Mobilizing the Enterprise

Update 3/21/2011: BGR reports the NTLM authentication issue will be fixed in Apple iOS 4.3.1. Woot!  Keep on SharePointing!

We’ve noticed a new hang with our Moprise and Moshare applications when connecting to an NTLM authenticated SharePoint server. This problem does not expose itself under all configurations but occurs all the time when it does. A fix is in progress.

Connect with us at feedback at Moprise.com or follow & DM us @moprise if you are encountering this and require assistance.

http://mail2web.com/blog/2011/02/iphone-sharepoint-client-applications/

Thanks for the review of our iPad and iPhone SharePoint applications, Ozgur.  It also looks like you have some great prices on cloud based Exchange and SharePoint - making it super easy for anyone to use these powerful business tools without on-premise servers and expenses.

http://www.businessinsider.com/mary-meeker-matt-murphy-2011-2

Yesterday, Mary Meeker & Matt Murphy of KPCB gave their latest presentation on the mobile landscape. Mary covered the huge ecosystem changes in mobile due to the iPhone and the follow on products such as the app store, iPad, and Android.  In fact, smartphones & mobile devices now outsell PCs.  The ways we use PCs - search, gaming, and social - are now moving to mobile. SoLoMo - Social, Local, and Mobile - are the three key attributes elevating mobile devices above tethered PCs as our computer of choice. Advertising, branding, and commerce are all moving mobile and are showing stronger results, perhaps because, on mobile, they are new, differentiated, and interesting.  Overall, Mary presented a dense deck of information and many key mobile and web trends.

However, significantly absent was further insight into the enterprise market and its adoption of mobile. At Moprise, the mobile enterprise has been our focus.

Past enterprise trends

For the past ten years, there have been two driving scenarios for enterprise mobile adoption:

1) Vertical roles - Mobile use in field service, sales, and customer service has been rapid.  We see ruggedized devices used by technicians, policemen, and survey takers on a regular basis.  These devices required an investment in custom hardware and solutions to deliver on operational efficiencies for a heavily repeated set of operations. The return on investment meant hiring fewer people to accomplish more.

2) Email - The broad knowledge worker used devices like RIM and Windows Mobile to access their work email.  In most cases, the phones were corporate owned devices backed by IT supported back office infrastructure for secure access.

The new trends

This is rapidly changing with the introduction of the iPhone and iPad. The new trends we see are:

1) Commoditization of the vertical - many of the bespoke hardware and software platforms are being replaced by more mainstream systems such as consumer phones and tablets.   For example, we see corporate purchased iPads, custom apps, Microsoft SharePoint, and .NET plug-ins being used for new vertical services. iPads are great for viewing technical manuals from a SharePoint server, tracking time and parts used, and presenting the consumer with a receipt for signature and uploading the whole thing back to SharePoint.  In the operations center, the current status of workers can be seen via custom SharePoint dashboards and trucks dispatched by scheduling them on the SharePoint calendar. The base platform (iPad & SharePoint) is much cheaper than fully custom alternatives used in the past. As well, the agility of iPad apps and .NET SharePoint plugins is high with good availability of developers to modify the code as business requirements change.

2) Consumerization of the phone and apps in the workplace - Corporate email access on phones was commoditized with the introduction of iPhone 3GS with Microsoft Exchange support.  This enabled anyone to take their phone to work and easily hook up to standardized corporate email.  Mobile email has enabled the broad knowledge worker to use their phone for work, any time, any place.  While IT often doesn’t directly support this, often they don’t discourage it and allow internal communities to provide support, wikis, and email discussion groups to help their co-workers become more productive by connecting their personal phones to the enterprise.  These broad based communities are now taking the next step by seeking out applications that put more of their business processes onto their phone. We’ve seen huge demand for access to back office infrastructure like SharePoint - which is also a very horizontal platform used by many different roles. SharePoint has grown faster than Exchange and contains 10x more corporate data than email. It is the next obvious choice after Exchange which is why Windows Phone 7 supports SharePoint access and RIM has announced SharePoint plans as well.

Moprise can help you with your enterprise needs

At Moprise, we made it easy for anyone to access SharePoint data using their enterprise credentials via our iPhone and iPad applications. When Moprise accesses SharePoint, it  looks like PC access to an administrator or security manager - they can allow and reject access the same way, independent of the device used.  This also means if you have web browser access to your SharePoint, it will work with our app.  We have kept our app simple so that the most common SharePoint items like documents, calendars, and contacts are easily accessible.  SharePoint on the phone feels like other apps on your phone, so that muscle memory just works when scrolling through SharePoint contacts and dialing phone numbers.  The free app (without advertisements) has read-only support so that corporate data isn’t stored on your phone in a way that hurts the corporations if it gets lost. However, collaboration is easy because you can share links or the actual documents with others via your email account.

