have the flexibility to bring in-house developers who can help manage the deployments after it is in the production system; thereby you don’t feel “stuck” with the mobile vendor. Not only can you eliminate the need for a systems integrator, but can also take advantage of the support of Xamarin’s solid development community network for post-deployment support and enhancements. This will provide you much needed flexibility to maintain and manage your investments in the long run. MobilD solution also does not need any footprint on TRIRIGA side, leverages base TRIRIGA security model and workflow processes. This helps in replicating some of the custom configurations on mobility side – such as adding fields and sections or hiding sections etc.