IT chiefs urged to nail enterprise app strategy

Define mobile app strategy or get left behind, IT leaders warned

IT leaders have been urged to put scepticism about mobile apps aside and start making strategic decisions about their app strategies, before they get left behind.

While many emerging technologies are overhyped, the buzz around mobile apps is justified, according to Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner.

“Many are wondering if the app frenzy we have been witnessing is just a fashion, and, like many others, will pass. We do not think so,” she said.

Gartner is predicting that the number of apps being downloaded for all platforms in 2011 will more than double, compared with 2010.

And emergence of apps is indicative of how mobile technology has become a “game-changer” for the IT leader, according to Jonathan Reichental, CIO at O’Reilly Media.

“By now it's clear that mobile is the new global frontier for computing,” he wrote in a blog post today.

“Unlike many other emerging technologies where an immediate strategy is not a concern, mobile is front and centre to strategies for engaging users and customers,” he said.

“This requires new thinking with regard to how data is accessed and presented, how applications are architected, how talent is brought on board, and how companies can meet the increasingly high expectations of users.”

Elsewhere, analyst group IDC reported that the increasing importance of apps is forcing IT chiefs to examine which platforms to support, the development skills they need and how to architect enterprise apps.

IT leaders should already be identifying how geolocation, near-field communications and sensors can be integrated into business apps, said Reichental.