For more custom solutions, Moprise has SDK licenses to our product with premier SharePoint consultants who can produce custom SharePoint and mobile combination solutions.

At Moprise, we are continuing to innovate in helping people get mobile access to their co-workers and business in a much deeper way.  If you are interested in our products, register within our apps or drop us an email (info at moprise dot com).

http://www.marioarmstrong.com/2011/01/25/mobilize-sharepoint-with-moprise-for-iphone/

Thanks, Mario, for your post on both our iPhone & iPad apps for SharePoint.

Welcome to 2011 and a new year for Moprise and our blog.  The latest version of our Moprise iPad application for SharePoint has been in Apple’s app store since just before the holidays and we’ve been seeing huge demand and great feedback from our users.

There are a number of updates in the latest version of Moprise for iPad:

1) Configuring your SharePoint URLs was difficult. Typos, incorrectly spelled subsites, and general complexity entering in long URLs confounded our users.  Now you can simply cut/copy/paste a url from your browser into Moprise’s configuration screen. We use that to find the root of your SharePoint and configure it appropriately.

2) Viewing pictures (jpegs) turned out to be especially important for multiple companies needing iPad access to their SharePoint servers.  Faxes, medical images, team events, and  images for product catalogs were stored in picture libraries so we quickly added support for it.  You will see previews of your images along with the file details to make selection and viewing easier.

3) iPads and SharePoint are being used by field service representatives where offline access was important.  Multiple companies have reference manuals or price lists on SharePoint and use iPads to access them in the field.  In certain situations, connectivity was poor so we had requests for offline access to key files.  Hence the new version supports file favorites which are cached on the iPad and available for offline access.  When you move online, we will synchronize the latest files back to the iPad.  The size of the offline cache is also adjustable in the settings menu.

4) Airprint support is now available in the business edition.  This works with the latest HP Photosmart ePrint enabled printers.  Apple and HP have done a really slick job making printing easy without installing and configuring printer drivers. Our customers can easily move between locations and print on their nearest printer.  Earlier blog posts contain more details on Airprint.

I hope you enjoy using Moprise for iPad and iPhone. Please keep the feedback coming.  And we’re wishing you all a great 2011.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/specialty-iphone-apps-business-users-372?page=0,3&source=rs

Moshare, SharePoint for iPhone, was listed in InfoWorld as one of the must have “specialty iPhone apps for business users”.  If your corporation has SharePoint, we know its pretty fundamental to your job and mobile access allows you to get things done while away from your desk.

Thanks, InfoWorld, for thinking of us.

Our next version of our Moprise SharePoint client for iPad now works with AirPrint.  Alan, a new senior developer on the team, had it working in the iPad simulator save for a strange bug where some pages were printing twice.  After reviewing, he knew the code was correct and it was confirmed once we ran against our real HP AirPrint printer. Screen shots of the print dialogs from my iPad are below.  Look for an update soon.

Thanks for sending us feedback and requests. We appreciate hearing the good and bad.

We’ve had many requests from enterprise customers for a printing solution for our mobile apps - they wanted to capture a signature on a paper contract, leave a document with a customer, or take a paper ticket & itinerary to a venue.   Having to boot up a PC just to print seemed as old fashioned as using a typewriter.

So we’re excited about AirPrint in the new iOS 4.2 release as it finally allows applications on the iPhone and iPad to commit their content to paper. Currently AirPrint only works with HP ePrint enabled printers. Eventually, Apple will make available software that AirPrint-enables any printer plugged into a Mac or Windows PC but for now, HP is the sole supplier.   Being on the bleeding edge, we purchased a new HP PhotoSmart multifunction printer (model C410a) for use at the office and to test our AirPrint code.  While things are working in the new iOS 4.2 SDK & simulator, we’re finally able to perform some real world tests and release an updated version of our Moprise apps soon.

SharePoint on the iPhone? You bet!

Thanks, Rob,  for your review of Moprise’s SharePoint client for iPhone.  We focused on mobile access and sharing to minimize complexity within the application.  Glad you noticed the “New” bubble so that you don’t have to search for what has changed.  Our new Moprise app for iPad concentrates on documents and allows for sharing and editing.