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Mobility and its Shadows, CIOs better be equipped

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Abhigna
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BANGALORE, INDIA: Veni. Vedi.Vici. But no one tells what happens after someone conquers a landscape. Do they retreat or do they enslave without logic or do they re-invent everything in their own ways?

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Mobility seems to be just one of those attacks that refused to take a reverse gear since the day it eyed enterprise empires. What's fascinating is the way it has sometimes stayed as an inconsequential-looking catalyst and still subtly marking deep-cutting change incisions across IT consumption layers.

Sometimes it is criticized for abetting rogue IT and on other occasions it is deified as the answer everyone was waiting for. Let's see what more can the ‘Vedi' bit unravel before this Vinci-sque mystery thickens.

Sudhir Rao, chief technologist, Enterprise Services, HP India, shares some views and appetite on mobility and its new-found rhythm with the Enterprise market. 

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HP recently announced a collaboration with SAP. Tell us the idea behind it and whether we can see strategic industry collaborations addressing questions of increasingly heterogenous IT environments of today?

This association is around a mobile starter pack, with the intent to help organizations in Asia Pacific and Japan create and manage mobile applications to improve employee productivity and generate new revenue opportunities. While Mobility is a strong force, many organizations are struggling to realize business advantages because they do not have an effective solution for rapidly creating, managing and securing advanced mobile applications.

We are leveraging SAP Mobile Platform and an extensive portfolio of HP Servers, HP ElitePad and HP Enterprise Services for rapid provisioning, scalability and security for an end-to-end mobile solution. You are not wrong. There are multiple platforms in and around management layers today with multiple devices to reckon. The use experience should not be affected by any differences at the back-end. Collaborations on end-product outcomes will accelerate the trend rightly. For HP, it is more of a journey. For example, with SAP, we can enable a lot together and can create optimized environments.

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Mobility vs. Shadow IT - how do you stand on the debate and confusion that still surrounds this overwhelming impact of Mobility?

Given the nature of Mobility and how it functions, Shadow IT is a possibility that cannot be entirely discounted. But we are encouraging CIOs to be equipped for it. That's exactly where an end-to-end strategy helps.

The word end-to-end reminds of another so-called hardware/PC player of yesteryears reinventing itself around services paradigm today? How strategic is the service-posture for HP in Enterprise markets?

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Coming to think of it, ironically this is not something new that we are offering. From manufacturing to BFSI to PSU segments, we have been in this space since 1983 and onwards. There is so much synergy that exists and so much strength that we have gained, and we will continue ahead on this road. Now, Mobility is an IT strategy but it is also a business strategy at board-room levels. It is a big change to make Mobility an integral part of any business. Services as an offering become very critical from an industry as well as infrastructure perspective.

So who do you talk to? Do you see the turf battles between CMOs and CIOs to continue?

Talking of customer engagement, interactions matter a lot for today's enterprise. We talk to both CMOs and business heads. CIOs have to be aware too when it comes to supporting and enabling everything. So we have to make sure that CIOs are equipped well and at the same time we do talk to CMOs for our offerings in the space. We are able to test applications on multiple platforms and devices. Our offerings make it viable and practical for CIOs to invest.

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Has Mobility signaled a big shift when we think of CIOs and on the parallel needs like BYOD Policies, need for skills as mobile integrators and architects?

Yes, with so many connected devices, CIOs are facing a shift. All kinds of concerns are natural to happen. Integration of multiple solutions is important so that BYOD can exist in a positive air. There has to be an efficient framework to manage the front-end as well as the back-end. We collaborate with clients to help them manage convergence and manage evaluation or outcomes. HP has offerings in advisory space also. India is a different market and designing of product from a customer point of view is vital.

The verdict on BYOD is mixed or awaited?

With instant mobile access to relevant information, organizations can provide better customer service as well as enhanced supplier relations through swifter response times and on the go decision-making. This in turn enhances productivity and improves business outcomes. However, a business needs to have the proper policies and processes in place to address data, device and network security, as well as the privacy issues associated with having personal and company-owned data on the same device. I guess, with anytime working now the norm for many organizations, many are now utilizing mobile applications that allow them to improve the way that they engage with customers, suppliers and staff. In fact, almost one-third of the global workforce is now using three or more devices, many apps and work from multiple locations. Naturally, this presents a number of challenges, most notably the need to ensure that both organizational and customer data remains secure at all times.