Mobile Expert Interview: Cognizant's Bibhakar Pandey

In the world of mobile security solutions there are cloud-based, on-premise, off-the-shelf apps and bespoke (custom for North Americans) solutions that can be tailored to an enterprise's unique requirements.  In this segment of our Mobile Expert Interview series I interview mobility expert Bibhakar Pandey on how his TruMobi venture at Cognizant approaches mobility.  Bibhakar proposes that mobility should be approached holistically and with the enterprise's mobile strategy in mind rather than by analyst created categories. Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/8mBdEKTKbhw?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw



Watch more Mobile Expert Interviews here -  http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-videos.html.
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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Growth of Cloud-Based Mobile Platforms

This morning I was reviewing the preliminary results of my "State of Enterprise Mobility 2013" survey.  Over 210 people have now completed it.  Thank You!!!!! The results are very interesting and point to many changes in perceptions and preferences year-over-year.  Stay tuned here for the complete and final results soon.

I was surprised to see that 34.7% of participants now prefer cloud-based mobile platforms.  That is especially meaningful when you consider 23% don't even use a mobile platform.  If my math is right, 45% of those that use or want to use a mobile platform prefer a cloud-based platform.  That is meaningful.

On the topic of mobile security, 42.7% of survey participants prefer a cloud-based mobile security platform.  Since 10.7% don't choose to use mobile security platforms, that means 48% of those that do or plan to use a mobile security platform prefer a cloud-based one.

Please add your thoughts and opinions to this quick survey here: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e81h7ar7hklpypms/start

The preliminary results definitely show a growing preference for cloud-based platforms.  That is good news for cloud-based mobile platform companies like www.FeedHenry.com.  FeedHenry is specifically designed for cloud-based enterprise mobility deployments.  I recently had the opportunity to interview Steve Drake, VP of Business Development at FeedHenry.  You may remember his work at IDC over the past 16 years where he built up their mobility and telecom practice.

The focus of FeedHenry is to provide the next generation, cloud-based mobile enterprise application solution that simplifies the development, deployment and management of mobile apps for enterprises. They believe they have a better platform, that is more flexible and agile than heavy on-premise competitors.  They also believe their pricing is much more rational and better suited to a cloud-based environment than other vendors with a primary focus of on-premise platform deployments.

FeedHenry is popular with telecoms and they have big channel partners in Telefonica and O2.

They also believe there is a big difference between platforms designed from the ground up for on-premise and from the sky-down for cloud.  Their platforms are designed for cloud-based environments, which is a good place to be based upon my survey data.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict on Saving Money by Implementing Enterprise Mobility

In this short video, recorded last week in Sydney, Australia, I discuss how investing in enterprise mobility solutions can save you money and capture more sales. Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/WFU627n98ag

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Personal SMAC Strategies in Action!!

I took inventory of my personal SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) environment this morning while sitting in a coffee shop next to the Boise river.  On Tuesday I recorded and published my first Google+ Hangout On Air.  I interviewed mobility expert Bob Egan using our MacBook Pro video cameras and Hangout On Air, YouTube streamed it live and then automatically posted the recorded version to my YouTube channel.  Wow!  Implementing SMAC strategies, even at the micro-level, is empowering!

Boise foothills

I am reading a book on military strategies now called Maneuver.  In this book it identifies "force projection" as one of the benefits of workforce mobility and maneuvering.  Force projection means the ability to extend one's influence over great distances.  This is often enabled through the strategic use of high tech assets.  I would add to that personal SMAC assets.

While sitting in my office in beautiful Boise, Idaho, I used a social platform, Google+, their social collaboration and web conferencing platform Hangout, plus its integration with YouTube (Hangout On Air) to stream live all around the globe.  The cost of all these capabilities - free!

That is cost effective "force projection" from Boise and Cape Cod.  Bob and I were able to share our experiences worldwide using cloud based tools.  These tools are all connected to Google Analytics, Blogger Analytics, YouTube Analytics, etc.  Google+, Hangout, YouTube and Blogger all have mobile apps.  Our work was all mobilized without any effort on our part.  These kinds of tools allow even the smallest businesses to expand and project their force/influence globally.

I am spending much of my time these days discussing mobile and SMAC strategies with business leaders.  If I, sitting in my little office in Boise, Idaho, can benefit from SMAC strategies, just think how large multinational companies can!

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Banking, Mobile Payments and Digital Transformations

I read with interest (no pun intended) an article today titled, The Future of Mobile Payments and Banking, from Cognizant's banking and financial services expert Tony Virdi.  In the article he identifies a number of mobile and digital trends he is seeing in 2013 including:

• Changing consumers behaviors and demands are driving transformation within the banking and payment processing industries
• The volume of digital (mobile and Internet) banking transactions is growing exponentially
• The role of the bank as a physical venue or outlet has changed as most transactions are moving online or mobile
• Digital bankers [I read mobile/Internet bankers] are rapidly becoming the new power base
• Retail banks are increasingly dedicating discretionary budgets to investments in digital solutions
• Banks can increase their wallet share and income by offering more and better digital services
• Banks are increasingly focused on m-commerce as a means of both providing better customer service as well as enhancing their top lines
• Smartphones are now payment acceptance device (via Square, PayPal, etc), which reduce the time to bring on board new merchants and also reduces the cost of transaction
• Customers expect to instantly personalize banking products (via mobile apps and the Internet)
• More UK online shoppers are using debit cards than credit cards in 2013 according to the UK Cards Association.  That is a significant industry change that banks need to ponder.
• New mobile payment services will enable instant, secure payments from bank accounts via apps, bridging ecommerce, mCommerce and extending into payments made directly in a retail environment
• New UK service in 2014 to enable people to send money via smartphone to anyone holding a bank account in one of eight participating banks. Payments will be routed via their mobile number linked to their sort code and account number in a database. 
• Smartphones used as payment acceptance devices provide an entirely new platform for loyalty-based programs to be developed and implemented

For more on digital transformations in the banking industry read http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2013/07/banks-mobile-technologies-and-smac-part.html.


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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.